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It’s a small city: 3D model of Chicago on display at Sante Fe Building

Model includes every building on 400 city blocks

13-Jun-09 – Marina City and 999 other downtown buildings are represented in a detailed scale model of Chicago on display at the Chicago Architecture Foundation.

Chicago Model City is part of the centennial celebration of Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago that was an important influence on how the city developed.

The 25 x 35-foot exhibition fills the atrium of the Santa Fe Building, Burnham’s former headquarters, located at 224 South Michigan. The scale of the models is one inch for every 50 feet, making Sears Tower nearly three feet tall.

Photo by Steven Dahlman
(Above) Looking west down Chicago River toward Marina City. Click on image to view larger version.

The four square miles represented by the model cover 400 city blocks, from Lake Michigan west to Halsted Street, Oak Street south to 16th Street. Every building is depicted. Lighting simulates a 24-hour day, going from morning to night every 15 minutes.

Architects, model makers, and industrial designers worked together to create the exhibit. Columbian Model & Exhibit Works, Ltd., a Chicago company featured in Marina City Online in April, created the models using specialized software and a three-dimensional printer.

The exhibit is “designed to get people thinking about how cities develop,” according to a news release. “The exhibition shows how Chicago is a model for understanding all cities.”

The exhibition is free and open daily through November 20, 2009.

 Web site: Chicago Architecture Foundation

Photo by Steven Dahlman
(Above) Chicago Model City, an exhibition by Chicago Architecture Foundation of detailed scaled models of buildings in downtown Chicago, is on display through November 20 in the atrium of the Santa Fe Building, 224 South Michigan. (Click on image to view larger version.)

Photo by Steven Dahlman
(Above) From “north” end of exhibit, looking south down Michigan Avenue. Model of John Hancock Center at left. (Click on image to view larger version.)

Photo by Steven Dahlman (Left) Marina City from northwest. Dearborn Street at bottom of frame. (Click on image to view larger version.)

Photo by Steven Dahlman
(Above) Closer view of Marina City with 330 North Wabash at left. (Click on image to view larger version.)