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The 2006 Meeting of The AAG, March 7-11 2006, Chicago, IL
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 2005 Annual Meeting Program
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Field Trips and Special Events Registration Form If you are already registered, you will need to use this form. If you are not, please feel free to register online. TUESDAY, MARCH 7 Edge City, Exurban and other Sprawling Landscapes
of Chicago In spite of the recent population turnaround of Chicago, the edge city and exurban landscapes of the metropolitan region continue to expand at a rapid pace. The tech bubble crash of 2001 proved the resiliency of edge cities as edge city “ghost towns” were short lived. The commuting field of the metropolitan region continues to expand although more disjointed than in the past because of an increase in exurbs. The region’s commuting population has decried sprawl and some local governments have responded with smart growth planning initiatives. These themes are explored by touring the following sprawling landscapes: (1) the Illinois Research and Development Corridor (Oak Brook to Aurora with a focus on suburban employment centers), (2) the downtowns of Naperville and Aurora for a contrast in revitalization efforts, (3) the exurbs west of Aurora and Elgin to illustrate the conflict between farmers and exurbanites, and (4) Hoffman Estates to Schaumburg to view corporate landscapes (Sears) and suburban retail (the Woodfield Mall and Ikea). Participants should bring money for lunch.
This excursion will examine the exceptional volume and distribution of recent and ongoing upscale residential construction in central Chicago that is transforming the fundamental land-use pattern of the city’s Loop and nearby districts. This re-peopling of the core parallels the radical upgrading of urban amenities and tax base in the new global era. The tour will visit a sequence of neighborhoods in which the six major building types (industrial/warehouse and office loft conversions, townhouses, detached single family houses, and low-and high-rise apartment/condo buildings) form different spatial associations with variably surviving traditional urban fabric, or they combine to completely reinvent neighborhood character.
Greening Chicago: From Downtown to the West Side This tour visits several key elements in the “greening of Chicago”. A short walk from the Palmer House leads to the green roof atop City Hall. The tour then proceeds by bus to the predominantly African-American West Side, where several projects combine environmental assets with community redevelopment. These include the Center for Green Technology; the Jens Jensen-designed Garfield Park Conservatory and its related urban greening programs; and the urban agriculture efforts of Growing Power. Co-sponsored by the Ecological Cities Project of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
A thriving market for wetland credits has developed in the Chicago region since 1994, and serves as a model for current efforts to develop entrepreneurial markets in other environmental services such as habitat, water quality, and biodiversity. Accompanied by federal agency wetland staff and entrepreneurial wetland bankers, this trip will take participants to one of the earliest wetland bank sites, a newly-constructed bank, a typical non-bank wetland compensation site, and the contested site of a nationally-prominent Supreme Court decision in wetland policy. Light refreshments will be provided on the trip. Participants should wear long pants and boots (wading boots are optional). Steel Shadow: Mittal Mill Tour and the Legacy
of Steel in the Chicago District Not all of America’s steel industry has fallen to
rust and ruin under the combined pressure of economic restructuring and
globalization. A handful of massive, integrated steel plants still pulse
among the hollowed out mills strewn along the southern shores of the Great
Lakes, evidence that the shore line break-of-bulk points between lake
freighted iron ore and railroad carried coal continue to be viable places
to smelt iron and steel. The Steel Shadow field trip will travel through
urban and industrial landscapes built and marginalized by the rise and
fall of the primary metals and metal fabricating industries on the south
side edge of Lake Michigan. This will include a tour of Mittal Steel’s
Indiana Harbor facility. Once the site of two mills operated by LTV Corporation
and National Steel, Indiana Harbor is now owned by Mittal, the planet’s
largest steel making firm. Each step of the steel making process will
be seen and explained on a walking tour that will require stair-climbing,
sturdy shoes, long sleeves, and weather-appropriate dress as part of it
will be outdoors. Unfortunately, no pictures can be taken in the mill.
Latino Chicago I: Ethnoscaping and Community
Resistance in Puerto Rican Humboldt Park The field trip will lead to Humboldt Park, a gentrifying Chicago neighborhood. Here, municipal policies that support the branding of commercial districts have been instrumental creating the Paseo Boricua, a Puerto Rican “ethnoscape.” The walking tour will highlight the intersection of urban development policies and cultural politics that unfold in the streets of the neighborhood, as Puerto Rican nationalists have sought to subvert the intended consequences of the city’s agenda by appropriating the ethnoscaping process in acts of contestation, resistance, and transgression. For more on this field trip email D-Grammenos@neiu.edu or visit http://www.neiu.edu/~cgproj. Participants will travel via public transportation, so please bring an additional $5 to cover the cost of transportation. Please dress appropriately for the weather.
