by Daniel H. Burnham V
7/30/09

The summer debut of GO TO 2040 has been making waves throughout the city even in its as-yet unfinished state. For me, it has been akin to watching an engine in motion: diverse belts, gears, and pistons coming together into a single flurry of activity directed toward a common end. As the residents of the Chicago region voice their opinions online and in workshops led by CMAP planners, it becomes clear that the metropolis is headed toward a new urban model, much as it was a century ago with the Burnham and Bennett Plan in 1909. Such comparisons are perhaps inevitable, though from our perspective at CMAP such a position can be a daunting one, carrying with it a much responsibility.

It is probably no coincidence, however, that the summer of the Burnham Plan Centennial has brought with it a republication of the 1909 Plan by the Great Books Foundation, available in a commemorative cloth binding as well as paperback for the very first time. The new edition includes high-resolution imagery of Jules Guerin’s watercolor renderings of Chicago as well as Burnham and Bennett’s numerous diagrams and photographs in color and sepia, respectively. While my old 1993 Princeton edition of the Plan still carries with it an air of quiet dignity, it is to be hoped that this modern reprint will revive the spirit of the 1909 Plan not only for those of us involved in city planning but for the residents of Chicago itself.

Thus, as a prelude to this autumn’s One Book, One Chicago and next year’s completion of the GO TO 2040 plan, take the opportunity to explore Chicago’s urban past in crisp clarity and sharp detail with the Plan of Chicago: Centennial Edition, and then have your say in its future alongside CMAP and your fellow citizens.

by Daniel H. Burnham V
7/10/09

It is untenable to suppose that a successful urban plan will never be put into practice. In the case of a city design, success is contingent upon implementation and subsequent usage, regardless of how glittering and significant the metropolis promises to be on paper. While the planner may flirt with various artistic principles in his or her work, the design cannot exist in a vacuum; there is inevitably a practical application in store for the finished product.

While Chicagoans cool their heels until October awaiting the result of their 2016 Olympic bid and weather the fierce budgetary storm enveloping the state of Illinois, a certain pall hangs over the region with regards to new developmental projects. Indeed, the present economic climate is unsuitable for building new communities and structures in the unfettered and freewheeling manner to which we have become accustomed in recent years. However, such temporal concerns must not obstruct Chicago’s urban evolution.

While Darwinism is perhaps too strong a term, cities that are unwilling to reinvent themselves from time to time are doomed to periods of stagnation. Chicago did so beginning with the 1893 Columbian Exposition and continuing with the 1909 Burnham & Bennett Plan of Chicago, putting its history of stockyards and steel mills behind it to raise itself up as a modern city on the world stage. The election of President Obama and the Olympic bid have already done much to lend Chicago a global prestige over the last several months, and in the 20th century Chicago was a flagship of successful urban growth and development. Either Chicago’s bright torch will shine upon the ideal 21st century metropolis, or it must be passed on.

It is oddly symmetric that Shanghai is hosting the 2010 World Exposition; a direct descendent of the 1893 and 1933 World’s Fairs in Chicago, the Chinese have chosen “Better City – Better Life” as the theme of the event. Shanghai is a city that serves as a gateway between the cultures of East and West, much as Chicago once did for the two halves of the United States in the 19th century. Following the successful Olympic Games in Beijing last August, Shanghai is the beneficiary of considerably urban renewal and public works projects, much as CMAP hopes to accomplish for Chicago with the GOTO 2040 plan in the coming years.

Who is setting the example for whom? If we are to rise to meet such challenges in the spirit of friendly competition, Chicago must not be daunted by the gurgling economic mire or compromise with mediocrity and the urban forms of the past. That is the duty before us, to craft such a city as to lead by example toward the ideals of better cities, better life, and a better future.

Bean in Color (photo by Flickr user jake.merten)

I confess that I am not a city-dweller save by circumstance. Perhaps in my case the adage rings true that “you cannot take the country out of the boy,” no matter where he may choose to take residence. This seems an apt assessment, as I am still giddy at the prospect of spending my weekdays swaying with the breeze inside of the 1,451 foot tall pillar of elastic steel and glass better known as the Willis (née Sears) Tower.

Consequently, as I dodge taxi cabs on the pavement and duck when the train passes overhead, one examines the forces that underlie the chaotic veneer of the city’s streets. The physical boundaries of Chicago possess a subtle counterpart, which Daniel Burnham defined as follows in the 1909 Plan of Chicago:

This spirit — the spirit of Chicago — is our greatest asset. It is not merely civic pride: it is rather the constant, steady determination to bring about the very best conditions of city life for all the people, with full knowledge that what we as a people decide to do in the public interest we can and surely will bring to pass.

