Burnham's vision for Chicago area 'remarkably relevant' 100 years later

It's 1909 and the region has a problem.

Traffic is murder. Freight trains are backed up. There's not enough open space. Air and water pollution are troubling.

Sound familiar?

Daniel Burnham understood the social, economic and transportation challenges facing the fledgling city and suburbs 100 years ago when he and co-author Edward Bennett crafted a masterpiece called the "Plan of Chicago."

The document that emerged envisioned a metropolitan area where citizens could thrive with clean water, affordable housing, parks and a cohesive transportation system.

The motivation was to "bring about the very best conditions of city life for all the people," the authors wrote.

A century later, civic leaders are celebrating Burnham's vision.

Today in Aurora, centennial organizers will outline details of a yearlong series of events across the region from Addison to Elgin to Wilmette.

In 2008, the plan is still "remarkably relevant," said George Ranney, president and CEO of Chicago Metropolis 2020, a civic and business organization created by the Commercial Club of Chicago.

In 1906, the Commercial Club asked Burnham to help solve the troubles the city faced.

He was a well-known urban planner with a background in architecture who successfully led the design and construction of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

"The plan of Chicago is a landmark of urban planning," said Tom Garritano, communications director for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, a unit of local government involved in the centennial project.

"It's recognized across the world as something to strive for in terms of excellence in planning - not just because it's an amazing document but because of how much of it was implemented."

Transportation and open space are just a few of the plan's recommendations that resonate now, Ranney explained.

Burnham called for the "creation of a system of highways outside the city," including an expressway looping from southeast Wisconsin to northwest Indiana, similar to the Tri-State Tollway.

He advocated reorganizing rail traffic to enable freight trains to bypass the city and ease commutes for people coming in and out of the city. Those suggestions were prescient given the freight bottleneck that exists now and controversy over a proposal by the Canadian National Railway to put trains on a smaller railroad that heads through the outer suburbs.

Burnham also recognized people needed to get away from it all. "He who habitually comes in close contact with nature develops saner methods of thought," the document states.

Recommendations in the report to acquire open space encouraged efforts to buy land along Salt Creek, the Des Plaines River and the Skokie Valley and helped foster the creation of forest preserves, experts said.

"He was one of first big advocates of open space," DuPage County Chairman Robert Schillerstrom said. "Open space along the lake front was unheard of in that time. He advocated that and was the one who first advocated for parks along the rivers."

The fact the kickoff occurs in Aurora is part of a concerted effort to include the suburbs in the centennial.

"The suburbs are part of the region and if the region thrives, the suburbs thrive," Schillerstrom said. "Burnham's report was the first regional plan. It encompasses areas of DuPage and the region - he had a vision for the future."

Groups ranging from Naper Settlement to the city of Elgin to the Lake County Forest Preserve District are involved in the centennial.

Some of the highlights of the year include an original composition to be performed in Grant Park and the opening of two pavilions in Millennium Park by world-renown architects Zaha Hadid and Ben van Berkel in June.

But the commemoration will involve more than nostalgia, Ranney explained.

"We want to celebrate the plan but focus on the future," he said.

Centennial organizers hope to emerge at the end of 2009 with a new blueprint for a better metropolis that includes ideas such as completing trail systems in McHenry, Lake and DuPage counties.

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning has timed its GO TO 2040 campaign to coincide with the centennial. GO TO 2040 is a comprehensive plan that will guide development and growth in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties for the next 30 years.

"If you ask people what planning means, you get a lot of blank looks," Garritano said. "That's something the centennial can change and we hope to capitalize on that.

"When you have resistance to planning, when people say, 'How can you think that far into the future - we have dire problems today?' Well, if you look at a lot of those problems, whether it's congestion, affordable housing or natural resources, the reason it's so dire is that no one planned effectively in the past."

CMAP officials say they're starting with a blank sheet of paper and want the public to help write what could be a new Burnham masterwork.

"We're humbled to try and stand on those shoulders," Garritano said.

For more information about local activities planned for the centennial, visit burnhamplan100.org.