Throughout the centuries, Chicago’s people built a city to match the imaginations of its residents. Now, Chicago is trying to deal with its lavish cultural past, during present economic realities (and without many of the industries which once drove the local economy). These things combined with suburban sprawl have led to a stunted tourist and corporate-office-based downtown within a sprawling generic urban area.
In the past century, Chicago’s population has remained nearly the same, although the population declined from its high point of 3.5 million in 1960 to around 2.8 million today. Meanwhile, the surrounding suburbs have exploded. Although the city center comprises a small downtown zone of tourist activities and office towers, culturally the city still retains its 2nd city status driven by the continuing aura of the Columbian Exhibition and Chicago’s glorious industrial past.
This point becomes more shocking visually. Within the past century, the population of “downtown Chicago” has remained roughly the same, while the suburbs have grown exponentially:
Diagram by Jonathan Choe, Data from the US Census Bureau: Population of the 100 Largest Cities in the United States 1790-1990 and from Demographia.com
Even in the current period of limited construction, Chicago remains a central figure in architectural discourse- with museums such as the Art Institute, Graham Foundation, the Contemporary Arts Museum, the two local schools of architecture (at the Illinois Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois, Chicago ), the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF), competitions through Chicago Architectural Club, and prestigious awards such as the Pritzker Prize, Chicago Athenaeum Awards, and CTBUH Skyscraper Awards & Building Height Ranking.
NICKNAMES
The names that Chicago has given itself show how politics and marketing (not planned urban development) has shaped the growth of the city.
America’s Greenest City. The current environmentalist trend led the former mayor Richard M. Daley (Hinton, Christopher. “Chicago Faces the Future”) to declare Chicago as the greenest city in America, a dubious distinction that seems to be based on the amount of green roof space in the city.
Home of the Cubs, Sox, & Bears. Large-scale sports arenas have been built as Chicago tried to create urban income generators. Other projects include McCormick Place and Navy Pier.
Top 10 Tourist Cities in America. The decline of heavy industry left Chicago scrambling to find alternate sources for economic development. This has led to the creation of a tourist ghetto within the Loop, focused on State Street, Michigan Avenue, and Millennium / Grant Park.
Chicagoland. The 21st century would lead to the predominance of Chicagoland over the city of Chicago. The city would drop in population while the suburbs soon dwarfed downtown.
The City that Works Mayor Richard J. Daley was describing the way that Chicagoans had worked hard in the past to build the foundations of the city, and also his vision for Chicago.
EMULATING THE PAST
The contemporary marvel, Millennium Park, is actually a number of modern elements within a classical style park complete with lavish neoclassical ornament, somehow justifying contemporary architecture with tributes to classicism.
The Columbian Exhibition (Creative Commons Image from Flickr user Penn State Libraries Pictures Collection)
Faux-classical collonade in Millennium Park (Photo by Jonathan Choe)
TOURIST/OFFICE DOWNTOWN
The creation of tourist ghettos such as Millennium Park have created an imaginary tourist city within a post-industrial ghost town. This situation, combined with office towers, eliminates much of the life of the city center, especially after office hours as commuters scurry home.
The Jay Pritzker Pavilion by Frank Gehry (Photo by Jonathan Choe)
Within this urban void, Millennium Park attracts tourists with stunning brand-name attractions such as The Jay Pritzker Pavilion by Frank Gehry and Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate sculpture. The contrived nature of Chicago’s popular ‘cultural’ landmarks does not seem to matter to over 2.5 million annual visitors.
Cloud Gate, colloquially known as “The Bean”, sculpture by Anish Kapoor (Photo by Jonathan Choe)
CHANGING CITY
For many residents, the Chicago of their imagination is not there anymore! The constantly changing nature of the city is made evident through things like the demolition of the Chicago housing projects.
Housing projects under demolition (Creative Commons License image from Flickr user sierraromeo)
UNCERTAIN FUTURES
In the current economic downturn, many of Chicago’s imaginary futures have been put on hold or cancelled. This is evident in the case of the Chicago Spire residential tower by Spanish Pritzker Prize winning architect Santiago Calatrava, which will forever remain a famous and contentious part of architectural discourse, despite the fact that it will never be built.
LEFT Vacant site for Santiago Calatrava’s Chicago Spire (Creative Commons License image from Flickr user SolarWind) RIGHT Model of Santiago Calatrava’s Chicago Spire (Creative Commons License image from Flickr user thisisbossi)
