basketball, and the WNBA's Chicago Sky. The new arena boasts 22 suites, 479 club seats, and 2 VIP lounges. The arena is also equipped to host concerts, sporting events, meetings, and conventions in conjunction with the rest of the McCormick Place complex. Sporting events such as gymnastics and volleyball are also held in the McCormick Place buildings in addition to the arena. Archival materials are held by the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago. The McCormick Place on the Lake 1971 Collection includes photographs, drawings and project files documenting its construction. South of the center is McCormick Place Bird Sanctuary, created in 2003. The northern end includes a recreated prairie, covering the roof of the center's underground carpark, and so requiring the use of shallow-rooted plants. Public transit The Metra Electric Line stops at a station in the basement of McCormick Place. The South Shore Line also stops at the same station on weekends. The Chicago Transit Authority serves the facility with its Cermak–McCormick Place station on the Green Line, approximately mile west, and two bus routes. Busway The McCormick Place Busway runs from Lower Randolph between Michigan and Columbus in downtown Chicago to the center. It uses the lower levels of the multilevel streets near downtown, and surfaces to follow the Metra Electric District right-of-way to outside the South Building of McCormick Place. Opened in 2002 at a cost of $43 million, it is meant to provide a true and unencumbered expressway for visitors to move between downtown hotels and the convention center, but is also used by buses for Soldier Field events, public safety workers, Metra, convention contractors, and Art Institute deliveries, along with providing a secure route for national and international government officials to utilize between the two points. It is not necessarily restricted only to buses, despite its name. It is also known as the "Mayor's Road" (as it runs to Maggie Daley Park, which was named in memoriam for mayor Richard M. Daley's wife), the "Bat Cave", the "Magic Road" and a "secret road". Road use is administered by the Chicago OEMC (Office of Emergency Management and Communications), and regular users are granted access cards. The convention center advertises the road as a benefit to potential customers. Gallery See also Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority List of convention centers in the United States References External links McCormick Place Metropolitan Pier and