New York City and Chicago have, by most measures, the largest urban cores* in the United States. Both are large enough that, to me—someone from Michigan—they feel endless. Yet, I can see the facts on paper; NYC’s legal boundary has almost four times the population of Chicago. The Chicago metropolitan area, while similar in geographic size to New York’s, has only roughly 1/3rd the population.
I’m sure the differences would be obvious to someone who’s lived in both cities. But for me, I thought it would be interesting to compare Chicago and New York City, side-by-side, in 3D. Here are the resulting renders. Note that Chicago has replaced Jersey city.
*Los Angeles has more people than Chicago, but is mostly car dependant suburban sprawl.
- ^ note Sears / Willis Tower in the bottom right, One World Trade Center across the river
