Architecture Sat Jun 28 2008

Chicago: The Best for Architecture & Design

An international archicture firm has declared Chicago the best American city for architecture and design. RMJM Hillier, the North-American branch of global firm RMJM, evaluated cities with populations of 500,000 or more and created a list of ten candidates based on criteria like architecture awards received, the prevalence of "green design," and the number of employees in creative industries. Residents of those ten cities were polled by Zogby International for their opinions on their city's public transit systems, green spaces, and encouragement of creative activities The poll results were then incorporated with the quantitative research to determine the rankings.

And unlike in this poll of America's top art cities, Chicago came in first and New York second. For more information on the survey methodology and results, the Tribune architecture blog has a PDF copy of HMJM's report.

- Jamie Smith