Isolated, the words all sound so cliché. Organic. Flowing. Curvy. But set to the backdrop of Chicago’s blocky skyline, they assemble a brash thesis on the city’s future: The new George Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is a low-slung knoll inside a landscape of towering Lego, an Egyptian pyramid reimagined for the year 2020.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAhIYpYr_U[/youtube]
By now, most people know about 3D printing. It has has become huge, and more and more companies are creating 3D printers that can perform the most ridiculous prints. Recently people in Chicago took the chance to try out this technology, and they started 3D printing the Chicago cityscape using Google Maps as the base for their models. (Photos)
Continue reading… “Incredible 3D printed cityscape of Chicago”
So far in 2013, Chicago homicides outnumbered slayings in the larger cities of New York and Los Angeles last year.
Chicago has drawn a lot of attention for the soaring gun violence and gang bloodshed, creating a political test for Mayor Rahm Emanuel in President Obama’s hometown. But a year later, Chicago has Chicago has witnessed a drop in shootings and crime. Killings this year have dipped to a level not seen since the early 1960s.
Continue reading… “Tactics by the city of Chicago have put a major dent in the killing trend”
“Chicago has developed into a city that every investor must watch.”
Chicago’s most innovative minds launched 197 digital startups in 2012, up from 193 launched in 2011. 59 companies secured funding of at least $1M in 2012, an increase from 44 companies in 2011. (Infographic)
Continue reading… “2012 Built in Chicago digital startup report”
Think you’ve got a bad commute? IBM feels your pain. The tech giant surveyed over 8,000 commuters in 20 cities around the world to find the city with the unenviable title of having the worst commute on Earth…
Continue reading… “Cities with the worst commute in the world”
There are more than 1000,000 bees in a hive on top of City Hall in Chicago.
On top of Chicago’s City Hall is a garden with wildflowers and native grasses. In the garden stand two beehives where more than 100,000 bees come and go in patterns more graceful, but just as busy, as the traffic on the street 11 stories below.
It seems like an oxymoron that childhood obesity could occur in food deserts, but in much of the country that’s exactly what’s happened. Food deserts, often located in impoverished urban environments, are areas where residents have little access to fresh fruits and vegetables because there are no grocery stores or farmers’ markets nearby. Such areas are often plagued with quickie marts where families feed themselves the processed junk that’s available, fostering an obesity epidemic. Read on to see how one program is working to change Chicago’s landscapes and make these infamous food deserts a thing of the past…
Continue reading… “Chicago Combats Food Deserts and Childhood Obesity One Seed at a Time”