The ‘Year of the Loop’ features several major developments including the completed renovation of the Palmer House Hilton, the completion of the mixed-use Block 37, the redeveloped Sullivan Center, the opening of theWit Hotel, the development & opening of Pritzker Park, and the historic opening of the Renzo Piano designed Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

Additionally, the ‘Year of the Loop’ will feature a new Streetscape Planter Program that will begin in the spring with installations to celebrate the centennial of Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago. It will then change in the spring/summer to feature and promote the exhibition at the Field Museum titled “Real Pirates” and will conclude in the fall/winter with installations to celebrate the Shedd Aquarium’s re-opening and re-imagined oceanarium.

LoopUChicago.com is yet another of CLA's 'Year of the Loop' initiatives which will be a free, interactive website that will primarily function as a user-driven experience, giving students and businesses numerous opportunities to become involved and connected both within the integrated online community and the local community for which it serves.  

It represents a fresh and progressive approach to connecting the Loop's college population (more than 60,000 students who attend class at more than 20 institutions of higher learning each week) to CLA's member businesses & organizations. 

Several ongoing initiatives will round out the 'Year of the Loop' including an updated version of the economic analysis study, originally conducted and posted to our website in 2005, and an updated version of the higher education study also released in 2005.