Daniel Burnham and Big Thinkers

by Diana Torres and Erin Aleman
11/26/08

On Thursday, November 20, the APA-CMS (American Planning Association-Chicago Metro Section) hosted an event entitled “Daniel Burnham, Big Thinkers, and the Future of the Metropolis."

Held in the spectacular Chicago Cultural Center and moderated by CMAP’s Ty Warner, this two hour presentation included the following speakers: Jan Metzger (Author of What Would Jane Say?), Brian Deal (LEAM Laboratory, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana) and John Shuler (Richard J. Daley Library, University of Illinois at Chicago). Each speaker shared reflections on what today’s social conditions and technology were available to Burnham 100 years ago. In particular, Metzger introduced the context of women’s roles in the 1900’s and emphasized the potential value to the Plan by existing female leadership during this time. Deal shared the robust visualization technology used to engaged people in the planning process. Lastly, Shuler introduced how the internet would enable Burnham to further extend himself and his ideas to the region, enabling the “textual and visual imagination” of the Plan to be disseminated.

In an effort to prepare for the 100th anniversary of Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett's 1909 Plan of Chicago next year, Emily Harris from the Chicago Metropolis 2020 and The Burnham Plan Centennial provided an overview of the events taking place in 2009; please visit their website for more information on event dates and times. In addition to finalizing details on some special events throughout next year, the Burnham Plan Centennial is also seeking program Partners.  CMAP is excited to be a Burnham Plan Centennial Partner.  Presently, we have been hosting community conversations throughout our region, however during the Centennial Celebration we will be asking you to get involved in our regional scenario selection.  Our scenario selection events, in concert with the Centennial Celebration, will encourage residents of our region to think big about the future of our region.

Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett’s Plan of Chicago looked at northeastern Illinois as being part of the Great Lakes region.  From Wisconsin to Indiana, we all share an enormous natural resource – Lake Michigan.  The Plan was very innovative for its time, it spoke to the creation of regional transportation systems of both freight and highways that would connect our region and make shipping and travel more streamlined.  Today, the road network and freight systems are a direct result of these ideas.  As we continue to grow as a region, it is vital that we think outside the box and be inspired by Burnham’s Legacy to make the GO TO 2040 Plan an innovative solution to today’s problems. That being said, we can’t write the GO TO 2040 Plan alone.  CMAP needs your help too.  Become a GO TO 2040 Partner and you will be kept in the loop about our regional planning efforts and stay abreast of how to be involved.

Thursday's events wrapped up with a presentation by Walter Magdziarz (AICP, Land Vision Inc.) who shared information about the Midewin Burnham Legacy Project, and Konstantine Savoy (AICP, Teska Associates) took us on a sneak preview of the Upper Midwest APA conference in Chicago celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Plan of Chicago, taking place September 24-26, 2009.

On the eve of the centennial of Burnham’s Plan of Chicago, CMAP looks forward to taking part in the celebration!

Urban Design after the Age of Oil (Part I)

by Stephen Ostrander
11/24/08

I recently attended a remarkable symposium at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia entitled “Re-imagining Cities: Urban Design after the Age of Oil.” The event marked the 50th anniversary of an historic conference on “urban design criticism,” also sponsored by Penn and the Rockefeller Foundation, which featured several of the most important urbanists and architects of the twentieth century, including Jane Jacobs, Louis Kahn, Ian McHarg, Lewis Mumford, and my personal hero (and Chicago native), Kevin Lynch.

Over 500 urban planners, architects, public officials, journalists, and various academics from all corners of the globe gathered “to address the role of urban design in the face of one of the most profound and important challenges facing global society: the need to re-imagine and rethink how cities are designed and organized in a future without the plentiful and abundant oil upon which prosperous urban economies have been built.” 

There was a palpable duality to the symposium, with sober acknowledgement of the daunting challenges we face tempered by optimism. With Elizabeth Kolbert, author of the chilling Field Notes from a Catastrophe, moderating the opening session, it is natural to hope for a way out (of the problem, not the symposium). But many of those assembled consider the present moment, and likely future, a “cris-atunity” (Homer Simpson’s word for a combined crisis and opportunity), with the decline of fossil fuels compelling the globe to accept the main tenets they hold. These include the rejection of sprawl in favor of redevelopment and infill, supporting and expanding public transit, and clustering development around existing transit, taking pressure off of threatened open space, green areas, and local farmland (the last being considered especially important as long-distance transport of food becomes more expensive).

But while many statements during the symposium could be put under the category “We Told You So,” speakers and participants mostly looked forward. Most of the first day was spent in breakout sessions, which explored potential solutions at different levels of analysis: regional, city, and local urban design, along with building and landscape design, and even product design and engineering. Interested in all, I dutifully attended the session focused on regional urban design, which featured planners from India and Nigeria, with a response from my former professor Timothy Beatley.