Of the many bold claims advanced by the 1909 Plan of Chicago, this to me is among the foremost. I wonder: are all Chicagoans citizen crusaders? Inductive premises aside, Burnham conjectures that the “spirit” of Chicago is a necessary condition for achieving greatness, bound by cords of civic vitality that extend beyond the edges of a single household or township. More than the sum of their parts, in Burnham’s view it is the people’s prerogative to ensure that good ideas and solid planning come to pass. 

As a newcomer to the metropolis, it is difficult to look beyond the alloyed peaks of skyscrapers and the graded asphalt valleys between them to perceive the human hands that made and support this urban façade. The city is by nature a cooperative ecosystem; humans working together to achieve something otherwise impossible. If you do not believe me, look around you—but do not let your gaze linger overlong on the glittering towers and green lakefront—for 2009 is not the year to rest on our laurels. There is much left to be done in Chicago, and it lies with each of us to see it through.

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Buckingham Fountain (Grant Park, Chicago) (Courtesy of B. András Photography)

The ideal nature of a modern city is inevitably the subject of much debate -- as a physical space, the city serves as a center of industry and commerce, providing millions of residents their livelihood and shelter. Yet the sheer scale and weight of America’s leading metropolises, due in no small way to the inescapable majesty of a jagged skyline rising over the landscape, places them equally in the vanguard of social responsibility. A city that defends its citizens’ right to achieve affluence and well-being will prosper in turn, as it is built upon its residents and their beliefs just as it is upon bricks and mortar.

One logical consequence of these points is that planning a city transcends the arrangement of streets on grids and buildings in rows efficacious to aesthetic and commercial principles. A city plan must not only provide the concrete design, but it must synthesize within it the civic needs of its inhabitants and project those requirements into the future.

In the midst of the Burnham Plan Centennial, Chicago faces obstacles that are of kin but not kind to those envisioned by its planners a century ago. It is our present occupation at CMAP to consider these issues at length as the GOTO 2040 plan matures; yet this week, as the Centennial prepares to enter into full effect on June 19th with the unveiling of the BurnhamPavilions in Millennium Park, the time seems ripe to mention an invaluable resource for readers who are interested in learning more about the 1909 Burnham & Bennett Plan of Chicago.

The Art Institute of Chicago’s online exhibition gallery, Without Bounds or Limits, highlights part of the Institute’s impressive collection of historical documents and architectural renderings related to the 1909 Plan. Of the many high-quality scans and images available, I would particularly commend to your attention Daniel Burnham’s original handwritten drafts of the plan, which the noted architectural historian Kristen Schaffer has put forward as an indication that Burnham originally meant for the Plan to include a variety of social services for Chicago residents that were not realized in the final document.

Reflect as you browse the exhibit that plans inevitably change as they are written and put into practice. As such, it goes without saying that I and my fellows at CMAP suggest that you ponder what improvements would help the Chicago metropolitan area fulfill its role as a great American city in the decades to come and let us know your thoughts on the GOTO 2040 plan as it nears completion next year. While this week may belong to Burnham, the next 30 years are yours alone.

I hope that the reader will not be disappointed when I say that it is not my place to dwell on bygone things here at CMAP. Though the locomotive was instrumental in raising Chicago to prominence on the world stage, I will not reminisce about the golden age of rail travel or the legions of freight cars that once stoked the fires of Chicago industry, for there is enough prose elsewhere to do them considerable justice. Though long-distance train travel is uncommon in contemporary America as trains today are increasingly geared towards commuters, it will suffice to say for our purposes that a century ago, Chicago was synonymous with the railway and an urban plan that did not include a comprehensive scheme for moving train traffic effectively though the city was quite unthinkable.

Thus, in the spirit of GOTO 2040 let us cast our gaze forward with Union Station 2020, a mock scenario presented by the Chicago Architectural Club conjecturing that the Chicago metropolitan region will be at the center of an extensive high-speed rail network in just over a decade. Late last year, the club offered a $10,000 prize for the best design reinventing Chicago’s own Union Station as a cutting edge high-speed regional transit hub and civic landmark. You can view the renderings of the competition entries online, and judge for yourself whether the club’s professed aim of having the present Union Station “transformed to accommodate and generate a new combination of activities while welcoming an unprecedented level of rail traffic” can indeed be realized.

While a network of high-speed trains connecting major cities in the Midwest and beyond would fundamentally change the movement of persons and goods from place to place, I would invite readers to discuss the questions posed in the description of the Union Station 2020 project. Would you agree that a building such as the proposed Union Station designs can evolve over time into something beyond mere infrastructure? 

Daniel H. Burnham V is the Communications Intern at CMAP and will be blogging regularly about Chicago and GO TO 2040 throughout the summer.