BURNHAM, DANIEL HUDSON

Daniel H. Burnham (1846–1912), one of America's most important architects, helped to rebuild Chicago after the Chicago Fire of 1871. Burnham made important contributions to the development of the skyscraper. Long after his death, his visionary ideas about urban and regional planning remained influential as a way to accommodate work, home, and recreation in close proximity to each other. His 1909 plan to transform Chicago into a beautiful, functional city was the first comprehensive urban plan in the United States.

Daniel Burnham was born near New York City on September 4, 1846. His family moved to Chicago when he was nine. He graduated from a public high school in Chicago but failed to obtain admission to college. In his early adulthood, Burnham worked as retail clerk, mined for gold in Nevada, and ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Illinois State Senate. Still in his early twenties, Burnham was accepted as an apprentice by a leading Chicago architect, William Le Baron Jenney.

In 1872 Burnham, age twenty-six, moved to the firm of Carter, Drake, and Wight, where he worked as a draftsman. A year later he went into partnership with a fellow draftsman at the firm, John Wellborn Root. The partnership turned out to be a profitable one. Root was creative and versatile; Burnham, practical and businesslike, was a superb administrator. They prospered after the Great Chicago Fire, which decimated downtown Chicago. Between 1873 and 1891 the firm designed 165 private residences and 75 buildings of various types.

Most of these buildings were European in influence: their exterior decorations echoed ancient Greek and Roman monuments. In 1891 Burnham and Root adapted modern techniques to meet the demand for more centralized office space in Chicago. Three of their buildings have been designated landmarks. The Rookery (1886) and the Reliance Building (1890) both used a skeleton frame construction. The sixteen-story Monadnock building (1891) was the last and tallest American masonry skyscraper.

In 1893, two years after the death of his partner, Burnham became chief of construction and chief consulting architect for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Burnham teamed with architectural firms from all over the eastern United States to create an eclectic "White City"—a community of buildings and landscapes that combined boulevards, gardens and classical facades. The Colombian Exposition was a triumph and it made Burnham famous. That year he received honorary architectural degrees from Harvard and Yale Universities, and he was elected president of the American Institute of Architects.

The "White City" became the nucleus of Burnham's 1909 plan to transform Chicago into a beautiful city. Critics have said that Burnham ignored the social side of urban planning in his zeal for a visually attractive and smoothly functioning city. He was also accused of failing to realize that boulevards lined with offices would be deserted at night. Despite these criticisms, much of his great plan was put into effect. Some $300 million worth of architectural projects were built before the Great Depression called it to a halt in the 1930s.

Burnham was also faulted for trying to make Chicago into another Paris, France. The neoclassical architecture, broad avenues, and public gardens he favored echoed those of the French capital. Famed Chicago architect Louis Sullivan (1856–1924) was said to have complained that Burnham's designs set American architecture back by 50 years. Notwithstanding these attacks, many of Burnham's ideas have stood the test of time and influenced city planners across the country.

One great legacy was Burnham's vision of making the Lake Michigan lakefront a recreational resource. His plan proposed the creation of a string of landfill islands and peninsulas, which would provide protection against natural erosion and storms and would also be an attractive site for pleasure boating, picnics, and other outdoor activities. Although only one island was built, the Lincoln Park shoreline was extended with five miles of landfill. Legacies of Burnham's plan also included Lakeshore Drive and Grant Park. A ring of forest preserves surrounding the city provided the greenbelt that Burnham anticipated in 1907, long before the waves of population growth in the twentieth century transformed the city.

In 1923 Burnham's recommendation for a complex of railroad stations west of the Loop (the historic center of the city) resulted in the construction of Union Station. In addition, Chicago's expressway system followed Burnham's plan for regional highways, though he could not have anticipated the effect of the automobile on American cities.

Burnham was asked to serve as a planning consultant by many other major American cities, including San Francisco, Detroit, and Cleveland. In 1905 he was consulted by then-Secretary of War William Howard Taft (1857–1930) for advice on a plan to rebuild and modernize Manila in the Philippines. In addition to his work as an urban planner, by the time of his death in 1912 Burnham was responsible for the design of several important buildings, including the Flatiron Building, New York (1901); Union Station, Washington, D.C. (1909); and Filene's Store, Boston (1912). Each of these buildings had a lasting influence on the twentieth century cityscape, and through them, Daniel Burnham's vision endures.

See also: Chicago Fire of 1871, Reinforced Concrete

FURTHER READING

Hines, Thomas S. Burnham of Chicago: Architect and Planner. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.

Hitchcock, Henry R. Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 4th ed. New York: Penguin Books, 1977.

Hoffman, Donald. The Architecture of John Root. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973.

Moore, Charles. Daniel H. Burnham, Architect, Planner of Cities. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1921.

Reps, John W. The Making of Urban America: A History of City Planning in the United States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965.