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The secret world below Chicago

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120 pointsMiriamWeiner47 comments

Houston has an underground tunnel system that's larger than Chicago's: https://www.downtownhouston.org/district/downtown-tunnels/

Having lived in both cities, Houston's is actually more accessible and useful as well. Also a point of differentiation is that its main touted advantage is avoiding the disgusting heat and humidity that settles on the city for most of the year, rather than avoiding the cold.

Houston skyscrapers used to lower their air pressure to pull free A/C from their neighbors. (citation needed, can't track one down quickly). But, it's a huge system, approximately seven miles long[4].

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_tunnel_system

1. Pictures: https://www.google.com/search?q=houston+tunnels+system

2. NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/us/21tunnel.html?_r=1&adxn...

Startups have launched in the Houston tunnels:

3. http://www.chron.com/business/article/Downtown-tunnel-system...

Eye-popping costs of up to $15,000 per linear foot to build, and yet it's all funded by the building developers themselves:

4. https://web.archive.org/web/20081231041758/http://www.discov...

(Out of all large cities in America, Houston is unique in that it has no zoning; skyscrapers are clustered together mostly because they're lonely, and not at all because there are inherent advantages in being near other like-minded buildings. The weirdest photographs to come from no zoning laws, which I think is actually extremely cool: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Weir... )

"Nearly 180 years since the city was founded, nobody is really sure whether Houston's lack of zoning laws is a point of pride or not."

I think this explains the feature of having entry-ways exposed to outside air-pressure; if anyone tries to suck in, they just fill the common area and their own building with heat.

>main touted advantage is avoiding the disgusting heat and humidity

And to avoid the monsoon-like rains; downtown Houston is ~45 miles north west of Galveston Bay. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Houston

>Rainfall is the most common form of precipitation in Houston. The wettest month is June, with an average of 5.93 inches (151 mm) of rain.[1] Houston normally receives 49.77 inches (1,264 mm) of precipitation on 104.0 days annually.[1] The most precipitation to fall in one year was 83.02 inches (2,108.7 mm) which occurred in 1979. Houston has received less than 20 inches (510 mm) of rain only once: 17.66 inches in 1917.[21] Flash flood warnings are common all year, and due to the flat landscape, heavy rains often threaten life and property in the city. Sea breeze showers which are monsoon-like (especially during the summer months from a mesoscale convective cycle where the polar jet stream usually forms an omega block) are common throughout the Texas Gulf Coast area (from Brownsville to the Florida Peninsula) which has a similar climate to areas like Mumbai and Kolkata - locals refer to the sea breeze showers as the Gulf Coast Monsoon (also called the Gulf of Mexico or the Texas Monsoon), despite Houston being 50 feet above sea level. The sea breeze showers are also a contributor to the North American Monsoon.

My dad brought me through the Houston tunnel system when I was a young teen and I really enjoyed the hustle and bustle around lunch time. I remember sitting in a small coffee shop and pretending I was in the wing of a space station.

I'm reminded of the feeling every time I read a sci-fi book like the first book of The Expanse series.

Ever read Asimov’s Robot series? Future cities are underground or domed. Earthlings no longer venture outside.

Chicago has a disused freight tunnel system larger than either of these pedestrian tunnel systems:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tunnel_Company

Which many Chicagoans learned about when someone drove pilings into it allowing the river to drain into the tunnels. It was huge business news at the time, because basically all of downtown Chicago was shut down for a week or more since power, etc is delivered to the buildings through those flooded basements.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_flood

The stained glass hallway is the most depressing part of my commute in the winter. It's always a mess and very poorly lit.

Also, the pedway in Chicago is more of a collection of disconnected minipedways. You definitely can't cross the lop without going outside. It's not nearly as seamless as the skyway in Minneapolis which has the additional bonus of natural light (even if it's usually overcast in the winter).

and with very poor signage, it's extremely easy to get lost.

Actually Minneapolis gets so cold that it's usually pretty sunny in the winter because the air has less moisture and higher density.

Similar reason why it doesn't snow as much - too cold for the air to hold as much moisture compared to places where are warmer (but still below freezing).

When I moved here from Milwaukee that was the first thing I noticed in the winter, it's sunny outside way more often.

what do you mean "you can't cross the loop without going outside"? I can get from Lakeshore East to the blue line entirely under ground...

But yeah, the stained glass hallway is dingy.

Ah, sorry, I used to work in the Opera House on the West side of West Wacker, which doesn't have a connection.

Blue line => East side of the loop is pretty navigable.

Ah, understood. I don't spend much time over there. Seems like a nice area. Amazon has a pretty swanky office near Monroe and Wacker, which I think is your neck of the loop.

Toronto has a crazy underground city

I am very sorry to see from Google that the Smith Stained Glass Museum at Navy Pier closed in 2014. Not many people seemed to know it was there, but I always went out of my way to visit it when I was in Chicago.

