Sponsored by the Public Works Historical Society (PWHS) Chicago urban planner Daniel Burnham famously argued that “beauty pays better than any other commodity.” His master 1909 Plan of Chicago boldly advocated transforming the banks of the Chicago River and the shoreline of Lake Michigan from one of the world’s largest industrial workshops into a site of leisure, lined with parks, beaches, and pleasure piers. This session examines how and why Burnham successfully transformed Chicago’s waterfront from an industrial to a post-industrial landscape. It demonstrates that by the 1890s a confluence of factors—including industrial sewage, traffic at Chicago’s bridges, and changes in Great Lakes shipping technology—had begun to undermine the industrial uses of the Chicago River. Thus, it suggests that by the time Burnham published his 1909 plan beauty did indeed pay better than any other commodity because it was the only commodity that would pay at all. Finally, the presentation considers how past decisions about river pollution and waterfront use have created great challenges and opportunities for planners and policymakers in contemporary Chicago.
Learning Objectives:
1. Examine how rapid technological and market transformations can render harbor infrastructure obsolete.
2. Consider how urban planners, business leaders, and municipal politicians have reinvented post-industrial waterfront landscapes in Chicago to promote economic development.
3. Discuss some of the long-term effects of the reversal of the Chicago River for water quality and invasive species.
SPEAKERS:
Joshua Salzmann, PhD
Assistant Professor of History, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL
Contributor/Source
Joshua Salzmann, PhD
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