# The Founding of GLMZ: How a City Was Built on a Lake

## Overview

GLMZ was founded in 2083 — not as a city but as a joint corporate venture. Six corporations, each too large to be governed by any remaining national authority, agreed to build a shared urban center on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, in territory that had been the metropolitan Chicago area before the population shifts of the 2050s-2070s left it largely abandoned. The name came from the city's longitudinal coordinate: 88°W.

## The Corporate Rationale

The founding was driven by logistics. By 2080, the six corporations that would become GLMZ's corponations had outgrown the fragmented governance of the nation-states they operated within. National borders complicated supply chains. Competing jurisdictions created legal friction. Regulatory frameworks designed for smaller entities couldn't accommodate corporate operations that spanned continents.

The solution was to build a purpose-designed urban center on neutral ground — a city built by corporations, for corporations, governed by corporate agreement rather than democratic politics. The Lake Michigan site was chosen for: freshwater access (the lake), central continental location (logistics optimization), existing but abandoned infrastructure (reduced construction cost), and the absence of a functioning local government that might object.

## Construction (2083-2110)

Building a city for 12 million people took 27 years and approximately Φ2.8 trillion (in 2200 equivalent). The construction proceeded in phases:

**Phase 1 (2083-2090): Foundation.** The Water Wall, the power infrastructure, and the basic industrial platform that would become the Grind. The first 500,000 workers arrived to build the city they would eventually live in.

**Phase 2 (2090-2100): Growth.** The first arcologies, the Shelf residential zones, and the transit infrastructure. Population reached 4 million by 2100, drawn by employment opportunities and the UBC system that guaranteed basic survival.

**Phase 3 (2100-2110): Maturation.** The full arcology network, Mirror Mile, the cultural infrastructure, and the refinement of the governance structure. Population reached 8 million. The city became self-sustaining — producing its own food, generating its own power, and managing its own atmosphere.

## The Displaced

The construction of GLMZ displaced the remnant population of the former Chicago metropolitan area — approximately 200,000 people who had remained after the larger population shifts. These residents were offered UBC enrollment and housing in the Shelf. Some accepted. Others refused, citing the replacement of their homes and community with a corporate project that hadn't consulted them. The displaced who refused became the first residents of what would become the Gulch — building informal settlements in the construction zone's margins, maintaining a community identity rooted in what the city replaced.

## Legacy

GLMZ's founding established the template for corporate city-states that has since been replicated across the globe. The model — corporate governance, enclosed infrastructure, UBC economic system, security by contract — is now the dominant form of urban organization for settlements above 5 million population. Whether this represents progress or the privatization of civilization is a question that defines 2200's political philosophy. The answer depends on where in the city you live.