Chicago Museum Presents ‘City Of Future’

The series explored the architectural and engineering feats of past civilizations, and their profound effect on the development of human civilization. In partnership with The History Channel and the American Institute of Architects, Infiniti and IBM—both champions of design and innovation—sponsored this competition that dared participants in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles to peer into the future to imagine the bold, visionary architectural and engineering solutions that will give form to our cities 100 years from now.

In each city, the competitors had seven days to develop a vision that addressed the major issues facing their metropolis in the 22nd century, including the impact of global warming, population growth and security. Then, the teams had just four hours to construct a model that represented their vision before presenting to a panel of distinguished jurors who voted for the regional winner.

Several common themes arose throughout the competition including a focus on the critical role that water, energy and transportation will play in our future. The profound visions produced by all competitors have sparked an important conversation about how we envision our cities of the future and how our society must begin planning for the future of our cities today.

On display at the Museum of Science and Industry until Oct. 7, 2007 are 10 models that came out of this dynamic competition—the overall winner of the national competition (Chicago’s own UrbanLab), seven other visions of Chicago in the 22nd century, as well the regional winners from Los Angeles and New York.

• The Chicago City of the Future Award and National winner – UrbanLab UrbanLab’s project, Growing Water, envisions Chicago evolving into a model city for “growing clean water” and recycling 100 percent of its own water, which by 2106 will become the world’s most valuable resource. Using a series of new Eco-Boulevards, the proposal connects and greatly enhances Chicago’s historic “Emerald Necklace” of parks, boulevards and waterways.

• The Los Angeles City of the Future winner - Eric Owen Moss Architects Led by Eric Moss director of the Southern California Institute of Architecture, this team devised a plan to revitalize the eastern end of downtown Los Angeles by building over, under, around and through the freeways, rivers, power grids and tracks while filling the concrete-trapped Los Angeles River into a center for tourists and parkland.

• The New York City of the Future Award - Architecture Research Office Led by principals Steve Cassell and Adam Yarinsky, ARO presented an innovative vision of what Manhattan would look like after climatic changes put most of its streets under water. Harnessing the deluge that would flood its traditional streets, they foresee “vanes” replacing avenues as buildings are constructed high above the waters, thereby allowing New York to continue its tradition of vibrant and innovative enterprise.

Accompanying these models will be descriptions from the firms explaining their design, the influences that shaped the idea and the goal of the project. In planning for the future, many competitors pulled inspiration from the marvelous accomplishments of past civilizations, illustrating how events of the past provide an important blueprint for the future.

In many ways, The City of the Future has provided the same for future generations to come. The national and regional winning models will also be showcased with engineering plans, which were developed in a separate competition through engineering schools. As part of this nationwide competition, engineering students in each city area were challenged to take their city’s winning “city of the future” and bring it to life through innovative engineering concepts and applications. Teams needed to consider, for example, what energy systems were required to make this city function or what transportation networks needed to be engineered to support the proposed infrastructure.

Student team submissions were reviewed and judged by a panel of engineering experts including representatives from IBM. There was one winning student team per city:

• New York City: New Jersey’s Science & Technology University. Focusing on population growth, the project explores permanent and reliable solutions for the energy needs of the people.

• Los Angeles: California Polytechnic San Luis Obispo. Taking inspiration from Eric Owen Moss, this team’s system of structural arches will let different kinds of transportation run on multiple levels.

• Chicago: University of Illinois. Expanding on UrbanLab’s use of Eco-Boulevards, Eco-Clusters supply residents with water from Lake Michigan. Treated water discharges to the Eco-Boulevards to improve recreational areas and aesthetic appeal.

At the end of the exhibit, guests will also be able to build their own vision of their city’s future using architecturally designed building blocks, exploring engineering and design with their own creation. The City of the Future runs through Oct. 7, 2007 and is included in Museum general admission. -- www.msichicago.org