CHAPTER VII_Plan of Chicago

THE HEART OF CHICAGO: OPPORTUNITY FOR CREATING A CONVENIENT AND

UNIFIED CITY: MICHIGAN AVENUE AS THE BASE OF A GREAT COMPOSITION:

THE WIDENING OF HALSTED STREET: A GROUP-PLAN FOR THE FIELD MUSEUM,

THE CRERAR LIBRARY, AND THE ART INSTITUTE: CONGRESS STREET AS THE

MAIN AXIS OF THE CITY: THE CIVIC CENTER

The Heart of Chicago is that portion of the city area between

Halsted Street and the Lake, and between the main river and Twelfth

Street. Within the next few years these boundaries will be enlarged

to include Chicago Avenue on the north, Ashland Avenue on the west,

and Twenty-second Street on the south. The treatment of this area,

having a length of approximately three miles north and south, and a

width of four miles from Ashland Avenue to the ends of the two great

piers planned to extend into the Lake at Chicago Avenue and again at

Twenty-second Street, involves the most serious problems encountered

in the plan of the city.

As the population of Chicago spreads itself over the area between

the Lake and the Des Plaines River the pressure on the Heart of

Chicago must of necessity increase in geometrical ratio. The ground,

being devoted to business purposes, will become so valuable that the

buildings will rise to the height permitted by law. These buildings

will be used for offices by corporations whose plants are scattered

throughout the wide territory of which Chicago is the metropolis;

for shops and banks; for hotels; for theatres and other places of

entertainment; for railroad passenger terminals; for churches and

public or semi-public structures, all of which will be resorted to by

hundreds of thousands of people who must pass daily into and out of

this comparatively small area.

The main problem to be solved is the disposition of the various

streams of traffic, so that people may reach expeditiously the

places to which their daily vocations call them. This problem

may be postponed, or it may be solved inadequately; but sooner

or later, as experience teaches, some solution must be found.

Postponement multiplies ultimate cost, and meantime creates a

constantly increasing burden of discomfort and loss of business. True

economy, therefore, dictates that the present moment, when already

congestion is a menace to the commercial progress of the city, shall

be seized upon as the proper time to begin a thorough regeneration

of the street system within the Heart of Chicago. Fortunately, the

general lines on which the changes should be made are determined by

opportunities so obvious that the development of a dignified and

thoroughly convenient composition would seem to come about quite

naturally. All that is necessary is to take advantage of existing

possibilities by combining the various elements into a consistent

whole. By so doing a unified city, wherein each portion will have

organic relation to all other portions, will result.

In considering the Heart of Chicago as a single composition it is

desirable to begin with the base line. Obviously this is found in

Michigan Avenue, which is already a broad thoroughfare, and is

now in process of being widened to a width of 130 feet throughout

that portion which is bordered by Grant Park. At the present time,

Michigan Avenue is the main connecting thoroughfare between the North

and South Sides; but it is much more than this. Office buildings,

hotels, clubs, theatres, music-halls, and shops of the first order

as to size and architecture line the western side of the avenue, the

Park opposite their fronts insuring light, air, and an agreeable

outlook. So desirable has this thoroughfare become that extensions of

it to the north or the south must enhance the value of the abutting

real estate, because of the increased opportunities such extensions

will create for continuing the building of structures of the highest

class.

Michigan Avenue is probably destined to carry the heaviest movement

of any street in the world. Any boulevard connection in Michigan

Avenue which fails to recognize the basic importance of the avenue

will be a waste of money and energy. Any impairment of the capacity

of this street at any point along its entire front, any weakening of

this foundation, is an error of the first magnitude.

At the present time the northern limit of this foundation of street

circulation on the Lake front is the water-tower on Chicago Avenue,

and the south limit is the intersection of Twelfth Street and

Michigan Avenue. This avenue or parkway should be made as spacious

as possible along its entire length. It should be wide enough to

provide two broad parallel roadways: one to be used by those who

wish to visit the shops, hotels, or theatres, and the other for the

passage of those who do not care to stop on their way through the

city. Between these roadways should be a broad sidewalk, and the walk

next to the buildings also should be very broad. This roadway should

be made attractive by effective planting. The trees framing the

boulevard may well be of the clipped variety in order to carry out

the architectural effect; and the lamps and other accessories should

be designed so as to give finish and unity to the composition.