This all-trip and visit to the incomparable American Geographical Society Library will depart from the Palmer House at 9:30 am. Tour participants will purchase their own lunch at a Milwaukee brew-pub, and then travel to the AGS Library at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Dr. Chris Baruth will offer an introduction to and tour of the library, which includes the archives of the AAG. The tour will conclude with the 17th annual Holzheimer Maps and America Lecture with Joel Morrison as the speaker: “Mapping the American Landscape” (reception at 5:00 pm and lecture at 6:00 pm.) The group will return to Chicago at 7:30 pm, arriving at 9:30 pm.
This trip will explore the historical roots of blues music in Chicago from its rural origins in the Mississippi delta region, through its transformation into an urban sound in post WW-II Chicago. It will also provide a general overview of how the city of Chicago is acknowledging this cultural gem of the city today. The trip will begin with a 30 minute, brown-bag (feel free to bring lunch with you) audio-visual presentation on the origins of the music, the migrations during the 1940’s and 1950’s that brought the sounds of the south to Chicago, and a brief review of the great practitioners of Chicago blues, both past and present. The trip will then visit Chess Records Studio, the legendary recording studio where the giants of blues music such as Muddy Waters made recordings that defined the Chicago blues sound. Information for further exploration of the blues in Chicago will also be provided. Participants will travel via public transportation to Chess Records Studio, so please bring $4 (must be exact change) to cover the cost of transportation.
An ever-changing Chicago is putting a new face on its downtown with the addition of fresh civic spaces. This 3-hour walking tour is a reflective meander through the recently complete exquisite Millennium Park, plus a stroll along the energetically revitalizing Chicago River and is environs. We will explore the River from the Michigan Avenue Bridge to its mouth at the O’Brien Lock to take a gander at the city’s new East Side. As always, Chicago’s architecture will prove breathtaking surprises. Participants should dress appropriately for the weather.
The Chicago Labor History Tour will visit several sites on Chicago's Near West Side and Union Row. Tour destinations will include the 1886 Haymarket Massacre site, Progressive Era reformer Jane Addams' Hull House and several union halls in the Union Row area that was the center of Chicago's labor movement by the 1930s. The tour will be led by labor historian Leon Fink, one of the collaborator's on the Chicago Labor Trail map put together by the Chicago Center for Working Class Studies. We will use the El train and then walk around the Union Row and Near West Side sites. Please dress appropriately for the weather.
Chicago and Calumet River Corridors: Past, Present,
and Future The Chicago and Calumet Rivers which lap at the divide between the Great Lakes and Mississippi watersheds have been made to do the city’s bidding in its drive to commercial and industrial ascendancy. This bus tour will examine the vexed history of these river corridors and the various efforts by the city of Chicago and local community residents to envision a greener future for them. Co-sponsored by the Ecological Cities Project at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, the tour is led by Paul Heltne, President Emeritus of the Chicago Academy of Sciences and Mark Bouman of Chicago State University. Participants should bring money for lunch at a local restaurant.
This trip will explore some of Chicago's historic suburbs and neighborhoods: Riverside, designed by Olmsted in 1869 as one of the nation's first suburbs; Berwyn, a century-old working class suburb dominated by Chicago-style bungalows; Oak Park, where Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie architecture emerged in the early 1900s; Wicker Park and Old Town, neighborhoods started by Swedes and Germans, succeeded by other ethnic groups and now gentrified; Dearborn Park, a "new town, in town" on former railroad property; and the Robert Taylor Homes area, once the nation's largest public housing project, now largely demolished and being replaced by market housing. Participants should bring money for lunch.
Pace, the thirteenth largest bus system in the country serving six counties in northeastern Illinois, recently implemented an Intelligent Bus System (IBS). The system uses GIS and GPS to more effectively provide fixed route service in a 3,446 square mile service area that is fifteen times larger than the City of Chicago. This field trip will visit one of Pace’s facilities to see first hand how the IBS system is being used in the dispatch area and on the buses. The group will then travel to Pace’s headquarters for a short presentation by senior staff who will talk about the benefits the agency has achieved through technology. There will also be a demonstration and discussion of web-based and desktop GIS applications developed by Pace staff to provide service information on fixed routes and vanpools to riders, and operational data to the planning staff. Lunch will be provided, so individuals with special dietary needs should contact the field trip organizer via email (please put “AAG Field Trip” in subject line of email) at edward.milller@pacebus.com.
