Federated state of the USA (145,934 km 2 with 12,852,548 inhabitants in 2007), with capital Springfield. Its territory is closed between the lake Michigan northeast and the courses of Mississippi to the West, and rivers Ohio and Wabash to east The country it is crossed by the Illinois rivers, the largest waterway in the state, and Kaskaskia. The climate is continental, with considerable snow and abundant rainfall. The metropolis of Chicago alone it collects over 1/4 of the population.
According to abbreviationfinder, Illinois is among the most important agricultural states of the federation (80% of the land is occupied by farms): it produces wheat, corn, soy, oats, fodder, barley, rye, potatoes; breeding is flourishing. The subsoil is rich in coal, oil and fluorite. The greater Chicago metropolitan area is home to formidable industrial potential and, across the state, nearly one million people are employed in manufacturing alone. The entire high-tech sector is growing, while the traditional sectors have undergone major restructuring. Financial activities and tourism are other sectors of strategic economic importance. The state’s infrastructure is extremely efficient: 136 airports, 26,000 km of highways and the great lake port of Chicago.
WATERWAY Navigable waterway system between Lake Michigan, Chicago, and the point where the I River flows into the Mississippi. In addition to the Illinois includes the Chicago River, the Calumet, the Chicago Drainage Canal (50km) and the Sanitary and Ship Canal (60km), built in 1900.
According to countryaah, Illinois has the following main cities:
Springfield
City of the USA (117,352 residents In 2008), capital of Illinois; it rises in the central sector of the state, 182 m asl on the Sangamon river. Located in the center of a fertile agricultural and livestock region, it is a commercial (grain, tobacco, meat) and industrial (food, mechanical, electrical and railway construction) center.
Built in 1821, it became the state capital in 1837. It is home to numerous buildings of artistic, historical and cultural interest, including the home and sepulchral monument of President A. Lincoln, who lived here from 1837 to 1861, exercising the ‘advocacy.
Chicago
City of the USA (2,836,658 in 2007), in the State of Illinois, the third of the federation by population after New York e The Angels. It is located at 180 m above sea level at the southwestern end of the lake Michigan. Its metropolitan area is very large (4500 km 2). The climate is continental, not very rainy (850 mm per year), with strong temperature variations. Situated on a flat coastal plain, the city has benefited enormously from the presence of Lake Michigan and the crossing position of the great transcontinental lines. It has a characteristic checkerboard layout, the uniformity of which is broken by large oblique avenues. You frequent the gardens and parks (Washington Park, Lincoln Park, Jackson Park etc.); a green belt winds along the lake shore, cut only by the port and the terminal railway systems; beyond is the business district (called the Loop).
Despite a downsizing that occurred in the last twenty years of the twentieth century, the economic role of C. remains fundamental, supported by industrial activities, present in all production sectors, from the more traditional ones (steel, mechanical, food, chemical, textile and clothing, and above all editorial) to the most modern and innovative ones (electronics, information technology, high-tech). The services sector is expanding very strongly, in which, alongside commercial activities (favored by the presence of an exceptional motorway and railway network, three airports and the port on Lake Michigan), there are financial and insurance activities; while scientific and cultural research and development activities are always at the fore: universities are, together with libraries, the most notable institutes in the city. The contribution of the tertiary sector to overall employment is estimated at 80%, while the residual 20% is left for industrial activities (despite the large apparatus) and the construction sector. The average per capita income is higher than that of the country, even if, within the large metropolitan area, there are still strong social imbalances.
Almost completely destroyed by fire in 1871 (among the spared buildings, St. Patrick’s Church, 1854, and Old Water Tower, 1869), C. was largely rebuilt by a group of engineers and architects (collectively called, although in the absence of a real institution, school of C.) which, between 1880 and 1930, took advantage of a series of favorable circumstances – strong economic development, considerable technical preparation of the designers, absence of an architectural tradition and environmental structures binding – to implement a bold reconstruction of the Loop. Original works were designed for various types of buildings (offices, department stores, hotels, workshops, residential buildings, schools, etc.), which are fundamental for the history of modern architecture. In the series of technical and structural innovations, the multi-storey buildings with steel structures and glazing stand out (the windows of C., tripartite, consisting of a fixed central frame flanked by two mobile counterframes and occupying the entire width of the spans), with concrete foundations, which herald skyscrapers. Of LH Sullivan remain Jewelers’ Building (1882; with D. Adler), the Auditorium (1889; with Adler) and Carson Pirie Scott and Co. Story (1899-1904); by W. Le Baron Jenney, Manhattan Building (1890) and Sears Roebuck Store (1891). Of the Burnham and Root studio are to remember Reliance Building (1895) and Monadnock Building (1891), enlarged (1893) by Holabird and Roche, one of the most active studios in C. (after 1927, Holabird and Root), to whom we owe among others, Marquette Building (1894), McClurg Building (1900), City Hall (1911) and Riverside Plaza (1929). The Tribune Tower (built in Gothic style by Hood and Howells, 1925), the result of a famous international competition held in 1922, should still be remembered. In the context of residential construction (the oldest house is Clarke House, 1836) to the only remaining work in C. by H. Richardson (Glessner House, 1886), to the first projects of FL Wright (Charnley House, 1892, with Adler and Sullivan; Robie House, 1909 etc.), to the model city desired by G. Pullman (1880-94, S. Beman) and to the terraced houses of the Mid-North District and the Astor Street District, notable are the multi-storey complexes Brewster apartments by E. Turnock (1893) and 1550 North State Parkway (1912) by the Marshall and Fox studio which also built luxurious hotels (Drake Hotel, 1920). Of considerable importance was the presence in C., from the end of the 1930s, of eminent personalities of Bauhaus, such as L. Moholy-Nagy, founder in 1939 of the Institute of Design (in 1949 annexed to the Illinois Institute of Technology, IIT), and, above all, L. Mies van der Rohe, who headed the architecture department (1938-58) of the Armor Institute, which later became (1940) IIT. In addition to the elaboration of the general architectural plan of the IIT (1939-41) and the construction of several of its buildings (from the Metal Research Building, 1942-43, to the Crown Hall, 1950-56, with collaborators), Mies van der Rohe has left a significant footprint with the Promontory apartments (1946-49), the Lake Shore Drive apartments (1948-51), the Federal Center (1959-73) and the IBM Building (1971, with Murphy Ass.). Other important architectural firms active in C. are SOM (Inland Steel Building, 1958; John Hancock Center, 1970; Sears Tower, 1974), CF Murphy (O’Hare Airport, 1963; Civic Center, 1965; McCornick Place, 1970; with H. Jahn : State of Illinois Center, 1981; ampliamento del Board of Trade, 1983; One South Wacker, 1983; North Western Terminal, 1985); B. Goldberg Ass. (Astor Power, 1962; Marine City 1964, 1967; Prentice Women’s Hospital and Northwestern Institute of Psychiatry, 1975; River City, 1984), Kohn, Pedersen and Fox (torre per uffici a Wacker Drive, 1983), P. Johnson and J. Burgee (1990 South The room, 1986).
SCHOOL OF C Philosophical circle born from the meeting and collaboration of some European exponents of the neo-positivist movement, who emigrated to the USA at the advent of Nazism, and representatives of similar American philosophical currents, mostly linked to the logical school of C. founded by J. Dewey in 1903. The group, gathered around the figures of C. Morris, R. Carnap and O. Neurath, promoted the publication, from 1955, of the International encyclopedia of unified science.
