Daniel Burnham – The

White City
By Brajesh Bathri, Hussain Fakhri
Overview
• Daniel Burnham was a successful Chicago
architect, he was selected as Director of
Works for the 1892–93 World's Columbian
Exposition, colloquially referred to as "The
White City".
• He had prominent roles in the creation of
master plans for the development of a
number of cities, including the Plan of
Chicago, and plans for Manila, Baguio and
downtown Washington, D.C..
Top- Ar. Daniel Burnham
Bottom- Burnham and Bennett’s Plan of San Fransisco
 The White City
• The World Columbian Exposition was located in Jackson Park and on the Midway Plaisance in the neighborhoods
of South Shore, Jackson Park Highlands, Hyde Park, and Woodlawn.
• The Color Of The Material Generally Used To Cover The Buildings' Façades (White Staff) Gave The Fairgrounds Its
Nickname, The White City.
• The layout of the Chicago Columbian Exposition was, in large part, designed by John Wellborn Root, Daniel
Burnham, Frederick Law Olmsted and Charles B. Atwood
• Site Coverage: 690 acres (2.8 km2).
• Nearly 200 new (but deliberately temporary) buildings
of predominantly neoclassical
architecture, canals and lagoons, and people and
cultures from 46 countries.
• Attendance: 27 million people attended the exposition
during its 6 month run.
• Cost: $27,245,566 (over $534 million in today’s money)
• Electric Lighting: over 138,000 lights
• Bathrooms: 3000 (1500 of which charged a nickel)
• Two water plants, pumping out 64,000,000 gallons of water a day
• Its scale and grandeur far exceeded the other world's fairs, and it became a symbol of the emerging American
Exceptionalism
• Orderly arrangement of public extensive grounds and buildings.
 The Midway Plaisance
• This Midway entrance was one
mile west of Jackson Park.
• The mile long Midway
Plaisance, ran from the eastern
edge of Washington Park on
Cottage Grove Avenue, to the
western edge of Jackson Park
on Stony Island Avenue.

The Electricity Building

• The international exposition
was held in a building which
was devoted to electrical
exhibits.
• Constructed into fruition for a
cost of $410,000.

Terminal Rail Road

• Transportation by rail was the
major mode of transportation.
• 26 tracks train station was built
at the South West corner of the
fair.
• While trains from around the
country would unload there,
there was a local train to shuttle
tourists from the Chicago Grand
Central Station to the fair.
 Transportation Building
This structure was remarkable in
the group of greater buildings
through the fact that it was
painted with various colors,
mainly red while the other
enclosures were white.

Agricultural Building
White designed the sprawling
edifice, which was 800 feet long
and 500 feet wide, occupying
approximately 10 acres in the
southeast corner of the
fairgrounds

The Great Wharf

Moving Sidewalk, it allowed people

to walk along or ride in seats
 Palace of Fine Arts
This building, which is expressly
devoted to the exhibit of fine arts,
painting, sculpture and statuary,
is divided into four great courts
known as the north, south, east
and west courts.

Manufactures and Liberal

Arts Building
If this building were standing today,
it would rank second in volume and
third in footprint on list of largest
building(130,000m2, 8,500,000m3)

Wooden Island
The naturalistic setting of Wooded
Isle, designed by landscape
architect Frederick Law Olmsted.
Fairgoers retreated to the island
for relaxation on its shaded trails.
Plan of Chicago
• The 1909 Plan of Chicago
recommended an integrated
series of projects including new
and widened streets, parks, new
railroad and harbor facilities, and
civic buildings.
• It was co-authored by Daniel
Burnham and Edward H. Bennett.
• Though only portions of the plan
were realized, the document
reshaped Chicago's central area
and was an important influence
on the new field of city planning.
Origin
• Chicago was and still is today a center of
industry and traffic.
• This resulted in enormous urban growth
and thus, overcrowding and congestion of
traffic were to be prevented.
• It was realized that rather than calling for
large expenditures a well ordered plan
would result in accelerated civic
development and great saving.
• The origin of the Plan of Chicago can be
directly traced back to the World Fair of
1893 which featured the orderly
arrangement of extensive public grounds
and buildings. Woodcut of Chicago in 1834
 N

Above –Population densities in Chicago in early 1900s

Right –Proposed city limits
Aspects of The Plan
It focused on six major elements: -
• Improvement of the lakefront
• A regional highway system
• Improvement of railway terminals
• New outer parks
• Systematic arrangement of streets
• Civic and cultural centers

Bird’s-eye View of Chicago in early 20th Century

Lakefront
• Foremost among the plan's goals was
reclaiming the lakefront for the public. N

• The plan recommended expanding the

parks along the Lake Michigan shoreline
with landfill.
• The plan also provided for extensive
lakefront harbor facilities.

Plans for Lakefront development

Regional Highway
• The plan considered Chicago as the
center of a region extending 120 km from
the city centre.
• At the dawn of the automobile age, the
plan diagramed both radial and
circumferential highways for the region.

Plan of Central Chicago N

Railway Terminals
• The plan drew on technical studies
previously done by others, including a
plan for competing railroads to pool
usage of tracks for greater efficiency in
freight handling.
• The plan detailed the consolidation of
Chicago's six intercity railroad passenger
terminals into new complexes west of the
Loop and south of Roosevelt Road.
• The South Branch of the Chicago River
was rechanneled, between Polk and 18th N
Streets, to untangle railroad approaches
as recommended by the plan.
Proposed rail networks through the city center
Parks
• The movement to purchase and preserve
the natural areas that became the Cook
County Forest Preserves was well under
way as the plan was being written.
• The plan includes those proposals and
also calls for the expansion of the city's
park and boulevard system, which had
been first established in the 1870s.

The Plan of a Proposed Park

Streets
• New wider arterials were prescribed to
relieve traffic congestion and beautify the
fast growing city, including a network of
new diagonal streets.
• One of these diagonals was constructed:
the extension of Ogden Avenue and there
are several other diagonal streets
throughout the city.
• The city renovated, widened, and
extended Michigan Avenue, widened
Roosevelt Road, and created Wacker N
Drive and Ida B. Wells Drive.

Theoretical Diagram of Street Circulations

 N
Left –Perspective view of a proposed street
Above –Recommendations relating to streets and parks
Civic and Cultural Centers
• The most iconic image of the plan was the
new civic center proposed for the area
around Congress and Halsted Streets.
• At the east end of Congress Street, which
would become the central axis of the
reshaped city, Burnham proposed a
cultural center in Grant Park consisting
of the new Field Museum of Natural
History and new homes for the Art
Institute of Chicago and the Crerar
Library.

Proposed Civic Center