GoogleCenter of Chicago

By Rachelle Bowden in Miscellaneous on Feb 23, 2006 3:15PM

Yesterday Gothamist told us that Wired had a story on the GoogleCenter of America - the place that you find if you zoom into the closest point on the default Google map. It turns out the GoogleCenter of America is some field near Coffeyville, KS. Then they started doing some experiments and finding out what the GoogleCenters of New York are, which of course made us wonder what the GoogleCenter of Chicago is.

If you type in "Chicago, IL" and zoom all the way in, you wind up somewhere just west of South Halsted and north of the I & M Canal. If you look at the area in the satellite view you see the power plant, some lumber yards and some industrial areas. South of the canal you'll see some boat storage, receiving docks, and more industrial buildings. We heard some developers are lobbying for rezoning along the canal to put up what are being advertised as "riverfront lofts."

Also, the GoogleCenter of Chicago shouldn't be confused with the actual geographic center of Chicago, which we heard is 31st & Canal, although we're having problems verifying it online, or the grid center at State & Madison in the heart of the Loop.