Brutalism

Brutalism architecture on the barren landscape.

In 1999, Naperville was designated a White House Millennium Community, due to the construction of the Moser Tower (this photo) and Millennium Carillon. The tower is located just north of Aurora Road, and at the base of Rotary Hill within the Riverwalk Park complex. The Millennium Carillon is specially designated as a Grand Carillon, with 72 bells, and is one of only four worldwide that span six octaves. The Millennium Carillon was dedicated in an Independence Day event on June 29, 2000, with a reception attended by over 15,000, and a performance by the Naperville Municipal Band and the Naperville Men's Glee Club and Festival Chorus. The Carillon is both manually and also computer-playable, with most performances being done by hand, but with half the bells played by a computer-controlled system at set times during the day. At present, the Carillon is operational but Moser Tower itself is incomplete and is not open to the public. Disputes over funding the completion of the tower were debated before the Naperville City Council during the fall of 2005 (and are still not resolved). The design of the tower won an award for "Best Custom Solution" from the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) [5].