BIG SYSTEM SMALL PROJECTS
Redevelopment of the CTA Elevated
Location: Chicago, USA
Date: May, 2004
Type: Master of Architecture Thesis Work
Advisor: Kevin J. Hinders
Committee: Jeffory S. Poss,Paul J. Armstrong, Kurt Tyson Baumgartner
James M. White Memorial Prize in Design, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006

Chicago started as “Town of Chicago” with 300 Chicagoans in 1830s, it took only 30 years to evolve into an urban metropolis with the population of 298,977. By 1840, the city had already become the hub of major transportation routes. 1880s marks the birth of skyscrapers as a result of the advanced technologies –elevator, steel frame structure system- and the ever growing commercialism. Ten years later, Chicago gains a nickname “World capital of modern architecture.” Moreover, the “Loop” and the “El” was born in this era. The following half of the 20th century was also a prosperous era for Chicago in spite of the two World Wars and the Great Depression between them. Urban expansions were continually taken place and major new urban planning became realized. Manufacturing industries spread out to the suburbs with the help of the new transportation system using diesel-electrical power. Air traffic was also developed and the innovations in architecture continued..

Chicago’s innovations are the Elevated Railroad (El) system and the skyscraper. Both of them were created in the late 19th century, by such new technologies as the elevator, steel frame structure system, and steam locomotives. The El system transports the passengers horizontally to the next location whereas elevators in skyscrapers transport people vertically. These two different systems have the potential to be merged together and form a new urban fabric for the 21st century metropolis, Chicago.