Ahh the pedway. A lovely idea, but every piece of it is in different shape. Some bits are nice (Illinois Center), but others are super dumpy (from Macy's to Millennium Station), and anything in between.

I hope this attention from the Architecture Biennial will result in some new interest and cash to freshen it up a bit. Because right now it's just raw and utilitarian, in that unsentimental way that Chicago infrastructure tends to be... :)

Toronto PATH is my favourite thing in the city

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH_(Toronto)

Yeah that one is way cool. And great when it is hella cold. ;)

You may enjoy Waydowntown :) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0219405/

Nice, 30 km.

Calgary's version is "only" 16 km, though all of it is above ground - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/+15

I wonder if something like this could be built when expanding or reconstructing major parts of a city... not just to have a way for people to move without being exposed to the elements, cars, trucks and bikers, but also to serve as a conduit for fresh/waste water, electricity, gas and communications.

Benefit would be that it would no longer be neccessary to cut open streets when something breaks or needs to be expanded/upgraded, as well as that everything is protected from the elements and it's incredibly cheap to install new lines should the need arise. The power required for lighting and ventilation could come from swapping the asphalt with armed solar panels...

And by only installing it when the respective area is being dug up anyway it would not create that much cost for digging.

This is my favorite part of Montreal. When it's -20C outside, having access to everything without going outside is good city planning

http://montrealvisitorsguide.com/reso-underground-city-la-vi...

The Réso is awesome. Next time I'm in Montreal, I want to stay at the Hyatt at the Complexe Desjardins: It's possible to get all the way from your hotel room to the Place D'armes Metro station a few blocks south or the Place Des Arts Metro station a few blocks north, all without going outside, not to mention a mall, a performing arts center, and countless restaurants.

You can also go to the Bell Center to see the Canadiens too. It's just a bit trickier to get around.

My first thought was of Jim Butcher's "Undertown".

This is interesting too, though it seems like Minneapolis' Skyway is a bit more usable.

I was reading the article waiting for them to interview Maeve.

The Chicago Architecture Foundation does a nice guided tour of the pedway: https://www.architecture.org/experience-caf/tours/detail/chi...

I've done it before and it's a great way to see Chicago in the winter when it's silly cold outside.

Here's a map:

https://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/cdot/pe...

It's cool if you can make use of it, but it doesn't span very far. Where you see the numbers 47 and 3, those are the main rail stations for commuter lines, so they do almost nothing to help those people. But if you're lucky enough to have one of the 10% of jobs that work near them, it's really nice to take advantage of.

That map mentions:

Normal operating hours of the Pedway are 7am to 5pm, Monday - Friday, unless otherwise noted.

Does most of it follow that schedule? That seems like a very limited time. If you wanted to use it during your commute you'd be limited to work between 8am and 4pm.

When I worked in downtown Chicago standard work day was 9-4. So your train gets in somewhere around 8:30 and you then have a 10-20 minute walk to work. Then the reverse to catch your 5:00-ish train home.

Not sure if that was widespread but by 6pm the Loop proper was basically a ghost town.

A 7 hour work day was standard?

Worked in downtown Chicago for 2 decades. A 7-hour day is not Standard. GP must have worked at some sort of hippie commune across the river.

Most common official working hours are 8-4, since there are so many banks and exchanges that want to be on the same work schedule as NYC markets.

Also it gets dark at 4:30 in December/Jan and millions of perestrians, cars, dark, and icy streets aren’t a very safe combo.

The Pedway is one of the best open secrets here in Chicago, especially during heavy blizzard conditions and generally escaping the elements. Used to walk it daily when I worked downtown.

I didn't even know what it was when I worked in River North. I just knew I could duck into one of the buildings along the way and get into a heated tunnel that took me part way to Ogilvy. Now, I wish I had explored it more when I lived in Chicago.

Also related, the abandoned underground shopping mall in Barcelona: http://www.ultraswank.net/stores/avenue-of-light-the-lost-un...

Some amazing pictures... really conveys the mood.

I went out to lunch with someone who knew their way around it, and I was surprised how far you could walk underground. It's kind of cool, too, because it feels like a secret, because it feels half-baked (e.g. one of the parts went through the loading area of Union Station).

Union station or Millenium station? I'm familiar with the latter, but that's just because the loading area is long and has two pedway entrances. There is another way around aside from that.

I'm guessing Millennium Station, since the pedway doesn't cross the river...

Good point, and nice username.

Oklahoma City's got one of these, too. Not quite as large or nice, though.

http://downtownokc.com/underground/

Kinda like a private roadway. It's almost as though people who own things generally want people to be able to get to them. ;- )

Well, to be fair to Chicago's system (and I live here), it's more like a set of connected basements.

It's a good thing you can bring cars and trucks in, and that it's connected to pretty much every business downtown, overlapping other prominent networks without seams. Otherwise it wouldn't really be all that useful as a roadway.

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