Art and the city of Chicago are inextricably linked. While the City’s publicly funded Chicago Public Art Collection showcases more than 500 works of art exhibited in over 150 municipal facilities around the city, Chicago’s airports have likewise served as a gallery of sorts for the City’s public arts program. This is particularly so at O’Hare International Airport, home to dozens of sculptures, paintings, murals and exhibits curated to enhance the air travel experience of visitors and locals alike as they traverse one of the nation’s busiest travel hubs.
Fittingly, when the more than $1 billion transformation of O’Hare’s Terminal 5 was announced, a $3.5 million public art plan was at the heart of it. Complete with new large-scale commissions by artists such as Nelly Agassi, Jonathan Michael Castillo, Assaf Evron, Krista Franklin, Wills Glasspiegel and The Era Footwork Crew, Jenny Kendler, Mayumi Lake, Yvette Mayorga, Cecil McDonald Jr., Ebony G. Patterson, Faheem Majeed, Huong Ngo, Chris Pappan, Cheryl Pope, Edra Soto, Leonard Suryajaya, Selina Trepp, Jina Valentine, and Bernard Williams, the installation, which represents the largest single acquisition of works by Chicago artists by the city in the last 30 years, highlights the breadth and diversity of Chicago artists and creative professionals while simultaneously providing international visitors a visually arresting and welcoming first impression of what the city of Chicago has to offer.
In keeping with the artistic spirit of the reimagined space, Delta, which relocated its services to Terminal 5 and made a $50 million investment in its new home, followed the brief and made The Gallery at ORD featuring large-scale neon art, sculpture and large-scale mixed media works featuring local Chicago artists curated through Delta Sky Club’s art program an integral part of its premium new digs.
In addition to the gallery, the new and improve, state-of-the-art Terminal 5 boasts a dazzling new 22,000-plus-square-foot Delta Sky Club which right of the gate joins the ranks of the largest clubs in Delta’s network alongside clubs at New York’s LaGuardia and Los Angeles’ LAX airports, as well as the airline’s only international Club at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.
At four times the size of the previous Club in Terminal 2, the sleek new lounge space seats nearly 400 guests and offers sumptuous new perks including expanded food and beverage offerings served from two buffets, including charcuterie, seasonal salads, freshly made sandwiches, hot entrees and vegetarian selections; a full-service bar serving Delta Sky Club’s standard selection of wine, beer, and premium liquors and cocktails; and a wine bar – the only one of its kind in the Delta lounge network – featuring an overhead rack holding premium whites and reds.
Additional amenities include four premium showers, privacy sound booths for quiet work and a family room for nursing mothers.
Beauty plus function. Has there ever been a more perfect marriage?