Have you ever seen a fifteenth-century sea chart? Or a first edition of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern world atlas? On three occasions during the conference small groups will have the opportunity to visit the remarkable cartographic collections of the Newberry Library, located on Chicago Near North Side, approximately one mile north of the Palmer House. Each tour will be limited to 15 people and will be led by the library’s map curatorial staff. Participants will travel via public transportation, so please bring an additional $5 to cover the cost of transportation.
An ever-changing Chicago is putting a new face on its downtown with the addition of fresh civic spaces. This 3-hour walking tour is a reflective meander through the recently complete exquisite Millennium Park, plus a stroll along the energetically revitalizing Chicago River and is environs. We will explore the River from the Michigan Avenue Bridge to its mouth at the O’Brien Lock to take a gander at the city’s new East Side. As always, Chicago’s architecture will prove breathtaking surprises. Participants should dress appropriately for the weather.
This walking tour (approximately 3 miles) will examine the largely working class Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen. Located 3 miles southwest of Chicago's Loop, the area has been a port of entry for immigrants since the 19th Century. Facing pressures from the University Village condominium and town home development by the University of Illinois Chicago, and increased property speculation and conversion of industrial sites to high end residential units, residents of Pilsen are facing gentrification and a crisis of affordable housing. The tour will traverse Pilsen and visit sites of contest and resistance to these processes including art galleries, condominium developments and murals. Cold weather clothing and walking shoes are recommended. Participants will travel via public transportation, so please bring an additional $5 to cover the cost of transportation.
Chicago has often been called the ‘greenest city,’ the ‘windiest city’ and the city of ‘skyscrapers’. The city has a history of developing urban plans as Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago resulted in the Wacker Drive, Soldier Field and Union Station landmarks. The 1958 plan led to McCormick Place, Daley Plaza, and the Ohio and Oak Street beaches. The 2002 plan aims to be just as bold in revitalizing the city with urban architecture, civic spaces, recreational and cultural centers. Come and join the one hour walking trip of downtown Chicago to learn and view how the urban landscape of downtown Chicago has changed over the last few decades and what it has to offer for future development. This field trip is sponsored by Regional Development Planning Specialty Group (AAG). Participants should dress appropriately for the weather. North Shore Railroad Suburbs Chicago's historic railroad suburbs are a distinctive
settlement type. They offer useful lessons for today's urbanists, but
there are cautionary tales as well. This tour by commuter train and bus
looks at genteel North Shore suburbs--Evanston, Wilmette, Kenilworth,
Winnetka, Glencoe, Highland Park, and Lake Forest--whose downtowns have
both withstood change and been successfully redeveloped. We'll also visit
two of the nation's earliest shopping centers: Lake Forest Market Square
and Plaza del Lago.
Eastern Christians in Chicago Participants leave the Palmer House at 8am by bus. Stop #1: Holy Trinity Cathedral (Russian Orthodox-Orthodox Church of America). This famous church, designed by Chicago architect Louis H. Sullivan to fit onto two Chicago lots, using provincial Russian models, was built by donations from the last Czar of the Russian Empire in the early 1900's. Holy Trinity members observe the Revised Julian Calendar. Stop #2: St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral. This church, purchased from a Lutheran congregation, represents Ukrainian Orthodox who formed an independent diocese in the US to be free of Russian and Ukrainian hierarchs in Europe during the Soviet period. St. Volodymyr members observe the Julian Calendar. Stop #3: St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral. Chicago contains more Ukrainians than any city besides Kiev and Winnipeg. Early members came from provinces of the Russian Empire before WW I. St. Nicholas members observe the Gregorian Calendar. Stop #4: shopping and visiting Chicago Avenue in the Ukrainian facility area. Stop #5: Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church. This Byzantine style church is modeled after a Ukrainian building in the Vatican. It was founded by post-WW II Ukrainian immigrants from the Soviet Union, highly anti-communist and nationalistic, traits largely absent from the earlier Ukrainian immigrants from the Russian Empire. Sts. Volodymyr and Olha members observe the Julian Calendar. Stop #6: Lunch will be a Ukranian meal served family style at the Ukrainian Cultural Center of Sts. Volodymyr and Olha, and will include entertainment with tamburitza. Cameras will be welcomed and participants will be told at what appropriate times to use them. Personal donations of $2.00 at each church will be welcomed but participants may offer more. By Water, Rail and Road; Traversing the Illinois
and Michigan Corridor The Illinois and Michigan Corridor has historically been the Midwest’s premier passage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi system. From 1673, when Illinois Indians directed Louis Jolliet and Father Marquette over the portage to the nonstop traffic on today’s Interstate-80, the corridor has attracted a bundled succession of transportation routes, including the Illinois & Michigan Canal, the Rock Island Railroad, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and transcontinental US Route 6. Join Kevin Patrick and Curt Roseman on an exploration of transportation related built environments assembled, abandoned, and recycled into what would become America’s first national heritage corridor. The trip will provide a contextual framework for the canal towns and railscapes, locks and lumberyards, early auto roadside architecture, grain elevators, port facilities, coal mines and mills that lie scattered throughout the corridor between Chicago and LaSalle-Peru.
