Chicago, Illinois

“Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood,” advised one of Chicago's leading architects nearly a century ago. Chicagoans listened. You can't visit the Windy City today and find much that's small about it. Skyscrapers stretch toward the heavens—four are more than a thousand feet tall—while shorter buildings loom large as unrivaled works of art as much as architecture. Lake Michigan, that sparkling inland sea, laps at the city's doorstep along 29 miles of shoreline adorned with spacious parks, marinas and public beaches. [ more ]