So…I’m looking for a pretty no-frills, non-artsy poster-sized map of Chicago. Doesn’t need to have the all the streets there; just the arterial roads are fine. Anybody know where I can get one or have one made up for a reasonable price?? The purpose is basically to map out some business locations with pushpins…Yes, there’s Google Maps, but we’re looking for something physical…like at least 36 x 24, the bigger the better…
I bought a big, two-sided map years ago that fits your bill. The kind that you can never fold up properly again. One side was the city with all the streets; the other side was the metro area with major streets.
I don’t remember where I got it, but it wasn’t anyplace exotic. Walgreen’s or Barnes & Noble, probably. (Back when our planet used to have bookstores.)
This map is a rather nice map of the Chicago neighborhoods. The arterial roads are labeled fairly legibly.
It’s a little artsy, but it’s the best poster-sized map with the main roads labeled I’m aware of.
I also found this: Rand McNally Chicago Regional Wall Map
Office Depot, bookstores, and some supermarkets should have a folded map from Rand McNally or AMC.
At the Suburban Map Store in Elmhurst, you can probably get one that’s rolled. They’d love to mount or frame it for you.
Pretty much everything that’s in print can be ordered from maplink.com
Online you can order a custom map based on the Rand McNally street atlas.
Or you can have me make a custom one for you, very high quality, for about $20/square foot. I do a lot of the Chicago maps you probably already know: the CTA map, Downtown Plus, the city bikemap, the city landmarks map, Concierge Preferred, Chicago Marathon, etc.
The Chicago Tribune offered a free map of Chicago a few years ago (well, maybe more than a few). It was large and comprehensive – one of the few maps that had the entire city on one side. I still have mine in the glove box and I’m on my third car since I got it. You might want to try contacting them.
Alas, the Tribune Chicagoland map hasn’t been published for a decade or more. For the last 10-15 years the city side was the Rand McNally map, but with the whole city on one side of the paper. You see them on eBay sometimes.
The AAA Chicago Motor Club offerings might meet your needs.