Lying between Lake Michigan to the east and the Loop to the west, Grant Park has been Chicago's front yard since the mid-19th century.

Its northwest corner, north of Monroe Street and the Art Institute, east of Michigan Avenue, south of Randolph Street, and west of Columbus Drive, had been Illinois Central rail yards and parking lots until 1997 when it was made available for development by the city as Millennium Park.

[9] The earliest plans for Millennium Park were unveiled by Chicago's mayor, Richard M. Daley, in March 1998 and included "a reflecting pool that would double as a skating rink in winter".

The Chicago Tribune's Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Blair Kamin called this move "a masterstroke" and praised the new location "where the skaters symbolize the year-round vitality of the city".

[19] From June 21 to September 15, 2002, McCormick Tribune Plaza hosted the inaugural exhibit in Millennium Park,[20] Exelon Presents Earth From Above by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, a French aerial photographer.

[20] In the summer of 2002, the book associated with the exhibit had sold over 1.5 million copies,[21] and the photographs were displayed in Brazil, Lebanon, Poland, Sweden, Germany, Britain, Norway, Hungary and along the banks of the Volga River in Russia.

[21][23][24] The exhibit featured 4-by-6-foot (1.2 m × 1.8 m) photographic prints that were laminated onto thin 5-by-7.5-foot (1.5 m × 2.3 m) aluminum panels that protected them from ultraviolet rays.

[20] The photographs included scenes of natural beauty such as a Filipino Bajau village built on coral reefs, a formation of rocks in Madagascar, an inlet in the Ionian Islands that is home to endangered sea turtles, and architectural highlights such as the Palace of Versailles and the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

Due to the rink's rounded corners, the total skating surface is 15,910 square feet (1,478 m2),[30][31] which critic Blair Kamin called "amply sized".

[11] For comparison, this is a considerably larger skating surface than the Rockefeller Center rink in New York City, which is 120 by 60 feet (37 by 18 m).

[32] The Millennium Park rink has a lobby which provides skaters a respite from the natural environs, as well as toilets and public lockers.

[3] In his review of the plaza and rink, Kamin gave it two stars (out of a possible four), called the structure "solid, though unremarkable", and praised its uses throughout the year.

[39][40] McCormick Tribune Ice Rink is generally open for skating afternoons and evenings seven days a week, with longer hours on weekends.

[46] The book 1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die suggests a visit to McCormick Tribune Plaza during the skating season, and describes Millennium Park as a renowned attraction.

[49] During much of the offseason alfresco dining is available in a 150-seat cafe set up on the ice rink,[33] in what is then referred to as the Park Grill Plaza.

[3] Architecture critic Blair Kamin compares the in-park eating options availed at the Park Grill with New York's former Tavern on the Green and Chicago's Cafe Brauer.

[51] McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink is one of two features in the park to include accessible restrooms; the other is Jay Pritzker Pavilion.