The Plan of Chicago by Carl Smith, Paperback, 9780226764726 | Buy online at The Nile
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The Plan of Chicago

Daniel Burnham and the Remaking of the American City

Author: Carl Smith   Series: Chicago Visions and Revisions

Paperback

A document in the history of urban planning, Daniel Burnham's "1909 Plan of Chicago", produced in collaboration with the Commercial Club of Chicago, proposed many of the city's most distinctive features. This title reveals the Plan's central role in shaping the ways people envision the cityscape and urban life itself.

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Summary

A document in the history of urban planning, Daniel Burnham's "1909 Plan of Chicago", produced in collaboration with the Commercial Club of Chicago, proposed many of the city's most distinctive features. This title reveals the Plan's central role in shaping the ways people envision the cityscape and urban life itself.

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Description

Arguably the most influential document in the history of urban planning, Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago, coauthored by Edward Bennett and produced in collaboration with the Commercial Club of Chicago, proposed many of the city’s most distinctive features, including its lakefront parks and roadways, the Magnificent Mile, and Navy Pier. Carl Smith’s fascinating history reveals the Plan’s central role in shaping the ways people envision the cityscape and urban life itself. 

Smith’s concise and accessible narrative begins with a survey of Chicago’s stunning rise from a tiny frontier settlement to the nation’s second-largest city. He then offers an illuminating exploration of the Plan’s creation and reveals how it embodies the renowned architect’s belief that cities can and must be remade for the better. The Plan defined the City Beautiful movement and was the first comprehensive attempt to reimagine a major American city. Smith points out the ways the Plan continues to influence debates, even a century after its publication, about how to create a vibrant and habitable urban environment. 

Richly illustrated and incisively written, his insightful book will be indispensable to our understanding of Chicago, Daniel Burnham, and the emergence of the modern city.

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Critic Reviews

“"This well-written book on the 1909 Plan of Chicago , 'The Burnham Plan,' excellently summarizes numerous publications about the plan and its influence on Chicago's development."-J.W. Stamper, CHOICE”

"An imaginative, beautifully produced, and visually appealing masterpiece of stirring prose and stunning illustration.... Carl Smith's book is a concise, splendidly accessible, and beautifully constructed introduction to a seminal work of American urban planning and its enduring influence on Chicago and other American cities." - William Bryk, New York Sun "A concise and reader-friendly introduction to the visionary and ambitious plan that helped shape much of the Windy City as we know it today." - Kevin Nance, Chicago Sun-Times "The story of Burnham's plan has been told many times but never in a more appealing or succinct style than in Carl Smith's modest little book.... What sets this book apart from other Burnham histories is Smith's attention to the filthy, miserable, nineteenth-century city that repelled and motivated Burnham, and the extraordinary promotional effort led by the Commercial Club of Chicago that sold his plan to the public.... A clear-eyed assessment of Burnham." - Lois Wille, Chicago Tribune"

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About the Author

Carl Smith is the Franklyn Bliss Snyder Professor of English and American Studies and professor of history at Northwestern University. He is the author of Chicago and the American Literary Imagination, 1880-1920, and Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief, both published by the University of Chicago Press.

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Product Details

Publisher
The University of Chicago Press | University of Chicago Press
Published
1st August 2007
Pages
202
ISBN
9780226764726

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