Daniel Burnham
Daniel Burnham Plan of Chicago World's Columbian Exposition |
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Daniel Hudson Burnham
A successful
Although best known for his skyscrapers, city planning, and for the White City, almost one third of Burnham's total output – 14.7 million square feet (1.37 million square meters) – consisted of buildings for shopping.[3]
Early life
Burnham was born in
Burnham was not a good student, but he was good at drawing. He moved to the eastern part of the country at the age of 18 to be taught by private tutors in order to pass the admissions examinations for
Nevertheless, the young Burnham still had a streak of wanderlust in him, and in 1869 he left his apprenticeship to go to Nevada with friends to try mining gold, at which he failed. He then ran for the Nevada state legislature and failed to be elected. Broke, he returned again to Chicago and took a position with the architect L. G. Laurean. When the Great Chicago Fire hit the city in October 1871, it seemed as if there would be endless work for architects, but Burnham chose to strike out again, becoming first a salesman of plate glass windows, then a druggist. He failed at the first and quit the second. He later remarked on "a family tendency to get tired of doing the same thing for very long".[7]
Career
At age 26, Burnham moved on to the Chicago offices of Carter, Drake and Wight where he met future business partner John Wellborn Root, who was 21 and four years younger than Burnham. The two became friends and then opened an architectural office together in 1873. Unlike his previous ventures, Burnham stuck to this one.[7] Burnham and Root went on to become a very successful firm. Their first major commission came from John B. Sherman, the superintendent of the massive Union Stock Yards in Chicago, which provided the livelihood – directly or indirectly – for one-fifth of the city's population. Sherman hired the firm to build for him a mansion on Prairie Avenue at Twenty-first Street among the mansions of Chicago's other merchant barons. Root made the initial design. Burnham refined it and supervised the construction. It was on the construction site that he met Sherman's daughter, Margaret, whom Burnham married in 1876 after a short courtship.[8] Sherman commissioned other projects from Burnham and Root, including the Stone Gate, an entry portal to the stockyards which became a Chicago landmark.[9]
In 1881, the firm was commissioned to build the Montauk Building, the tallest building in Chicago at the time. To solve the problem of the city's water-saturated sandy soil and bedrock 125 feet (38 m) below the surface, Root came up with a plan to dig down to a "hardpan" layer of clay on which was laid a 2-foot (0.61 m) thick pad of concrete overlaid with steel rails placed at right-angles to form a lattice "grill", which was then filled with Portland cement. This "floating foundation" was, in effect, artificially-created bedrock on which the building could be constructed. The completed building was so tall compared to existing buildings that it defied easy description, and the name "skyscraper" was coined to describe it. Thomas Talmadge, an architect and architectural critic said of the building, "What Chartres was to the Gothic cathedral, the Montauk Block was to the high commercial building."[10]
Burnham and Root went on to build more of the first American skyscrapers, such as the Masonic Temple Building[11] in Chicago. Measuring 21 stories and 302 feet, the temple held claims as the tallest building of its time, but was torn down in 1939.
The talents of the two partners were complementary. Both men were artists and gifted architects, but Root had a knack for conceiving elegant designs and was able to see almost at once the totality of the necessary structure. Burnham, on the other hand, excelled at bringing in clients and supervising the building of Root's designs. They each appreciated the value of the other to the firm. Burnham also took steps to ensure their employees were happy: he installed a gym in the office, gave fencing lessons and let employees play handball at lunch time. Root, a pianist and organist, gave piano recitals in the office on a rented piano. Paul Starrett, who joined the office in 1888 said "The office was full of a rush of work, but the spirit of the place was delightfully free and easy and human in comparison to other offices I had worked in."[12]
Although the firm was extremely successful, there were several notable setbacks. One of their designs, the Grannis Block in which their office was located, burned down in 1885 necessitating a move to the top floor of
On January 15, 1891, while the firm was deep in meetings for the design of the
World's Columbian Exposition
Burnham and Root had accepted responsibility to oversee the design and construction of the
Considered the first example of a comprehensive planning document in the nation, the fairground featured grand
The control of the fair's design and construction was a matter of dispute between various entities, particularly the National Commission which was headed by
After the fair opened, Olmsted, who designed the fairgrounds, said of Burnham that "too high an estimate cannot be placed on the industry, skill and tact with which this result was secured by the master of us all."[19] Burnham himself rejected the suggestion that Root had been largely responsible for the fair's design, writing afterwards:
What was done up to the time of his death was the faintest suggestion of a plan ... The impression concerning his part has been gradually built up by a few people, close friends of his and mostly women, who naturally after the Fair proved beautiful desired to more broadly identify his memory with it.[20]
Post-fair architecture
Nevertheless, Burnham's reputation was considerably enhanced by the success and beauty of the fair. Harvard and Yale both presented him honorary master's degrees ameliorating his having failed their entrance exams in his youth. The common perception while Root was alive was that he was the architectural artist and Burnham had run the business side of the firm; Root's death, while devastating to Burnham personally, allowed him to develop as an architect in a way he might not have, had Root lived on.[21]
In 1901, Burnham designed the
Other Burnham post-fair designs included the
The Philippines
In 1904, Burnham accepted a commission from Philippines Governor-General
City planning and the Plan of Chicago
Initiated in 1906 and published in 1909, Burnham and his co-author
Building off plans and conceptual designs from the World's Fair for the south lakefront,[32] Burnham envisioned Chicago as a "Paris on the Prairie". French-inspired public works constructions, fountains and boulevards radiating from a central, domed municipal palace became Chicago's new backdrop. Though only parts of the plan were actually implemented, it set the standard for urban design, anticipating the future need to control urban growth and continuing to influence the development of Chicago long after Burnham's death.
