mecca

23:56 Jul 22, 2009 

in your case I would translate : 'Chicago is the capital of architecture'
but I point out that 'mecca' in Italian is 'the best place on earth' about the topic you're speaking of. I'm pretty sure that 'capital of arch' would fix.
In other cases I would have filled other words though...

10:22 Jul 16, 2009 

All of these suggestions are interesting, but currently I'm thinking Giles and meg are on the right track....I'm still thinking. It would be useful to solve this one because "Mecca" does seem to crop up quite a bit in Italian things I'm asked to translate.

10:20 Jul 16, 2009 

The term "Mecca" has taken on a wider meaning in everyday speech; it is no longer taken as meaning purely a religious destination. I very much doubt a Muslim architect visiting Chicago would to take offence. And as for g-spot... since these are all suggestions given in response to the help you asked for... don't bite the hand that feeds...

10:13 Jul 16, 2009 

no-one has suggested g-spot yet.

10:11 Jul 16, 2009 

.. of which there are many great ones...

10:09 Jul 16, 2009 

is to ask a muslim architect :)

10:04 Jul 16, 2009 

we live in a funny old world

10:04 Jul 16, 2009 

the ultimate destination perhaps...although I tend to agree with Will that mecca is not offensive

10:03 Jul 16, 2009 

someone said they don't think it would be offensive to call Chicago "the mecca" -

It would, if you're a Muslim architect visiting Chicago.

10:03 Jul 16, 2009 

what about the "hub"?

10:02 Jul 16, 2009 

something that equates to a pilgrimage destination, but which is one word and doesn't have religious overtones.....

10:01 Jul 16, 2009 

As a native Chicagoan, I may be just a tiny bit biased here, but I don't think it would be offensive to call Chicago "the mecca" (small 'm') of modern architecture and design. Ever since reconstruction of the city following the Great Fire of 1871, Chicago has always attracted the best and brightest architects and has become something of a "sacred" place, where architects who have designed a major building in the city are considered to be the members of a pantheon of sorts. My Webster's unabridged dictionary defines 'mecca' as: "a place regarded as the centre of an activity or interest or as the goal of its practitioners or connoisseurs".

09:52 Jul 16, 2009 

do you want "mecca" interpreted/translated as a pilgrimage destination?

09:46 Jul 16, 2009 

... "and don't go mistakin' paradise for that home across the road" (Bob Dylan, "Frankie Lee and Judas Priest").

Anyway, Mecca is a pilgrimage destination, not Paradise.

09:40 Jul 16, 2009 

Chicago è la mecca dell’architettura e del design

09:39 Jul 16, 2009 

some context would help....