time, fifteen years later, can no longer be executed.
It is the monumental park boulevard and its joining with Grant Park that forms the basis of the layout of the latter, giving it an East-West center line.
During the time that has passed since the Bumham plan was created, many new and weighty interests have grown up around the Grant Park question, and it must now be considered from the angles which these new interests present.
The town planner looks upon a town as the physician upon his patient. He studies and examines it from all viewpoints and endeavors to ascertain where the fault lies and how to remedy it. So it happened to me. When I saw that the Grant Park question had entered a new phase, and perceived the many new problems that had entered into it, my brain instinctively and subconsciously set to work and new views unfolded themselves.
A perspective sketch of Michigan Avenue, according to the Burnham plan, arises in my memory. I see elegant ladies and gentlemen promenading the Avenue in light, colorful costumes, and as a background for the whole, Grant Park in sunny splendor. Instead of finding this, I see the street overcrowded with stalled automobiles awaiting their turn to proceed—at least for a space. Thus the picture has changed in fifteen years ! And I ask myself, “What will it be like after another fifteen years have passed ?”
I stayed for a long time at the Blackstone Hotel and consequently had to cross Michigan Avenue several times daily. As time passed, the outlines of a picture of the future began to take form and shape itself in my mind as to the possibilities, practical as well as aesthetic, that lay hidden in the tract between the Avenue and Lake Michigan. This picture was only the activity of my fancy, however, and I had at that time not the slightest idea of developing it into a plan. I felt more or less a stranger who was not concerned in the matter directly. Furthermore, I was fully aware that the working out of such a project would require thorough preparatory study, aside from the “getting at” of the various phases and viewpoints which must necessarily be considered, nevertheless the idea would have remained undeveloped had I not one day seen published a proposal to regulate the tract owned by the Illinois Central Railroad lying between Grant Park and the Chicago River. The project was perhaps in itself meritorious—that I shall not discuss now—but it took into account only the area mentioned; and what was worse, it spoiled the picture my fancy had created. The possibilities lying dormant in Grant Park and its surroundings would be made sterile by the project I saw published.
After long consideration pro and con, I at last
decided to work out my plan for the development of Chicago’s lake front.
I have worked entirely alone without approaching in any manner the interests that own the sections affected by the project or the officials and persons who have the plans for the improvement in hand. I have deliberately done this in order that I might be unhampered in my work and see the things more objectively. I have often been called upon as an expert on city planning in foreign communities, and I have observed that the outsider sees the question differently from the one who has long lived in the place and has formed a fixed opinion. I do not mean to say that the resident has not a truer insight into the question, for he has usually based his opinion on his knowledge of local conditions. But, on the other hand, it is possible that such an opinion is an individual or collective prejudice, and then it is well to have the aid of a more objective view.
The shape my plan has taken is in a large measure influenced by traffic problems, more especially the solution of the automobile traffic problem. Hence I have felt compelled to consider areas that do not directly touch the Grant Park neighborhood, namely, that part of the city lying between the Chicago River and Lincoln Park, and also sections far to the South of Grant Park. The regulations and street extensions proposed, I have planned mainly with traffic, technical and architectural advantages in view. Whether or not they can be practically executed in that way is difficult to foresee. From my own experience I know that the main difficulty in carrying out street extensions is the lack of co-operation of property owners. However, these new streets can be planned in many ways both as to location and to construction, and thereby a spirit of competition can be stirred in the owners. It is to their interest to have their houses situated along better streets.
My plan for changes in the various railroad systems is to be considered merely schematic. I do not lay claim to knowledge of technical railroad questions beyond what is necessary for a city planner, and furthermore, so far as my observations go, the conditions in this field are quite unlike those in Europe.
In certain parts I have worked out my plan in directions contrary to the general tendency. Thus, for instance, I have proposed some buildings devoted to cultural aims for Grant Park although I know that a law prohibits buildings in it beyond a certain height limit, and though I have learned that it is the citizens’ wish—how generally I do not know—that Grant Park shall be and remain free of all building. Wiry I have done so, I shall explain later.