Plans in additional cities
Burnham's city planning projects did not stop at Chicago. Burnham had previously contributed to plans for cities such as
In
Influence
In his career after the fair, Burnham became one of the country's most prominent advocates for the
Burnham is famously quoted as saying, "Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will not themselves be realized." This slogan has been taken to capture the essence of Burnham's spirit.[41][42]
A man of influence, Burnham was considered the pre-eminent architect in America at the start of the 20th century. He held many positions during his lifetime, including the presidency of the American Institute of Architects.[43] Other notable architects began their careers under his aegis, such as Joseph W. McCarthy. Several of his descendants have worked as influential architects and planners in the United States, including his son, Daniel Burnham Jr., and grandchildren Burnham Kelly and Margaret Burnham Geddes.
Personal life
Burnham married Margaret Sherman, the daughter of his first major client, John B. Sherman, on January 20, 1876. They first met on the construction site of her father's house. Her father had a house built for the couple to live in. During their courtship, there was a scandal in which Burnham's older brother was accused of having forged checks. Burnham immediately went to John Sherman and offered to break the engagement as a matter of honor but Sherman rejected the offer, saying "There is a black sheep in every family." However, Sherman remained wary of his son-in-law, who he thought drank too much.[44]
Burnham and Margaret remained married for the rest of his life. They had five children—two daughters and three sons—including Daniel Burnham Jr., born in February 1886,[45] who became an architect and urban planner like his father. He worked in his father's firm until 1917, and served as the Director of Public Works for the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair, known as the "Century of Progress".
The Burnham family lived in Chicago until 1886, when he purchased a 16-room farmhouse and estate on Lake Michigan in the suburb of Evanston, Illinois.[46][47][48][49] Burnham had become wary of Chicago which he felt was becoming dirtier and more dangerous as its population increased. Burnham explained to his mother, whom he did not tell of the move in advance, "I did it, because I can no longer bear to have my children on the streets of Chicago..."[45] When Burnham moved into "the shanty" in Jackson Park to better supervise construction of the fair, his wife, Margaret and their children remained in Evanston.[46]
Beliefs
Burnham was an early
Death
When Burnham was in his fifties, his health began to decline. He developed colitis and in 1909 was diagnosed with diabetes, which affected his circulatory system and led to an infection in his foot which was to continue for the remainder of his life.[51]
On
At the time of his death, D.H. Burnham and Co. was the world's largest architectural firm. Even legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, although strongly critical of Burnham's Beaux Arts European influences, still admired him as a man and eulogized him, saying: "[Burnham] made masterful use of the methods and men of his time ...[As] an enthusiastic promoter of great construction enterprises ...his powerful personality was supreme." The successor firm to Burnham's practice was Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, which continued in some form until 2006.[55] Burnham was interred at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.[56]
Memorials
Tributes to Burnham include
In addition, the
Notable commissions
-
Flatiron Building (1901)
-
Reliance Building (1890–1895)
-
Union Stock Yard Gate, Chicago (1879)
-
The Rookery Building in Chicago, (1886)
-
770 Broadway, New York City (1904, addition: 1907–1910)
-
Pennsylvania Union Station (1900–1902)
-
Union Stationin Washington, D.C., (1908)
-
Union Station, El Paso, Texas (1905–1906)
Chicago
- Union Stock Yard Gate (1879)
- Union Station (1881)
- Montauk Building (1882–1883)
- Kent House (1883)