The limit of width is fixed by the physical conditions of Michigan

Avenue between Randolph Street and the river. Here the distance

between the west side of Michigan Avenue and the west line of the

Illinois Central property is 246 feet. Michigan Avenue north of

Randolph Street is now 66 feet wide. The business blocks between

Michigan Avenue and Beaubien Court are 130 feet deep, and Beaubien

Court is 50 feet wide; a total of 246 feet. Therefore 246 feet is the

limit of possible width, and this is recommended as the width of the

proposed boulevard connection, every foot of which is part of this

Lake front parkway—the great base of Chicago’s street circulation.

[Illustration: CX. CHICAGO. PLAN OF THE COMPLETE SYSTEM OF STREET

CIRCULATION; RAILWAY STATIONS; PARKS, BOULEVARD CIRCUITS AND RADIAL

ARTERIES; PUBLIC RECREATION PIERS, YACHT HARBOR, AND PLEASURE-BOAT

PIERS; TREATMENT OF GRANT PARK; THE MAIN AXIS AND THE CIVIC CENTER,

PRESENTING THE CITY AS A COMPLETE ORGANISM IN WHICH ALL ITS FUNCTIONS

ARE RELATED ONE TO ANOTHER IN SUCH A MANNER THAT IT WILL BECOME A UNIT.

[Illustration: CXI. CHICAGO. PLAN OF THE CENTER OF THE CITY, SHOWING

THE PRESENT STREET AND BOULEVARD SYSTEM.

The proposed additional arteries and street widenings (orange); the

present parks (green); and proposed new parks and playgrounds within

present shoreline (hatched green); the present railway properties,

lines, and stations, and the proposed new stations arranged on a

circuit boulevard (dark blue).

[Illustration: CXII. CHICAGO. PROPOSED BOULEVARD TO CONNECT THE NORTH

AND SOUTH SIDES OF THE RIVER; VIEW LOOKING NORTH FROM WASHINGTON

STREET.

The boulevard is raised to allow free flow of east-and-west teaming

traffic under it, and both Michigan Avenue and Beaubien Court are

raised to the boulevard level. The raised portion throughout its

entire length, from Randolph Street to Indiana Street, extends from

building line to building line. It is approached from the cross

streets by inclined roadways or ramps; these may be changed to the

east side or omitted.

Painted for the Commercial Club by Jules Guerin.

In a study of this problem several years ago, “along lines that

will not only meet the present requirements of the city, both as

to convenience and beauty, but which for years to come will meet

the needs of the city,” committees of the City Council, the Real

Estate Board, the architects, the South Park Board, and the Lincoln

Park Board, after consultation with the Mayor of Chicago and other

interested citizens, recommended the condemnation of all of the

land lying between Michigan Avenue and Beaubien Court from Randolph

Street to the river, in order that an adequate thoroughfare might be

provided. These committees, which contributed very much to a proper

understanding of the conditions, were convinced of the necessity of

taking all of the property rather than a strip of it. This parkway

should be reserved exclusively for the use of pedestrians and lighter

vehicles. It is the one great thoroughfare that can be so dedicated,

and commercial traffic should be excluded from it and amply provided

for elsewhere.

From Twelfth Street to Chicago Avenue the only east-and-west streets

crossing Michigan Avenue that carry a heavy commercial traffic are

the four east-and-west streets immediately south of the river, and

the four east-and-west streets immediately north of the river.

