With our offices in Austin and Chicago, HCB has a special appreciation for cities with spirit and a soul. We’ve got several Austin or Chicago natives on our staff, but just as many HCB employees are transplants from the Midwest, East or West Coast. With both cities continually growing and making lists of “best places to live in the US,” it’s no surprise that residents are passionate about their hometown. So, what’s so great about living in a place like Austin or Chicago? Today we hear from our Chicago team…
We asked a handful of our Chicago employees:
What’s so great about Chicago?
Living in Chicago is the perfect balance between the East Coast and the West Coast. We have big-city living like NYC without the level of grit and grim of a famous “pizza rat.”
The rebuilding of Chicago after the Great Fire meant we got to build a new Chicago after the car was invented, which gave us alleys unlike NYC where they put all their trash on the streets. Try walking through that in the August heat. Woof.
And we’re better than the West Coast, because we’re not hindered with a laidback mentality that almost borders on too slow for the fast pace of an advertising agency.
We have the lake, so we don’t lose the coastal water vibe, and travel between East and West Coast means that our traveling isn’t too long for clients on both sides of the country. 😊
Everyone is super nice, and you can strike up a conversation in a bar with almost anyone. Drinking and making new friends in a blizzard can be pretty fun!
Plus, living costs are very manageable, where rent and homeownership are pretty idyllic. I moved back to Chicago from NYC, so I could buy a home and a dog.
Gabriel Cangiano, VP, Group Account Supervisor
Chicago’s restaurant scene is world class, with an enormous variety of great food. There also seem to be more microbreweries opening all the time, each with some interesting new beer to try.
Brett Bakshis, Copy Supervisor
Architecture. Everywhere you look there’s something spectacular, mixing history, design, color and culture. And, there’s always food. You can’t go wrong with food.
Brooke Claussen, Associate Creative Director
Living in Chicago is so great, because it has the best food, tons of different and diverse neighborhoods, the lake, great public transit (it really matters!!), museums, concerts. I’ve got a lot of enthusiasm for Chicago today, because it’s so nice out!
Julyna Moore, Associate Creative Director
Why living in Chicago is so great… one, the food. There’s always a new concept, chef or pop-up restaurant coming through Chicago! Two, the weather. Nothing beats Chicago in the summer, and how many cities can say they easily go through 10 seasons in a single day?!
Pooja Desai, Senior Account Executive
Leslie Calabrese, Assistant Account Executive
