Burnham of Chicago: Architect and Planner » (New Edition)

Thomas S. Hines is professor emeritus of history at the University of California Los Angeles. His other books include Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture and William Faulkner and the Tangible Past: The Architecture of Yoknapatawpha.

2009 marks the centennial of the influential Plan of Chicago. Designed by Daniel H. Burnham, coauthored by Edward Bennett and produced in collaboration with the Commercial Club of Chicago, the forward-thinking plan proposed many of the city’s most distinctive features, including its lakefront parks and roadways, the Magnificent Mile, and Navy Pier. As a result, by the time he died in 1912, Burnham was one of the most famous architects in America as well as an internationally renowned city planner. Thomas S. Hines’s book is at once both a biography of Burnham and a vivid portrait of the birth and growth of an American city. In commemoration of the historic anniversary of Burnham’s Plan, this edition of Burnham of Chicago includes a new introduction by American history scholar, Neil Harris.
           

“Indeed, the book as a whole is a model of the balanced portrait, sure of Burnham’s importance but always conscious of his failings.”—Paul Goldberger, New York Times Book Review

“In every sense this is the definitive biography.”—Harry Weese, Chicago Tribune

“Professor Hines has written what may prove to be an epoch-making book in the study of American civilization.”—Reyner Banham, Times Literary Supplement

Preface to the 2009 Edition

Foreword

Introduction I. The Long Childhood
1846-1873
II. The Large Partnership Burnham and Root, 1873-1891
III. Building in the Sky Burnham, Root, and the Rise of the Skyscraper, 1881-1891
IV. The Big Dream Planning the World's Columbian Exposition, 1889-1891
V. The Make-Believe City The Building of the Fair, 1891-1893
VI. Legacies of the Fair
1893-1901
VII. The New Capital The Washington Plan of 1902
VIII. The Paradox of Progressive Architecture The Cleveland Group Plan of 1903
IX. The Promise of Urban Planning The San Francisco Plan of 1905
X. The Imperial Façade The Philippine Plans of 1905
XI. Promoter and Benefactor The Architect as Philanthropist XII. The Private Life of a Public Man XIII. The Architecture of Capitalism D. H. Burnham and Company, 1891-1912
XIV. Beyond the White City The Chicago Plan of 1909
XV. Uncle Dan Epilogue: No Little Plans Appendix A A. Chronological List of the Buildings of Burnham and Root and D. H. Burnham and Company Appendix B A Note on, and Index of, Comparative Building Construction Costs, 1870-1970
Essays on Sources Notes Index