McCormick Place

Conventioneers worth their ID tags know Chicago's largest convention center.

by Elisa Kronish at Citysearch

In Short
Three state-of-the-art buildings make up this mammoth meeting place that attracts more than 4 million trade and public show visitors annually. Its total of more than 2.2 million square feet of exhibit space makes it the nation's largest convention center. It also boasts the largest ballroom in Chicago, as well as 114 business rooms, assembly seating for 10,000, the 4,249-seat Arie Crown Theater, and 8,000 parking spaces. All this space means a lot of walking--wear comfortable shoes.

06/26/02

The sheer size is amazing

by peterbehle_citysearch at Citysearch

This place is stunningly huge. There can be 2-3 giant conventions going on at the same time and there's still plenty of room. The one problem is that there's not a lot of useful public transportation nearby -- except for a couple of bus routes (but even those don't run to the The Loop on non-commute hours. And The El stops over in Chinatown.

• Pros: It's just, plain big
• Cons: Hard to get to