- Rookery Building (1886)
- Reliance Building (1890–1895)
- Monadnock Building (northern half, 1891)
- Marshall Field and Company Building (now Macy's, 1891–1892)
- Fisher Building (1896)
- Orchestra Hall (1904)
- Heyworth Building (1904)
- Sullivan Center (Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. addition, 1906)[59]
- Boyce Building, on the National Register of Historic Places (1915)[60][61]
- Butler Brothers Warehouse (now The Gogo Building) (1913)
Cincinnati
- Union Savings Bank and Trust Building (later the Fifth Third Union Trust Building, the Bartlett Building and now the Renaissance Hotel, 1901)[62]
- Tri-State Building (1902)[62]
- First National Bank Building (later the Clopay Building and now the Fourth & Walnut Center, 1904)
- Fourth National Bank Building (1904)[62]
Detroit
- Majestic Building (1896, demolished 1962)
- Ford Building (1907–1908)
- Dime Building (1912)
Indianapolis
- Indianapolis Traction Terminal, (1903, demolished 1972)
- Barnes and Thornburg Building, (formerly the Merchants National Bank Building), (1912)
New York
- Flatiron Building (1901)[63][A]
- Wanamaker's Annex, full-city-block department store (1904, addition: 1907–1910)
- Gimbels Department Store(1908–1912)
Philadelphia
- Land Title Building (1897)
- John Wanamaker's Department Store (now housing a Macy's and offices, 1902–1911)
Pittsburgh
- Union Trust Building (1898, 337 Fourth Avenue – not the 1917 structure of the same name on Grant Street)
- Pennsylvania Union Station (1900–1902)
- Frick Building (1902)
- McCreery Department Store (now offices – 300 Sixth Avenue Building, 1904)
- Highland Building (1910, 121 South Highland Avenue)
- Henry W. Oliver Building (1910)
San Francisco
- Merchants Exchange Building (1904)
- The Mills Building (1892, restoration and expansion: 1907–1909)
Washington, D.C.
- Union Station(1908)
- Postal Square Building (1911–1914)
- Columbus Fountain (1912)
Others
- Keokuk Union Depot, Keokuk, Iowa (1891)[65]
- Pearsons Hall of Science, Beloit, Wisconsin (1892–1893)
- Ellicott Square Building, Buffalo, New York (1896)
- Columbus Union Station, Columbus, Ohio(1897)
- Wyandotte Building, Columbus, Ohio (1897–1898)
- Gilbert M. Simmons Memorial Library, Kenosha, Wisconsin (1900)
- South Calvert and East Baltimore Streets, damaged during Great Baltimore Fireof February 1904, but upon inspection the steel and masonry exterior was deemed sound; the damaged interior was later reconstructed)
- First National Bank Building (now Fayette Building), Uniontown, Pennsylvania (1902)
- Pennsylvania Railroad Station, Richmond, Indiana (1902)
- Cleveland Mall with Arnold Brunner and John Carrère, Cleveland (1903)
- Union Station, El Paso, Texas (1905–1906)
- The Fleming Building, Des Moines, Iowa (1907)
- Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad station, Vicksburg, Mississippi (1907)[65]
- Duluth Civic Center Historic District, Duluth, Minnesota, (1908–1909, four buildings)
- Selfridge & Co. Department Store, Oxford Street, London (1909)
- Miners National Bank Building, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania (1911, now Citizens Bank Financial Center)
- Terminal Arcade, Terre Haute, Indiana (1911)
- Filene's Department Store, Boston (1912)
- Starks Building, Louisville, Kentucky (1912)
- Second National Bank Building, Toledo, Ohio (1913, now Riverfront Apartments)
- El Granada, California (city master plan)
- First National Bank Building, Milwaukee
- Joliet Public Library, Joliet, Illinois (1903)
- Kenilworth Train Station, Kenilworth, Illinois
- Mount Wilson Observatory, Pasadena, California
Philippines
- City planning for Manila
- City planning for Baguio
- Provincial Capitol Building in Bacolod, Negros Occidental
- Pangasinan Provincial Capitol
- Burnham Park
In popular culture
- Make No Little Plans - Daniel Burnham and the American City[66] is the first feature-length documentary film about noted architect and urban planner Daniel Hudson Burnham, produced by the Archimedia Workshop. National distribution in 2009 coincided with the centennial celebration of Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett's 1909 Plan of Chicago.
