The Burnham Plan Centennial - Bold Plans, Big Dreams

Calendar & Projects

ALL CALENDAR ITEMS ARE FROM 2009. PLEASE CHECK WITH PROGRAM PARTNERS FOR CURRENT COSTS AND DATES.

The Plan of Chicago

Professor Carl Smith, Franklyn Bliss Snyder Professor of English & American Studies Studies in American Culture will teach “The Plan of Chicago” in spring quarter, 2009.

The Plan of Chicago, whose centennial will be observed in 2009, is often called the Burnham Plan, after its principal author, leading architect Daniel Burnham (who lived in Evanston and whose firm designed several Evanston buildings, including Fisk Hall, as well as major buildings in Chicago and other American cities). Inspired by his triumphant success as director of construction of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, Burnham became a founder of modern American city planning, including proposals for Washington, Cleveland, and San Francisco, as well as Manila.

The culmination of his career as a city planner was his work, with several other prominent Chicagoans, on the Plan of Chicago. Arguably the most influential document in the history of American urban planning, the Plan is the result of exhaustive thinking and extensive discussion. Published as a book, it is full of stirring prose and magnificent illustrations. It proposed many of the city's most distinctive features, including its lakefront parks and roadways, the Magnificent Mile, and Navy Pier. It established the concept of comprehensive city planning in the United States and encouraged the re-conceptualization of urban life itself.


Program Partner

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private institution founded in 1851 to serve the Northwest Territory, an area that now includes the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. Today,  the university combines innovative teaching and pioneering research ...[MORE]


Northwestern University

The Burnham Plan Centennial
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