Boeing, the giant Chicago-based aerospace company, has announced a $5 million gift for the construction of two granite-paved outdoor art galleries in the city's Millennium Park.

The new tree-lined, eighty-foot-wide Boeing Galleries will host outdoor sculptures year-round as well as regular exhibits during the spring and summer months. Both galleries, which together will cover more than 36,000 square feet, will be surrounded by sycamore trees in raised planters and beds of annuals that will serve to define the "rooms" of the gallery spaces.

The gift from the company is the largest single contribution Boeing has made in Chicago since relocating its headquarters to the city in 2001. Last year, the company sponsored the "Family Album" display in nearby Wrigley Square — an installation that was seen by some three million visitors. "We saw the power of public art through that exhibit," said Anne Roosevelt, director of community and education relations for Boeing World Headquarters.