Published in 1909 by Daniel Burnham with Edward Bennett for the Commercial Club, the Plan of Chicago is often regarded as the first comprehensive regional plan in the United States. It proposed an integrated system of lakefront parks, civic centres, diagonal boulevards, consolidated rail terminals and a regional road network reaching far into the hinterland. Drawing on City Beautiful ideals, it treated the metropolis as a single design problem at an unprecedented scale. Much of the lakefront and several boulevards were realised, while its grandest civic schemes were not.
The plan demonstrated comprehensive, regional-scale city planning and became a touchstone for the emerging American planning profession.
See it on the timeline →