From Your Local Arrangements Committee - Chicago History
Jonathan Keiser, 2010 Forum Local Arrangements Committee Chair, (jkeiser@colum.edu)

You are invited to the AIR 2010 Annual Forum, 'Charting our Future in Higher Education'. The 2010 Forum will be held in Chicago, a city known for its rich history, excitement, and beauty. We are confident that Chicago will be the perfect backdrop for AIR's 50th Forum, setting the stage for this premier meeting of IR and assessment professionals.

What is Chicago? Numerous writers have tried to capture its essence: “The windy city,” “The second city,” “My kind of town,” and “That toddlin’ town”. Given the city’s diversity, no single phrase completely encompasses the beautiful city on Lake Michigan.

Chicago was organized in 1833 with a population of 350 and was chartered in 1837. C.D. Peacock, Chicago’s oldest jeweler, was founded that same year - and is still in business today. By 1840, Chicago had 4,000 residents, and that number has continued to increase dramatically.

Chicago’s trajectory was severely altered in 1871 when the Great Chicago fire destroyed approximately one-third of the city, including the main business district. The Historic Water Tower, built in 1869, was one of the few buildings to survive the blaze. It still stands at the intersection of Michigan and Chicago avenues (about one mile north of the conference hotel). Subsequent to the fire, the city was rapidly rebuilt; the world’s first skyscraper was constructed in Chicago in 1885.

In 1893, the city hosted the World’s Columbian Exposition (also called the Chicago World’s Fair). This event had a profound effect on Chicago’s subsequent architectural and artistic development, and helped to pave the way for the City Beautiful movement.

Two of the city’s iconic buildings, the Merchandise Mart and the art deco Board of Trade, were completed in 1930. At the time of its completion, the Merchandise Mart was, at 4,000,000 square feet, the largest building in the world.

In the 1950s, the city shrank significantly (by 700,000) as people moved to the suburbs. The 1950s also saw the beginning of the Daley mayoral dynasty. Richard J. Daley was elected mayor in 1955 and served until his death in 1976. He oversaw the tumultuous 1968 Democratic Convention, the construction of four major expressways, and the 1973 erection of the world’s then-tallest building, the Sears Tower (recently renamed Willis Tower). Another project of interest to Daley was the O’Hare International Airport.

His son, Richard M. Daley, was elected mayor in 1989, and continues to serve in that role today. Under the current Mayor Daley, the city has become a model for sustainable urban planning with rooftop gardens, median strip plantings, and the planting of thousands of trees: all in support of Mayor Daley’s goal of creating a clean, livable environment truly described by the city’s 160 year-old motto “Urbs in Horto” (City in a Garden). The mayor’s beautification plans have attracted suburbanites back to the city causing another rapid increase in population.

Today, Chicago is among the world’s 25 largest urban areas, with a population of 2.8 million residents reported in 2007. It is a major transportation hub for North America, and is home to O’Hare International Airport, the second busiest airport in the world. Chicago has big plans for its future development. The city has built a series of large, landscaped municipal parks; some of which were designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, who designed Central Park in New York. Today, Chicago has the distinction of having more parkland than any other city in the U.S. (7,300 acres). Some of the best known of these parks, Grant Park, Lincoln Park, and Washington Park, are all easily accessible from downtown Chicago. Grant Park, which is home to the Buckingham Fountain and the Art Institute of Chicago, is just a few blocks south of the conference hotel.

The city has made a bid to host the 2016 Olympics. Plans include the development of 37 acres of the lakefront just south of downtown and the construction of an Olympic stadium in Washington Park.

Welcome to my kind of town...

The Forum will be a time to celebrate 50 years of coming together to share ideas and practices, and to plan for the next 50. Join us in Chicago as we chart our future in higher education. Visit us online for up-to-date information on the 2010 Annual Forum.

Linda S. Buyer, Ph.D.
Governors State University
l-buyer@govst.edu