Makoto Fujimura, the world-renowned painter, has often referred to the "500-year question" when it comes to creating art. What he's asking is this: What would it mean if serious artists--painters, writers, sculptors, architects and the like--created stuff with the view in mind that their work could last 500 years? Would it change the way they paint, write, sculpt, and design? 

Before you answer that, think back 500 years from right now, to the year 1510. What kind of stuff was being created around that time (give or take a few years)? I did a brief search, and here's what I came up with:

• Michaelangelo finished his masterpiece, David (1504)
• DaVinci completed the Mona Lisa after working on it for four years (1503-1507)
• Construction of St. Peter's Basillica in Rome began (1506)
• Michaelangelo finished painting the Sistine Chapel after four years of work (1508-1512)
• Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany (1517)
• William Tyndale finished his English New Testament translation (1526)

I walked out of Chicago’s Union Station, following my nose to Lake Michigan. I have always liked Chicago. It’s small enough to feel manageable, but big enough to be a thoroughly vibrant city with a dynamic feel. And the architecture! There are few places I would rather stand than in Millennium Park, looking back to the amazing array of towers that comprise the Chicago skyline.

My legs took me quickly to the park, which is the site of a breathtaking outdoor auditorium designed by Frank Gehry. His signature suspended metal sheets frame the stage, echoing his designs of the art museum in Bilbao and the Disney Symphony Hall in LA. The auditorium is part of a larger public arts space, including the Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa; the contemporary Lurie Garden designed by Kathryn Gustafson, Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel; and Anish Kapoor's crowd favorite “Cloud Gate” sculpture. Comprised of twenty four acres, it is one of the world’s most compelling public arts spaces. As you walk through it, you can’t help but be reminded of the profoundly re-humanizing impact beautiful art and architecture have on an humanity.