- H.H. Holmes, a serial killer famed for his 'murderous hotel' in Chicago, and Daniel Burnham.
- In the role-playing game Unknown Armies, James K. McGowan, the True King of Chicago, quotes Daniel Burnham and regards him as a paragon of the Windy City's mysterious and magical past.
- In the episode "Legendaddy" of TV sitcom How I Met Your Mother, the character Ted, who is professor of architecture, describes Burnham as an "architectural chameleon".
- In the episode "Household" of Union Station.
- In Joffrey Ballet's version of The Nutcracker, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, Daniel Burnham, is the Drosselmeyer character of the ballet.[67]
References
Informational notes
- Daniel H. Burnham had completed the twenty-one-story Fuller Building in New York City, which the public quickly redubbed the Flatiron Building because of its iconic triangular plan."[64]
Citations
- ^ Goldberger, Paul (March 2, 2009). "Toddlin' Town". The New Yorker (published March 9, 2009). Retrieved May 2, 2020.
- ^ Laurin, Dale (2008). "Grace and Seriousness in the Flatiron Building and Ourselves" (PDF). Aesthetic Realism Looks at NYC. Aesthetic Realism Foundation. pp. 1–4. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-06-219632-3
- ^ a b Norton-Burhnam House, National Register of Historic Places Registration, National Park Service, January 8, 2016
- ^ "Website". New Church. June 20, 2014. Retrieved June 24, 2016.
- ^ Carl Smith, The Plan of Chicago: Daniel Burnham and the Remaking of the American City, p. 56
- ^ a b c d Larson (2003), p.19
- ^ Larson (2003), pp.20-21
- ^ Larson (2003), p.22
- ^ Larson (2003) pp.24-25
- ^ "Masonic Temple, Chicago". Old Chicago in Vintage Postcards. Archived from the original on May 18, 2008. Retrieved June 4, 2008.
- ^ Larson (2003) pp.26-27
- ^ Larson (2003) pp.29-30
- ^ Larson (2003), pp.104-108
- ^ Caves, R. W. (2004). Encyclopedia of the City. Routledge. p. 58.
- ^ Larson (2003), pp.76-77
- ^ Larson (2003), pp.119-120
- ^ Larson (2003), p.178
- ^ Larson (2003), p.283
- ^ a b Larson (2003), p.377
- ^ Larson (2003), pp.376–377
- ISBN 88-8095-230-7
- ^ "Flatiron Building" Archived February 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine on Destination 360
- ^ Gillon, Edmund Vincent (photographs) and Reed, Henry Hope (text). Beaux-Arts Architecture in New York: A Photographic Guide New York: Dover, 1988. p. 26
- ^ ISBN 0962290815
- ISBN 0962290815
- ISBN 978-0-19538-386-7.
- ISBN 978-0-19538-386-7.
- ISBN 0-87106-188-0.
- ^ Daniel Immerwahr, How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2019), p. 123-136.
- ^ "The Commercial Club of Chicago: Purpose & History". Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved June 4, 2008.
- ^ "Chicago's lake front". Memory.loc.gov. Retrieved June 24, 2016.
- ^ Burnham, Daniel H.; Carrere, John M.; Brunner, Arnold W. (August 1903). The Group Plan of the Public Buildings of the City of Cleveland (PDF) (Report). City of Cleveland. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 7, 2016. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
- ^ Burnham, Daniel H.; Bennett, Edward H. (September 1905). O'Day, Edward F. (ed.). Report on a plan for San Francisco (Report). Association for the Improvement and Adornment of San Francisco. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
- ^ Burnham, D.H.; Anderson, Pierce (June 28, 1905). Exhibit B: Report on Improvement of Manila (Report). Government Printing Office. pp. 627–635. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
- ^ Adams, C.F. (August 12, 1911). "Burnham's Plan for the Adornment of the Exposition City". San Francisco Call. Vol. 110, no. 73. p. 19. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
- ^ Movie: "Make No Little Plans"
- ^ Thomas E. Luebke, ed., Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2013): Appendix B, p. 541.
