Make No Little Plans
Michael Cady, David Lille and Andres Montana via chicagotribune.com; Title page of 1909 Plan of Chicago,
chmn.gmu.edu /Artwork: designslinger]
We posted a few weeks ago about the Chicago Architectural Club's high-speed rail hub
design competition, and the Burnham 2.0 winners were announced on Sunday. A group of 4 Chicago architects came up with the winning entry, an underground station that would sit just east of the city's Union Station Building. The proposal will most likely never be built, but in the spirit of the upcoming 100th anniversary of Daniel Burnham's plan for the city of Chicago, the Club is celebrating Burnham's dictum, "Make no small plans."
Civic Center to Lake Michigan, wikipedia.org; (Inset) Plan view of City, wright.edu; Civic Center Plaza and Buildings,
wikipedia.org /Artwork: designslinger]
The quote is attributed to Burnham as part and parcel of the 1909 Plan of Chicago.
The plan was the product of one of those great civic moments when the movers and shakers of the business community put up the funds to develop a blueprint which would serve as a guideline for the future development of their city. Published by the city's Commercial Club, the Plan was devised, organized and designed by Burnham who was the principal author, in collaboration with associate Edward H. Bennett. If the publication had accomplished nothing in the way of urban planning, it would have qualified solely as a stunning work of art. The lithographic plates alone, which were produced form original paintings by artist Jules Guerin, are breathtaking. Many architects, planners, landscape architects and urban historians consider the 1909 work the most influential document in the history of urban planning. The elected leaders of the time were so enthralled with the opus, that the Chicago City Council created the Chicago Plan Commission, and the Burnham Plan as it came to be known, still guides overall city planning to this day.
Mr Noded via flickr; Aerial view of Adler Planetarium and peninsula, scutter via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
One major portion of the Burnham scheme that never saw the light of day was the giant
civic center and City Hall building that would have sat just west of the commercial district. But two prominent components exist today as Chicago's Navy Pier, and the strip of land that ends with the Adler Planetarium building. Burnham seems to have laid out these two narrow strips of land as a way to symmetrically join together his proposed lakefront harbor. Although the arc of a large breakwater was never built, the two publicly accessible areas provide the best skyline views of the city. The construction of Millennium Park which opened in 2004, is a recent example of the fulfillment of a part of the original 1909 plan. To commemorate the publication of the Plan, and it's impact on Chicago and the worldwide planning community, there are a slew of events sponsored by the City, museums and other institutions that will be held throughout 2009. If you live in Chicago, or are just visiting, check out the exhibits that will be held at Chicago's Art Institute, or the Newberry Library, and see for yourself what Burnham had in mind when he made no little plan.
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