This session was most memorable for Dinesh Mohan’s impassioned, controversial assertion that underground and elevated public transit systems are unwise, because they increase automobile flow, which has the effect of encouraging more people to drive. His preference? Public transit—preferably bus rapid transit—that makes use of existing roads rather than expensive infrastructure, giving priority to transit riders provided by the inconvenience suffered by drivers (which seemed to be one of Mohan’s goals). While there is some discernable logic to Mohan’s argument, I wouldn’t expect it to influence the GO TO 2040 plan, because CMAP understands that public transit and automobile transportation are both integral to the economic health and performance of the Chicago region.

That was just the morning session. I’ll share much more with you about this epic symposium in my next blog….

Image credit: “Dongtan Eco-city, Arup”

Active Transportation Alliance

by Lindsay Banks
11.19.08

From Flickr account:  Andrew Ciscel

The Chicagoland Bicycle Federation has changed its name and its mission!  It is now the Active Transportation Alliance.  The Chicagoland Bicycle Federation has been advocating for improved bicycling conditions in our region for nearly 25 years and they are now expanding to cover more comprehensive transportation alternatives that include transit and walking. From their new website:

From Flickr account:  sterno74

The mission of Active Transportation Alliance is to make bicycling, walking and public transit so safe, convenient and fun that we will achieve a significant shift from environmentally harmful, sedentary travel to clean, active travel. We advocate for transportation that encourages and promotes safety, physical activity, health, recreation, social interaction, equity, environmental stewardship and resource conservation.

I think that this is an exciting step for our non-motorized travelers.  And perhaps by building a community that includes bicyclists and non-bicyclists alike, we can work at improving the relationships between the two!  Many of us use all modes of transportation for various purposes and in varying frequencies.  I have even taken a boat to a meeting for work once! 

Bold Ideas at Chicago Humanities Festival

by Kristin Heery
11.18.08

In an attempt to relive my college lecture hall days, I always try to attend a few events put on by the Chicago Humanities Festival each fall. This year, in the spirit of the upcoming anniversary of the Burnham Plan, the theme was “Thinking Big” and featured some amazing big thinkers.

From Flickr account: reallyboring

I first attended The Global City of the Future - a panel discussion focused on how to tackle challenges facing global cities like Chicago in the future. The presenters were leaders in re-thinking the role of cities in the future: how they will adapt to a global economy, how they will deal with new environmental concerns, how they will react to great shifts in population and resources. Although focused on cities, I couldn’t help but notice how everything was really discussed on a regional scale; I heard how our regional economy, environment, and social systems are unique here in northeastern Illinois, and how they all need to be cultivated to protect our standing in a globalizing world.

Then, as a chance to show off to my friends, I invited them to join me at the discussion sponsored by CMAP, The GO TO 2040 Plan: Bold Innovations for a Better Chicago, in which my boss, Randy Blankenhorn, was a panelist. The presenters discussed the need for regional planning, as exemplified by the potential for an inter-regional high-speed rail system. Rick Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, elucidated the benefits of implementing a high-speed rail network, stretching from Minneapolis to St. Louis to Cleveland, using Chicago as a hub. Randy didn’t disappoint either, concluding the panel with an appeal to the audience to make these regional planning goals a potential reality by participating in GO TO 2040. I even got my friends to wear their GO TO 2040 pins afterwards.

At both of these discussions, I came away with a new appreciation for what we, as a region, can learn from other cities and regions throughout the world – whether it be how northeastern Illinois’ economy is uniquely situated, or how we have the potential for a better passenger rail service than Paris. Furthermore, in both, the audience was packed, and asked multiple questions, and revealed how much our residents really care about these issues, and how much they are invested in our future.

Great Lakes Ecosystem Threatened 

by Lindsay Banks 
11.13.08

In 1892, under the supervision of Rudolph Hering—the water system engineer for Chicago—workers began digging the Sanitary and Ship Canal to connect the Chicago River to the Des Plaines River (Chicagoist.com). This engineering effort took eight years to complete and successfully reversed the flow of the river to take sewage waste away from Lake Michigan, and our water supply. 

The Alliance for the Great Lakes recently released a report concluding that this century-old canal could soon become a conduit for a particularly damaging invasive species.  The Asian carp has already firmly established itself in the midwest; it is a filter-feeding fish that can grow up to 100 lbs and 4 feet long, and can eat 20 percent of its body weight in plankton daily.  If introduced in the Great Lakes, it would compromise the integrity of the ecosystem and could quickly lead to the collapse of our region’s fishing industry (Chicago Tribune).  The fish also threaten recreational activity because they jump out of the water when motor boats pass, and can cause damage to unsuspecting boaters.  Electric barriers were installed two and a half years ago to keep the fish out of Lake Michigan, but the Alliance argues that they are not enough for a long-term solution.  Additionally, federal officials will not permanently activate the barriers for satefy concerns. 

