"City Beautiful" Comes Alive in Daniel Burnham Documentary

[M II A II R II K]

"City Beautiful" Comes Alive in Daniel Burnham Documentary


August 31, 2010

By Carl Yost



Read More: http://archrecord.construction.com/n...ocumentary.asp

After the overreaching of Modern city planning—barren plazas, rows of soulless apartment slabs—urban design got a bad rap. But as suggested in the documentary Make No Little Plans: Daniel Burnham and the American City, when ambitious visions are tempered with civic sensitivity, great things can happen.

- The film, which premieres nationally on PBS on Labor Day, September 6 (check local listings for times), recounts the life of Chicago architect Daniel Burnham (1846-1912), famous for designing the Flatiron Building in New York, Union Station in Washington, D.C., and the landmark 1909 master plan for Chicago. He pioneered the skyscraper form, then introduced the City Beautiful to cities across the United States and the Philippine Islands; along the way, he practically invented not only the large, corporate architecture firm, but also the very discipline of urban planning.

- “Burnham was interested in the city not only as a physical artifact,” says Howard Decker, FAIA, a planner and project director with Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects, “but as a social and cultural artifact.” Decker, who appears on-camera, notes that Burnham addressed many of the challenges that face architects and planners today: population growth, sprawl, environmental degradation. “It’s another reason to go back and look at the city Burnham was interested in—it’s the city before the Modern city. Maybe it’s an appropriate model to undo some of the damage we’ve done.”

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[Bedhead]

Interesting - I'd never heard of this, despite growing up in a 'Garden City' in Britain. I never realized that there was a more monumental wing to the planned city movement - the UK version tended to be a bit faux-rural and twee.

I have to say, it would be nice to read about the achievements of architects outside the modernist movement in more positive terms, without hearing the usual litany of charges against modernists. I'm sure there was more to Burnham's work than avoiding wind-swept plazas, and I'm sure it's possible to appreciate both his work and the work of modern architects at the same time.