Since apartments contribute $3B/day to the US economy, we figured they're probably worth featuring at an eventthis Thursday. We've searched high and low for the savviest multifamily connoisseurs in Chicago and are thrilled to have Jenner & Block partner Michelle McAtee as moderator. She offers a full-service real estate practice at Jenner, working on "just a little bit of everything," she tells us. A recent notable deal: ground leasing the Clark and Hubbard site on which the AMLI River North project is being developed. When Michelle isn't drawing up docs for the city's hottest new multifamily projects, "every day is a trip" with her 4-year-old son and 18-month-old daughter.

HOK senior project designer David Genc will deliver opening remarks. He spoke to us while in Mumbai working on a 33-acre mixed-use project. India's residential design is much farther ahead by necessity, mixing Western values with a more humane approach to building community, he says. His years of developing efficient, elegant, and cost-effective residential towers in Chicago can only be applied with a complete brain rewiring. Picture this: a destination neighborhood with apartment towers, retail, a central temple, a school, grocery stores, and commercial office space. Apartments in India have three to four times the amount of perimeter, like "stacking single family ranch homes up in the sky," David says. (Natural light and cross ventilation? We apartment dwellers forgot what that feels like.)