Burnham Plan

The Burnham Plan is an essay, principally authored by Daniel Burnham in 1909, entitled The Plan of Chicago. The essay was written in response to a request by the city's social and business upper crust for a detailed city plan. The Plan of Chicago was initially a project begun by the Merchants Club in 1906 [original meeting minutes: [http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/10734.html] ] and that was continued by the Commercial Club of Chicago, who published the entire plan in 1909. It proposed the moral up-building and physical beautification of Chicago. Burnham took charge of this project after being commissioned by the Merchants Club. Foremost among the project's goals was reclaiming the lakefront for the public and increasing the park areas and public playgrounds. As a result of this project, Chicago precluded waterfront industrialization. [Chicago did annex some lakefront industry at the mouth of the Calumet River bordering Indiana when the Old Hyde Park Township was annexed in 1889. Both U.S. Steel South Works (1881-1986) and the much smaller Youngstown Steel Iroquois Works (1890-1967) no longer operate. In 1908 U.S. Steel built U.S. Steel Gary Works, which by 1920 was the largest steel plant in the country, across the border in Gary, IN.] Thus, today, Chicago's Lake Michigan lakefront is Park District land composed of beaches, harbors, nature preserves, and marinas.

Although the Plan of Chicago is popularly referred to as the Burnham Plan, the plan also was nicknamed 'Paris on the Prairie', since it included an extensive parks system and broad roadways reminiscent of the French Baroque tradition favored for nineteenth-century Paris. Some say this plan was an outgrowth of reconstructive planning after the Great Chicago Fire. However, this plan came to pass over a generation later. The commission for the city plan came at about the same time that Aaron Montgomery Ward put forth his 1906 campaign to preserve Grant Park as a public park. Burnham's plan was more extensive than a network of parks and forest preserves along the Lake Michigan lakefront. The Burnham Plan, like other contemporaneous plans, failed to comprehend the impact automobiles would have on American cities and their suburbs. However, it was the first to recognize a Chicago metropolitan area extending into southern Wisconsin and northwestern Indiana. In addition to parks, Burnham detailed plans for a civic center that has become the Loop, as well as the region's future highway system. The plan is socially conscious and instructive.

This plan was enacted by the executive and legislative branches of Chicago government. On July 6, 1909, the City Council of Chicago granted Mayor Fred A. Busse permission to appoint the Chicago Plan Commission. On November 1, 1909, the City Council approved Mayor Busse's appointment of the 328 men selected as members of the Commission - men broadly representative of all the business and social interests of the city. Charles H. Wacker was appointed permanent chairman by the Mayor. The plan continues to guide Chicago government through descendant governing bodies. Its influence can be seen in the development of Millennium Park, Navy Pier, and the reclamation of Meigs Field.

External links

*Encyclopedia of Chicago Entries [http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/10537.html 1] [http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/191.html 2] [http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/973.html 3]
* [http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/timeline/plan.html Chicago Public Library Page]

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