While I couldn’t make it to Chicago for this weeks Green Build conference, technology has now advanced so that Google SketchUp allows me to forgo braving the cold northern winds of Chicago and experience Chicago in my warm house. Why pay all that money to fly and stay at a hotel when all you need is a copy of Google Earth and Google SketchUp and you can view these famous buildings right on your computer?
Monadnock Building – Holabird & Roche
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=1ec3914066a91eff721a9ab7a48f0681
Marshall Field Wholesale Store – Henry Hobson Richardson
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=2b8b75aef090e344721a9ab7a48f0681
Merchandise Mart – Graham, Anderson, Probst & White
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=e703a99587a0a31f9b8f84a1848a8092
Loop Station Post Office – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=809adc2c6cd28fa3cd900724858df974
Lake Point Tower – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe – John Heinrich & George Shipporeit
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=c9ffabdfe5140eb6e1523918e7d9f240
All of these amazing models were created by Google for Google Earth by using Google SketchUp, a free and (somewhat) easy to use modeling tool. Democratization of information meets democratization of tools of expression. Printing Press, Pen & Ink, Computer, Blog, SketchUp.
Or, as the opening image suggests, you could rearrange, remix and create your own Chicago. Or you could mix and match buildings, normally located in disparate cities, and lump them all together. The possibilities are endless.

Another symptom of the advancing to the precipice of the complete dislocation of mankind to place and time; with technology accelerating the advancement of context-less environments. While computing has aided the transformation of mundane technology into Everyware (I swear I’ll finish your book Adam), I wonder if mankind will become even more connected to place and placemaking (such a misused term). Will place and identity continue its rebound and primacy because the dislocation has so accelerated that our primate brains lash out in a fit of rebellion?
Until (if?) that happens, let’s keep playing with Google’s cool toys.
09 Nov 2007 Update
A representative of the Mies van der Rohe Society at the Illinois Institute of Technology wrote in and and corrected me on the Lake Point Tower; it was designed by two of Mies’ students: John Heinrich & George Shipporeit.
Thanks for the update!