- ^ Sullivan, Louis (1924) The Autobiography of an Idea, New York: Press of the American Institute of Architects. pp.320-21
- ^ Sullivan, Louis (1924) The Autobiography of an Idea, New York: Press of the American Institute of Architects. p.325
- ^ Abbot, Willis J. (January 18, 1927) "How Chicago Is Making Its Vision of Civic Splendor a Reality Is Told by Man Who Led in Project That Proves Economic Value of 'Mere Beauty'; Story of Commercial City's Education in Aesthetics Recited by Charles H. Wacker; Chicago Plan Commission's Former Head Shows How Transformation Has Been Wrought - Ideal Improvements, Once Pictured, Became Visible Goals of Community Endeavor - Were Even Taught In Schools" The Christian Science Monitor. p.8
- ^ Moore, Charles (1921) Daniel H. Burnham, Architect, Planner of Cities. Boston, Houghton Mifflin. Volume 2: Chapter XXV: "Closing in 1911-1912"
- ^ "AIA Presidents". American Institute of Architects. Retrieved June 4, 2008.
- ^ Larson (2003)< p.21
- ^ a b Larson (2003), p.28
- ^ a b Larson (2003), p.128
- ^ Rodkin, Dennis (November 8, 2010) "Evanston House Occupies Former Daniel Burnham Estate" Chicago Real Estate
- ^ Bullington, Jonathan (April 30, 2009) "Home in Evanston Fills My Longing Daniel Burnhams Evanston" Archived May 16, 2021, at the Wayback Machine Chicago Tribune
- ^ Rodkin, Dennis, (May 10, 2016) "Hisotrical Evanston mansion coming on market at $5.3 million" Crain's Chicago Business
- ^ Larson (2003), p.378
- ^ Larson (2003), pp.378
- ^ Larson (2003), pp.3-7,389-90
- ^ Staff (June 2, 1912) "Daniel Burnham, Architect, Dead" Chicago Tribune
- ISBN 978-0-226-34171-2.
daniel burnham cause of death food poisoning.
- ^ "Burham in Evanston Talk" The Burnham Plan Centennial
- ^ Lancelot, Barbara (1988) A Walk Through Graceland Cemeter Chicago: Chicago Architecture Foundation. pp. 34-35
- ^ "National Planning Awards". American Planning Association. Retrieved June 4, 2008.
- ^ "Design Competition and Exhibit". Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Archived from the original on January 24, 2012. Retrieved March 15, 2012.
- ^ "Schlesinger & Mayer Building". chicagology.com. Retrieved November 29, 2023.
- ^ "Illinois - Cook County". National Register of Historic Places. Retrieved November 2, 2008.
- ISBN 0-252-02416-8. Retrieved November 2, 2008.
- ^ a b c "Architectural Treasures of the Queen City: Part II". December 3, 2012.
- ^ Alexiou 2010, p. 59.
- ^ Brown, Dixon & Gillham 2014.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-471-14389-5.
- ^ "Daniel Burnham Film". The Archimedia Workshop. Retrieved April 6, 2009.
- ^ "Don't Miss This Behind-the-Scenes PBS Documentary of Christopher Wheeldon's "Nutcracker" at Joffrey Ballet". Pointe Magazine. November 29, 2017.
Bibliography
- Alexiou, Alice Sparberg (2010). The Flatiron: The New York Landmark and the Incomparable City that Arose With It. New York: ISBN 978-0-312-38468-5.
- Brown, Lance Jay; Dixon, David & Gillham, Oliver (June 21, 2014). Urban Design for an Urban Century: Shaping More Livable, Equitable, and Resilient Cities (2nd ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: ISBN 978-1-118-45363-6.
- Burnham, Daniel H. and Bennett, Edward H. (1910) Plan of Chicago, Chicago: The Commercial Club
- "Daniel Burnham". Chicago Landmarks. Archived from the original on October 10, 2004. Retrieved September 21, 2004.
- Jameson, D. "Daniel Hudson Burnham". Artists Represented. Archived from the original on December 16, 2005. Retrieved December 14, 2005.
- ISBN 0-609-60844-4.
- Moore, Charles (1921). "XXV "Closing in 1911–1912"". Daniel H. Burnham, Architect, Planner of Cities, Volume 2. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin. p. 1921.
- ISBN 1-58978-013-2.
- "Daniel Hudson Burnham". Chicago Stories. Archived from the original on August 21, 2004. Retrieved September 24, 2004.
- "Today In History: September 4". American Memory. The Library of Congress. Retrieved September 24, 2004.