The city that would become GLMZ was not built because anyone wanted a city. It was built because five corporations needed a place to operate that was not subject to the governance structures they had spent decades undermining.

The site — the western shore of Lake Michigan, encompassing what was formerly metropolitan Chicago — was selected in 2078 for three reasons. First, it offered deep-water access to the Great Lakes shipping network, which remained the most efficient freight corridor in North America after the highway system's collapse. Second, the existing urban infrastructure, though degraded, provided a foundation that could be rebuilt faster than a greenfield site. Third, the area had no functioning government. The State of Illinois had effectively dissolved in 2071, and the federal presence had withdrawn to administrative functions that existed primarily on paper.

The five founding corporations — Tessera, Sterling-Nakamura, Palladian, Arcturus Defense Solutions, and Zheng-Dao Heavy Industries — signed the Meridian Charter on June 15, 2081. The Charter established the legal framework for a city governed by corporate charter rather than democratic constitution. The name 'GLMZ' was chosen by committee: 'Meridian' for the longitudinal line that bisects the site, and '88' for the year the first habitable structures were completed.

Construction began in 2082 and proceeded in phases. The foundation walls — massive concrete and steel barriers designed to control Lake Michigan's encroachment — were completed in 2085. The first residential tiers were habitable by 2088. The vertical expansion that would eventually create the five-tier structure began in 2094 and continues to this day.

The population grew through immigration. People came because GLMZ had jobs. The jobs existed because the corporations needed labor. The labor came because everywhere else was worse. This is not the inspirational founding narrative that the Meridian Historical Commission was chartered to produce, but it is the accurate one. The Commission's original draft described GLMZ as 'a beacon of human resilience and corporate vision.' The final version, after three rounds of review, describes it as 'a city that exists because it was more profitable to build than not to build.' Both descriptions are true. Neither is complete.