1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910955400303321

Autore

Smith Carl S

Titolo

The Plan of Chicago : Daniel Burnham and the remaking of the American city / / Carl Smith

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, 2006

ISBN

9786612240065

9781282240063

1282240064

9780226764733

0226764737

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (203 p.)

Collana

Chicago visions and revisions

Classificazione

HIS000000HIS036010HIS036060

Disciplina

711/.40977311

Soggetti

City planning - Illinois - Chicago - History - 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 169-173) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Planning before the plan. -- Antecedents and inspirations. -- The city the planners saw. -- The plan comes together. -- Creating the plan. -- Reading the plan. -- Promotion. -- Implementation. -- Heritage.

Sommario/riassunto

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.