A nice to have, would be the ability to span the map across the two columns so that it takes up to whole top of the page. The two columns would then line up below it.
---Acctually a better way to do it would be to have 2 rows of columns. Each row could have their own width properties. That way if I wanted anything, not just the the map, that had a wider width requirement, I could squeeze narrower columns under it on the second row and not have the wasted whitespace sticking out like a sore thumb.