With the centential of the Chicago Burnham Plan just behind us I ponder about the never built centerpiece of the plan.
Here are some images:
The massive domed building was supposed to be a new Chicago City Hall, not built because Chicago was already constructing its current City Hall in 1909. There is no exact figure of what its height was supposed to be, I read a casual reference of it being "forty stories or more high", so I would guess it would be 400-550 feet tall, it would have probably be the highest domed building even to this day. The building would have been exactly above where the UIC/Halsted stop of the blue line is today, on top of the Eisenhower Expressway. Burnham envisioned Congress Parkway (which evolved into the Eisenhower Expressway) as the axis of the city. The massive plaza in front of the domed building would have been right over the present day sight of the Circle Expressway Interchange.