These eight east-and-west streets, together with the tracks and

sidings of the Chicago and Northwestern railway on the north bank

of the river, are the only points where commercial traffic comes

into collision with the north-and-south movement on the Lake front

parkway. Naturally the commercial cross-traffic that flows east and

west through these eight streets is particularly dense, being created

by the railway terminals, docks, and warehouses east of Michigan

Avenue, both north and south of the river. By actual count on a

given day it was found that between the hours of 8 and 10 o’clock in

the morning the pedestrian movement at the crowded crossing at the

intersection of Michigan Avenue with Randolph Street was 12,484. In

short, 104 people, sixty per cent of whom were probably women and

children, passed this corner every minute. On the same morning it

was ascertained that between 7 and 10 o’clock 893 trucks and light

vehicles moved in the intersection of one of these streets and

Michigan Avenue. Confusion and delay attendant upon the concentration

of such masses are certain to increase as the Illinois Central, the

Michigan Central, and the Wisconsin Central railways improve their

terminals, as the warehouses of this district are increased, and as

more docks or harbors are developed at the mouth of the river.

By the plan for the connecting boulevard, which would begin its rise

at Randolph Street, heavy traffic would be diverted into Lake Street

and other streets north, making the Randolph Street intersection

safer for pedestrian movement. The other streets crossing under the

parkway would be freed almost entirely of cross-traffic, and the

loss of time resulting from impeded movement would be reduced to the

minimum.

Evidently if this Lake front parkway is to be dedicated solely to

the use of the people, with commercial traffic excluded, it cannot

be carried across these east-and-west streets at the present level

of Michigan Avenue, without depressing these east-and-west streets.

After an investigation by engineers all thought of such street

depression has been abandoned. Therefore the boulevard connection

must be elevated from Randolph Street on the south to Indiana Street

on the north, if collision between two classes of traffic, both of

which are better served when kept apart, is to be avoided.

It is not, however, necessary to carry the connecting boulevard very

high. The present grade of Michigan Avenue at Randolph Street can

be raised one foot, or a little more, without difficulty, so that

from the street level at this point to the level of the boulevard

connection one block north, at the corner of Lake Street and Michigan

Avenue, the total rise would be about eleven feet, with a grade of

two and seven-tenths per cent. From Lake Street to South Water Street

the surface of the boulevard connection would rise only three feet

more on a grade of three-fourths of one per cent. North of South

Water Street the surface would rise very slightly to the bridge, from

which point it would continue to the north practically on a level,

until descending on a gentle grade to Lincoln Park Boulevard, near

Indiana Street, or to Ohio Street. The grades suggested are less than

those existing on Fifth Avenue in New York.

[Illustration: CXIII. CHICAGO. PLAN OF MICHIGAN AVENUE FROM TWELFTH

STREET TO THE RIVER, AND ITS EXTENSION ON PINE STREET TO CHICAGO

AVENUE.

The proposed double roadway is designed to accommodate the immense

volume of traffic which will be attracted to the Lake front. The

west roadway cares for shopping traffic and carriages waiting for

the crowds attending public functions; the eastern roadway carries

traffic through the business section without interference from

stationary vehicles. The boulevard proposed is raised above the three

streets north and south of the River (as shown in illustration No.

CV), thus creating an artery free from heavy teaming traffic at its

crossings from the North to the South Sides. A double-deck bridge

accommodates the north-and-south traffic-teaming below light vehicles

above.

[Illustration: CXIV. CHICAGO. PROPOSED BOULEVARD AND PARKWAY ON

MICHIGAN AVENUE AND PINE STREET. View looking west across Grant Park,

showing the relation of the park to the boulevard.

[Illustration: CXV. CHICAGO. PROPOSED BOULEVARD ON MICHIGAN AVENUE;

VIEW LOOKING NORTH FROM A POINT EAST OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY. ALSO

DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROPERTY EAST OF BEAUBIEN COURT, IN WHICH A RAILWAY

STATION MIGHT BE INCORPORATED.

Not one roadway only, but the whole boulevard connection, 246 feet

wide, should rise gradually from Randolph Street, and every store and

building, both on the east side and on the west side of the parkway,

north as well as south of the river, would naturally open on the level

of the boulevard, exactly as the shops or hotels open on Michigan

Avenue south of Randolph Street. Furthermore, every building facing on

the boulevard connection would have direct access to the lower level

under the elevation (except for a portion of one block at each end),

so that goods could be brought into the buildings conveniently. This

lower level, well lighted, ventilated, and protected from weather,

would afford ideal conditions for handling commercial traffic. Part

or all of it could be solidly filled in if the authorities and the

property owners deemed this more desirable; it would not be necessary

to have all of the lower level open. From this lower level at street

intersections there would be inclined roadways or ramps, giving

comfortable facilities for pedestrians or carriages to reach the

parkway. It would not be necessary to place these ramps at exactly the

points where they are shown in the design; but they could be moved to

the east side of the parkway if for any reason that side offered an

advantage; or they could be eliminated if considered unnecessary.

