Question Answered: How Do They Clean 'The Bean?'

How Does 'The Bean' Get Cleaned?

Tim Garibay tells us he’s lived in Chicago for four years now and in that time he’s gotten used to visitors of his insisting on seeing the Bean in Millennium Park. Posing for silly pictures, he says, is not quite his thing, but he’s intrigued by what happens to the grime that tourists deposit on the 120-ton structure. So, it made sense that he asked Curious City: How do they clean the Bean in Millennium Park?

Well, let’s clarify something first. The six-year-old sculpture that Chicagoans so affectionately call “the Bean” is actually named Cloud Gate, inspired by the vision of London-based artist Anish Kapoor. After finding the answer to Tim’s question, I would suggest that Kapoor could have named it “Germ Gate” or maybe “Grime Gate.”

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