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| 4/2008 |
For the leisure travel professional |
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Green Chicago: A City in a Garden
For many years Chicago's motto has been "Urbs in horto" or "city in a garden." Today, as one of the first U.S. cities to incorporate environmentally-friendly strategies and technologies into public buildings, the city showcases two world-class conservatories, 16 historic lagoons, 10 bird and wildlife gardens, over 250 public and private green roofs, 552 parks, 7,300 acres of parkland, 33 beaches, 31 miles of lakefront and 18 miles of bike paths.
Chicago’s Center for Green Technology was the first municipal building in the country to be awarded the prestigious LEED Platinum rating and in 2007 the city was ranked the #1 Green City based on amount of LEED certified buildings (27 in total) by Business Facilities magazine. Tours are available for groups of 10 or more. For more information, call 312-746-9192 or visit www.cityofchicago.org/environment/greentech
Over the years, Mayor Daley's plan to turn his hometown into the "greenest city in America" has turned into a revitalization program mimicked in cities throughout the country. This progressive approach on urban planning has provided an effective response to the rapidly changing expectations that business executives and residents have for cities. For example, the recent addition to the McCormick Place Complex, the West Building, includes a green garden roof top.
The Daley administration has planted 500,000 trees, built the most energy-efficient and environmentally sensitive municipal buildings in the country, has agreed to provide developers with a more efficient permit process if they construct green buildings, instituted a $600-million-a-year program to repair neighborhoods and city parks, promised to obtain 20 percent of the electricity used by the city from clean and renewable sources and converted hundreds of abandoned and contaminated properties into new businesses.
Click the links below to learn more about Green Chicago:
Green Inside and Out
The City's Rooftop Garden
Green City Market
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 The Art Institute of Chicago's galleries devoted to 19th-century French painting will undergo major renovations beginning May 2008. Due to construction, 92 works from the museum's collection of Impressionist and Postimpressionist paintings will be on loan to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, this summer. A selection of works, including Georges Seurat's pictured masterpiece, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte--1884, will remain on view. This The loaned collection will return to the Art Institute this December, just in time for the holidays. This is a great opportunity for groups to explore the other wonderful galleries, including the newly renovated gallery of the Old Masters galleries, and the recently opened Galleries of American Art gallery., and the brand new Prints and Drawings galleries, opening June 11.
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