According to the study (2 MB PDF), the Asian carp is within 50 miles of Lake Michigan—a two day swim for the jumping fish.  Advocacy groups are asking the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corp of Engineers to conduct further studies, and act now before these invasive species cause irreversible damage. 

CMAP staff is nearing completion of a strategy paper on Ecosystem Restoration, and we will post a link as soon as it is finished!

Poster from Great-Lakes.org 
More information on the Asian Carp: 2004 USGS document

Posted by: Administrator on 12/02/2009

CMAP & the Traffic Expo

by Erin Aleman & Diana Torres
11.7.08

The Traffic Control Corporation held its Traffic Management Expo on Thursday and Friday (November 6-7) at the Medinah Shrine Center in Addison, IL. This Expo provided the opportunity for various vendors to display and exhibit traffic products including vehicle and pedestrian signals, telecommunications systems, traffic signal controllers, and other technical demonstrations. In addition, the Expo held a series of seminars, including speakers from the Office of Emergency Management and Communication, Atlantic Scientific Corp, and the Federal Highway Administration.

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s booth provided information on the GO TO 2040 Plan and Community and Technical Assistance Programs, as well as important information about the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). Anyone can learn more about these federally funded transportation projects and regionally significant projects that do not use federal funds by using the interactive map developed by CMAP. This will help the public understand what projects are underway, and how their tax dollars are being spent and requires no special software—only internet access.

In addition, CMAP was able to share copies of the recent publication of the Regional Indicators Project. CMAP staff compiled the results (PDF 2.5 MB) of various meetings throughout the region to identify key indicators. The overall purpose of the Regional Indicators Project is to track progress toward achieving the GO TO 2040 Regional Vision and these indicators are divided into the major themes identified in the Regional Vision. The final product of the Regional Indicators Project will consist of about 180 key indicators used for tracking purposes.

CMAP also held a seminar session on CMAP and the GO TO 2040 Plan where Erin Aleman discussed some of the reasons why it is important for CMAP to plan for a better future. For instance, did you know that residents of our region spend approximately 253 million hours a year in traffic delays due to congestion? If that doesn’t say that we need to find a better way to get around in our region I don’t know what else does. It is vital that we work together as a region to develop solutions to our problems so that northeastern Illinois can continue to be competitive in a global-marketplace.

For a full list of vendors at this Traffic Management Expo 2008, click here (PDF 836 KB).

Think Big: Chicago Humanities Festival 

by Tom Garritano
11.6.08

Now in its 19^th year, the Chicago Humanities festival has something for just about everyone. It's held each November, billed as "A Festival of Ideas" featuring policy makers, artists, scholars, and other experts who share their ideas and talents with the public in events at cultural institutions across the city.

This year the theme is "Think Big," as a prelude to next year's Burnham Centennial. The festival program's breadth is impressive, with dozens of events that include panel discussions, talks and readings by noted authors, and musical performances.

This Saturday, CMAP Board member Al Larson (mayor of Schaumburg) and CMAP executive director Randy Blankenhorn will lead a panel titled The GO TO 2040 Plan: Bold Innovations for a Better Chicago.  Other panelists include transportation expert Andy Plummer, who knows as much as anyone about the history of our local transportation system.  Kevin Brubaker of the Environmental Law and Policy Center will talk about environmental benefits of transportation system improvements, including the potential for high-speed rail.  And Rick Harnish of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association will describe the new momentum behind Federal support for interstate rail, including initiatives in California and here in the midwest.

The panel discussion will be framed by CMAP's GO TO 2040, the first truly comprehensive plan for metropolitan Chicago, which will guide development and investment for the 21^st century. Admission is $5.00. Here are the details:

Saturday, November 8, 2008
10:00 to 11:30 a.m.

Chicago History Museum, Auditorium
1601 N. Clark St.
Map & Directions 

Thanks to local blogger SansCar, who wrote about our session earlier this week.

Also that same day at the Chicago History Museum, the festival will unveil an exhibit with top entries from the Chicago Architectural Club's biennial Burnham Prize international design competition, emphasizing the use of high-speed rail. Admission is free, and the exhibit will remain through January 19, 2009.

We encourage you to attend this session and exhibition tomorrow, and as many others as you can see throughout the festival.

Posted by: Administrator on 11/09/2008

Posted by: Administrator on 11/10/2008