Enter Your Product or Idea in the Millennium Gateway Testbed Challenge!

City Tech has launched the Millennium Gateway Testbed Challenge for you to pilot your technology, product, or idea in a worldclass testbed in Chicago. Click here to apply.

Through the Millennium Gateway Innovation Lab , City Tech is integrating parking more fully into urban transportation systems, developing tech-enabled solutions for smart infrastructure management, and cultivating value-added services and space uses.

Whether it’s a multi-modal transit hub, data center, or underground art gallery, parking facilities hold endless potential for mobility uses and flexible venue space. As the Lab's anchor facility, Millennium Garages spans 3.8 million square feet and provides access to Chicago’s top tourist destinations and the business district. Millennium Garages is the largest downtown public parking system in the United States and is believed to be the largest underground parking system in the world. The complex includes an underground network of four garages connecting Millennium Park, Maggie Daley Park, and Grant Park, as well as provides access to the highway network, underground pedway, and Millennium Station.

Challenge winners will be able to test their idea in this worldclass testbed, engage with City Tech's extensive partner ecosystem, and get their product in front of a larger audience.

Submit your idea by January 8, 2021 for a chance to test your product or showcase innovative ways to utilize this unique underground space. Entries will be reviewed on a rolling basis – the earlier you submit the idea, the sooner it can become a reality!

Participants may submit their ideas to one of the following tracks:

Pilot your technology that improves parking operations and transforms parking facilities into multi-modal mobility hubs. We’re especially looking for tech-focused solutions around freight and smart infrastructure management of the garage itself.

Let your ideas run wild. This track is intended to repurpose the vast space of parking garages and facilities in creative ways.

Accessible space for public functions has become more scarce due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Whether entering a drive-in movie theater or walking around an underground art installation, parking garages offer flexible space for public and private uses that benefit today's social distancing concerns and beyond.