News
Chicago's Bragging Rights
October 25, 2012
| A conference is a great way for a city to flex its muscles. For Chicago—home of this year’s CREW Convention—that means innovation (it's also the fourth-most economically powerful city in the world, to boot). Bisnow exclusively joined nearly 100 CREW members yesterday for an insider’s tour on why it’s truly “the Great American City.” (You know why already, but here's what to tell other people.) | ||
 |
||
| That's according to Chicago native, journalist, and NPR architecture critic Edward Lifson, who joined Gensler principal Elva Rubio (next to him, in red) to open the tour. The East Coast still has a foot in Europe (if you ever see an East Coaster with mismatched socks, now you know why), but when you get to the Windy City, things become authentic and truly American, he adds—it’s the birthplace of modern architecture, and even the world’s tallest building (Dubai’s Burj Khalifa) was designed by a Chicagoan, Adrian Smith. Joining Edward and Elva above are CREW Chicago members: Golub’s Mary Ellen Smith, Mary Jo Graf, consultant Sharon Krohn, Golub’s Paula Harris, Standard Parking’s Marilyn Brooks, Potbelly Sandwich Works’ Jan Fiola, and SchiffHardin’s Janet Johnson. | ||
|
||
 |
||
| Elva singled out the Gensler-designed façade of 618 S Michigan, which we snapped above. It’s not your usual building—etched into the glass are “dots,” or pictograms of little birds, which not only give a nod to its adjacency to Grant Park and Lake Michigan but acts as a protective screen and allows migrating birds to see the façade. (New city motto: Chicago, where glass and birds coexist.) Co-working center 1871 will be a prototype for Chicago’s newest innovation, she says. Now the city needs to focus on creating destinations; responding to growing demographics like the LGBT community, students, and an older population; and fostering those migrating (humans) back into the city and re-establishing their roots. | ||
|
||
 |
||
| No tour on Chicago innovation would be complete without a visit to the famed Millennium Park, a $490M project and one of the greatest examples of what tax increment financing can do for a city. The first stop: Harris Theater for Music and Dance, where we snapped the theater’s Steve Abrams and Millennium Park’s Ed Unlir speaking to CREW members about the theater’s unique architectural elements and acoustics, as well as the history behind building a theater in a park, which is privately owned but sits on a 99-year ground lease with the city. | ||
 |
||
| And who can forget The Bean, officially “Cloud Gate” (which few call it)? Ed and CREW members are all smiles in front of the tourist (and local) hotspot by sculptor Anish Kapoor. Ed says that 10 condo projects attribute their successes to Millennium Park, with 4,800 units added because of it. Participants finished with a tour of the rest of the park, including The Lurie Garden and Crown Fountain. Check out Bisnow’s national newsletter tomorrow for more from the CREW convention. | ||