I have also made certain changes in the architectural planning of sections which the South Park Commission has already projected and which
It is the monumental park boulevard and its joining with Grant Park that forms the basis of the layout of the latter, giving it an East-West center line.
During the time that has passed since the Bumham plan was created, many new and weighty interests have grown up around the Grant Park question, and it must now be considered from the angles which these new interests present.
The town planner looks upon a town as the physician upon his patient. He studies and examines it from all viewpoints and endeavors to ascertain where the fault lies and how to remedy it. So it happened to me. When I saw that the Grant Park question had entered a new phase, and perceived the many new problems that had entered into it, my brain instinctively and subconsciously set to work and new views unfolded themselves.
A perspective sketch of Michigan Avenue, according to the Burnham plan, arises in my memory. I see elegant ladies and gentlemen promenading the Avenue in light, colorful costumes, and as a background for the whole, Grant Park in sunny splendor. Instead of finding this, I see the street overcrowded with stalled automobiles awaiting their turn to proceed—at least for a space. Thus the picture has changed in fifteen years ! And I ask myself, “What will it be like after another fifteen years have passed ?”
I stayed for a long time at the Blackstone Hotel and consequently had to cross Michigan Avenue several times daily. As time passed, the outlines of a picture of the future began to take form and shape itself in my mind as to the possibilities, practical as well as aesthetic, that lay hidden in the tract between the Avenue and Lake Michigan. This picture was only the activity of my fancy, however, and I had at that time not the slightest idea of developing it into a plan. I felt more or less a stranger who was not concerned in the matter directly. Furthermore, I was fully aware that the working out of such a project would require thorough preparatory study, aside from the “getting at” of the various phases and viewpoints which must necessarily be considered, nevertheless the idea would have remained undeveloped had I not one day seen published a proposal to regulate the tract owned by the Illinois Central Railroad lying between Grant Park and the Chicago River. The project was perhaps in itself meritorious—that I shall not discuss now—but it took into account only the area mentioned; and what was worse, it spoiled the picture my fancy had created. The possibilities lying dormant in Grant Park and its surroundings would be made sterile by the project I saw published.
After long consideration pro and con, I at last
decided to work out my plan for the development of Chicago’s lake front.
I have worked entirely alone without approaching in any manner the interests that own the sections affected by the project or the officials and persons who have the plans for the improvement in hand. I have deliberately done this in order that I might be unhampered in my work and see the things more objectively. I have often been called upon as an expert on city planning in foreign communities, and I have observed that the outsider sees the question differently from the one who has long lived in the place and has formed a fixed opinion. I do not mean to say that the resident has not a truer insight into the question, for he has usually based his opinion on his knowledge of local conditions. But, on the other hand, it is possible that such an opinion is an individual or collective prejudice, and then it is well to have the aid of a more objective view.
The shape my plan has taken is in a large measure influenced by traffic problems, more especially the solution of the automobile traffic problem. Hence I have felt compelled to consider areas that do not directly touch the Grant Park neighborhood, namely, that part of the city lying between the Chicago River and Lincoln Park, and also sections far to the South of Grant Park. The regulations and street extensions proposed, I have planned mainly with traffic, technical and architectural advantages in view. Whether or not they can be practically executed in that way is difficult to foresee. From my own experience I know that the main difficulty in carrying out street extensions is the lack of co-operation of property owners. However, these new streets can be planned in many ways both as to location and to construction, and thereby a spirit of competition can be stirred in the owners. It is to their interest to have their houses situated along better streets.
My plan for changes in the various railroad systems is to be considered merely schematic. I do not lay claim to knowledge of technical railroad questions beyond what is necessary for a city planner, and furthermore, so far as my observations go, the conditions in this field are quite unlike those in Europe.
In certain parts I have worked out my plan in directions contrary to the general tendency. Thus, for instance, I have proposed some buildings devoted to cultural aims for Grant Park although I know that a law prohibits buildings in it beyond a certain height limit, and though I have learned that it is the citizens’ wish—how generally I do not know—that Grant Park shall be and remain free of all building. Wiry I have done so, I shall explain later.
I have also made certain changes in the architectural planning of sections which the South Park Commission has already projected and which