If any project in Chicago is deserving of a thorough history, it is Millennium Park. Consisting of public art, landscapes, an indoor theater, and outdoor bandshell, a skating rink, a restaurant, and a bike center, all above a huge garage for a couple thousand cars, the park is a massive and complicated project of planning, architecture, engineering and landscape. Its history extends to the middle of the 19th century, when a deal between the city and the Illinois Central Railroad gave the latter a swath of land along the lakefront (then at Michigan Avenue) and created a void in Grant Park for decades. Mayor Richard M. Daley finally managed to wrestle the land from the railway, pushing forward the ambitious plan that cost close to half-a-billion dollars. There is so much to the story and historian Gilfoyle does an excellent job of giving the right amount of detail, from the 19th century railroad to the design of the different park elements. ( )