Chicago, Illinois 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart
How the Water Becomes Wood
A chart is a stack of flat sheets until the water's real soundings tell it what shape to take.
- SurveyReal bathymetric sounding data sets every contour line before a single cut is made.
- CutEach depth band is laser-cut from its own sheet of Baltic birch, up to nine layers deep.
- StainWater layers are stained by hand, reading darker the deeper the water runs.
- StackThe sheets are registered and stacked in sequence, and the bed's true shape rises out of the wood.
- EtchDepths and place names are burned into the grain itself, never printed on it.
- FrameA solid Baltic birch frame and acrylic glass finish the piece, ready to hang.
The Chicago lakefront in laser-cut Baltic birch, 13.5 by 31 inches: the skyline's edge, the harbors, and the offshore water of Lake Michigan, cut one depth contour per layer in a long format that matches 26 miles of shoreline.
Chicago is the city that rearranged its own geography: in 1900 it reversed the Chicago River so the water runs away from the lake, and the locks where river meets lake still manage that trade every day. Along the shore, the lakefront stays public nearly end to end, from the beaches up north past Navy Pier and the Museum Campus to the harbors where thousands of boats swing on moorings all summer. On the chart, the city's engineered edge meets the lake's natural slope: crib intakes offshore, harbor pockets carved into the top layers, and the open water stepping down east into deeper birch.
Each contour comes from its own laser-cut sheet, stacked by hand, with names engraved rather than printed, acrylic glass over the relief, and a solid Baltic birch frame in Dark or Light.
Sailors out of Monroe and Belmont, runners on the Lakefront Trail, anyone whose apartment faces east: this is the view, in wood.
The engraving runs from the northern beaches past Navy Pier, the river mouth and locks, Northerly Island, and the harbors south along the shore. The rest of the water is on the Lake Michigan chart.
- 13.5 × 31 in
- Solid Baltic birch frame in Dark or Light
- Acrylic glass front, ready to hang
- Free next-business-day shipping on orders placed by 2 PM EST
- 14-day returns
Live from the water