Have you ever seen a fifteenth-century sea chart? Or a first edition of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern world atlas? On three occasions during the conference small groups will have the opportunity to visit the remarkable cartographic collections of the Newberry Library, located on Chicago Near North Side, approximately one mile north of the Palmer House. Each tour will be limited to 15 people and will be led by the library’s map curatorial staff. Participants will travel via public transportation, so please bring an additional $5 to cover the cost of transportation.
Founded in 1893, the Field Museum of Chicago increases scientific knowledge and awareness through their anthropology, geology, botany, and zoology collections and exhibits. This "behind-the-scenes" tour will examine the challenges in managing information about biological diversity, making it available in useful forms, while maintaining the original specimens for future generations. We will visit the herbarium and the bird and mammal collections, which are just part of the 20 million items the museum preserves. We also will hear about their local and international programs for biodiversity conservation, which are located in the Division of Environment, Culture, and Conservation. This field trip is sponsored by Biogeography Specialty Group.
This tour by chartered elevated train explores city neighborhoods and the transportation system that has helped to build and sustain them since 1893. The train leaves from the Adams and Wabash CTA stop and will travel to the southwest, west, and north on three of the spokes of the system that radiate from the loop hub. (Some adjustment to these directions may take place if operational considerations demand it.) The tour focuses on the history and technology of Chicago’s rapid transit system and also discusses various aspects of the neighborhoods along the way. Participants may wish to bring along a snack for the ride.
Promontory Point is a “prairie school” park designed by Alfred Caldwell in 1936. Built as a WPA project with a revetment of large limestone blocks, the “Point” has been the center of a six-year community struggle again a government plan to replace the limestone with concrete and steel. Jackson Park, designed by F.L. Olmsted in 1870 in the “naturalistic” tradition, was the site of the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Washington Park, also by Olmsted, for decades has served as a venue for the expression of African-American racial identity. There will be a stop for lunch (participants should bring money) at the Museum of Science and Industry food court.
Chicago is a crucible of the contemporary community mural movement. The tour visits a number of murals dating from the 1970s through the present -- by muralists like Bill Walker, Ray Patlán, Caryl Yasko, and Marcos Raya -- and ranges through neighborhoods from Bronzeville, to Pilsen, to Humboldt Park. Tour guide Víctor Alejandro Sorell, Professor of Art History at Chicago State University, has been closely associated with the movement for the past thirty-five years, as art historian, curator, and author of A Guide to Chicago Murals: Yesterday and Today. Bring money for a late lunch stop at Nuevo Leon restaurant.
An ever-changing Chicago is putting a new face on its downtown with the addition of fresh civic spaces. This 3-hour walking tour is a reflective meander through the recently complete exquisite Millennium Park, plus a stroll along the energetically revitalizing Chicago River and is environs. We will explore the River from the Michigan Avenue Bridge to its mouth at the O’Brien Lock to take a gander at the city’s new East Side. As always, Chicago’s architecture will prove breathtaking surprises. Participants should dress appropriately for the weather.
Cartographic Treasures of the Newberry Library
An ever-changing Chicago is putting a new face on its downtown with the addition of fresh civic spaces. This 3-hour walking tour is a reflective meander through the recently complete exquisite Millennium Park, plus a stroll along the energetically revitalizing Chicago River and is environs. We will explore the River from the Michigan Avenue Bridge to its mouth at the O’Brien Lock to take a gander at the city’s new East Side. As always, Chicago’s architecture will prove breathtaking surprises. Participants should dress appropriately for the weather. Legacy of the Plan of Chicago Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett's 1909 vision for the
city is still revered but the plan's actual results are often misunderstood
or forgotten. This bus tour of the central city will look at the Plan's
physical legacies: Navy Pier, North Michigan Avenue, Northerly Island,
a straightened river, Ogden Avenue, Congress Parkway, Union Station, Wacker
Drive. We'll look at projects that greatly benefited the city, at proposals
that later generations reconsidered, and at heroic accomplishments that
in the end meant little.
Please direct all queries to:
Association of American Geographers
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