America's Courtyard

The Adler Planetarium is a public museum dedicated to the study of astronomy and astrophysics. It was founded in 1930 by Chicago business leader Max Adler. It is located on the northeastern tip of Northerly Island at the shore of Lake Michigan in Chicago, Illinois. The Adler was the first planetarium in the United States and is part of Chicago's Museum Campus, which includes the John G. Shedd Aquarium and The Field Museum. The Adler's mission is to inspire exploration and understanding of the universe. The Adler Planetarium opened to the public on May 12, 1930. For its design, architect Ernest A. Grunsfeld Jr. was awarded the gold medal of the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1931. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.The Adler is home to three full size theaters, extensive space science exhibitions including the Gemini 12 space capsule, and a significant collection of antique scientific instruments and print materials. In addition, the Adler boasts the Doane Observatory, one of the only research-active, public urban observatories. Outdoor sculptures at the planetarium include: Man Enters the Cosmos by Henry Moore (1980); Spiral Galaxy by John David Mooney (1998); and America's Courtyard by Ary Perez and Denise Milan.

Spiral Galaxy is an outdoor stainless steel sculpture by John David Mooney, installed outside the Adler Planetarium on Chicago's Northerly Island, in the U.S. state of Illinois.

Man Enters the Cosmos is a cast bronze sculpture by Henry Moore located on the Lake Michigan lakefront outside the Adler Planetarium in the Museum Campus area of downtown Chicago, Illinois. The sculpture is a functional bowstring equatorial sundial created in 1980 measuring approximately 13 feet (4.0 m). The sundial was formerly located slightly further south at the steps of the main entry plaza to the Planetarium, but it now sits directly on the lakefront. The work is a later copy of a composition first created in the 1960s for the offices of The Times newspaper at Printing House Square in London, and according to the Henry Moore Foundation is titled Sundial 1965–66.

The Nicolaus Copernicus Monument is an outdoor sculpture commemorating and depicting Nicolaus Copernicus, installed along Solidarity Drive outside Chicago's Adler Planetarium, in the U.S. state of Illinois. Bronislaw Koniuszy's replica of Bertel Thorvaldsen's original 1830 sculpture in Warsaw, Poland, was created, installed, and dedicated in 1973. Adler Planetarium erected the monument to mark the 500th anniversary of Copernicus' birth.

Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island is an outdoor amphitheater located on the man-made peninsula Northerly Island, in Chicago, Illinois. The venue is a temporary structure, with the summer concert season running from May or June until September or October. The amphitheater opened in June 2005. It was previously named the FirstMerit Bank Pavilion, and before that the Charter One Pavilion.Known as the "Venue with a View", the amphitheater has views of Lake Michigan, Burnham Harbor, Soldier Field, and the Chicago skyline.

The Karel Havlíček Monument is an outdoor monument and sculpture by Joseph Strachovsky commemorating Karel Havlíček Borovský, installed in the median of East Solidarity Drive, in Chicago's Northerly Island, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The statue was created in 1911 and installed in 1983.

Northerly Island is a 91-acre (37 ha) man-made peninsula along Chicago's Lake Michigan lakefront. The site of the Adler Planetarium, Northerly Island connects to the mainland through a narrow isthmus along Solidarity Drive. This street is dominated by Neoclassical sculptures of Tadeusz Kościuszko, Karel Havlíček Borovský and Copernicus. With the demolition of Meigs Field Airport, Northerly Island is now a part of the Museum Campus and has been converted into parkland. A semi-temporary concert venue, the Huntington Bank Pavilion, occupies part of the site of the former airport.

The Tadeusz Kościuszko Monument, also known as the Tadeusz Kościuszko Memorial and the Thaddeus Kosciuszko Memorial, is an outdoor sculpture by artist Kazimierz Chodziński depicting Tadeusz Kościuszko, installed in the median of East Solidarity Drive, near Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The statue was created in 1904, and was originally located in Humboldt Park.

Merrill C. Meigs Field Airport (ICAO: KCGX) /mɛgz/ was a single-runway airport in Chicago that was in operation from December 1948 until March 2003, on Northerly Island, an artificial peninsula on Lake Michigan. The airport sat adjacent to downtown Chicago, the second-largest business district in North America. Meigs Field airport was opened on 10 December 1948, and, by 1955, had become the busiest single-strip airport in the United States. The airport was a familiar sight on the downtown lakefront. The latest air traffic tower was built in 1952 and the terminal was dedicated in 1961. The airfield was named for Merrill C. Meigs. Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley forced the closing of Meigs in 2003 by ordering the overnight bulldozing of its runway without notice, in violation of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations.

The Powers of Ten films are two short American documentary films written and directed by Charles and Ray Eames. Both works depict the relative scale of the Universe according to an order of magnitude (or logarithmic scale) based on a factor of ten, first expanding out from the Earth until the entire universe is surveyed, then reducing inward until a single atom and its quarks are observed.

The Sky Ride was an attraction built for the Century of Progress 1933 World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois. It was a transporter bridge (with a design similar to an aerial tramway or gondola lift) designed by the bridge engineering firm Robinson & Steinman that ferried people across the lagoon, Burnham Harbor, in the center of the fair. It was located near Northerly Island, but was demolished after the Fair, having carried 4.5 million passengers. The Sky Ride had a 1,850-foot (564 m) span and two 628-feet (191 m) tall towers, making it the most prominent structure at the fair. Suspended from the span, 215 feet (66 m) above the ground, were rocket-shaped cars, each carrying 36 passengers.

A Century of Progress International Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a World's Fair held in the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States, from 1933 to 1934. The fair, registered under the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), celebrated the city's centennial. The theme of the fair was technological innovation, and its motto was "Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Adapts", giving out a message that science and American life were wedded. Its architectural symbol was the Sky Ride, a transporter bridge perpendicular to the shore on which one could ride from one side of the fair to the other. One description of the fair noted that the world, "then still mired in the malaise of the Great Depression, could glimpse a happier not-too-distant future, all driven by innovation in science and technology." Fair visitors saw the latest wonders in rail travel, automobiles, architecture and even cigarette-smoking robots. The exposition "emphasized technology and progress, a utopia, or perfect world, founded on democracy and manufacturing."