[Illustration: CXVI. CHICAGO. VIEW OF PINE STREET.

The Waterworks tower is shown as a marker in the vista of the proposed

boulevard to connect the North and South Sides.]

The proposed bridge has two decks. The lower one, being designed for

commercial traffic, would provide for the present heavy teaming moving

north and south over the Rush Street bridge, without interrupting the

teaming during the construction of the new parkway, as the old bridge

could be retained until the completion of the new one.

[Illustration: CXVII. PARIS. VIEW OF THE RUE DE LA PAIX AND THE COLUMN

VENDÔME.]

The grade on the lower level approach up to the heavy teaming deck

from the south would be 2½ per cent as compared with the present

grade of nearly 5 per cent up to the present Rush Street bridge, and

5 per cent up to the present Dearborn Street bridge. The advantage of

the double-deck bridge recommended in this plan is set forth in the

statement of general requirements in the report made by the commission

of engineers to the Board of Local Improvements on the proposed

north-and-south boulevard connection. The engineers say: “The bridges

over the river may be of either the bascule or the vertical lift type,

and two single bridges may be used, one to accommodate boulevard

traffic, the other for team traffic; or one double-deck bridge may be

used, the upper deck to accommodate boulevard traffic, the lower deck

for team traffic. In the case of two bridges, the present Rush Street

bridge may be continued in service during the construction of the new

boulevard bridge, and after completion of the latter may be temporarily

used as a team traffic bridge. Eventually, however, Rush Street bridge

will have to be replaced by a new bridge, and during the construction

of the latter it will be necessary to divert the team traffic to other

crossings. This will cause some inconvenience to this traffic, which is

very heavy. The double-deck bridge avoids this difficulty, as it can be

completed and put in service without disturbing Rush Street bridge; so

that all the traffic of that bridge, both team and boulevard traffic,

can be at once transferred to the new bridge when this is ready.”

[Illustration: CXVIII. CHICAGO. MICHIGAN AVENUE, LOOKING TOWARDS THE

SOUTH.

Proposed double roadway running to a plaza at its intersection with

Twelfth Street, and a suggestion for buildings to surround the place,

including rearrangement of the Twelfth Street railway station.

In the plan here presented, the surface of the elevated boulevard

connection at Lake Street would be only 11 feet higher than the present

Michigan Avenue, and the upper deck of the new bridge would be only 16

feet higher than the surface of the present Rush Street bridge, and

only 9¼ feet higher than the surface of the Jackson Boulevard bridge.

Looking south, a pedestrian would see before him Grant Park and the

improved Michigan Avenue; the view along the river, both east and

west, would offer an interesting picture of the business activities of

the city; on the north the wide avenue would end at the water-tower,

beyond which can be seen the waters of Lake Michigan opposite the

Lake Shore Drive. Thus the plan presents one of the most magnificent

highways of the world. It seizes and develops the finest opportunity

which Chicago possesses for this purpose. The people of Chicago, during

the past twenty-five years, have expended more than $220,000,000 in

permanent improvements. This fact proves conclusively that the city

is bent on increasing its traffic facilities; yet because there has

been no comprehensive plan for development of city thoroughfares, much

of this work must now be done over again. The proposed connecting

boulevard is but one detail in the plan of a great city, but it is one

of the most important. Unless the Lake front is dealt with as one great

thoroughfare, there is no excuse for the expenditure of a large sum of

money on a single span of it.

This great improvement will come because it is a part of a plan which

provides a basis of street circulation, and which will weld and unify

the three detached sides of Chicago; because it will improve facilities

for commercial traffic, and at the same time preserve for the people

the uninterrupted use of their greatest and most attractive highway.

[Illustration: CXIX. CHICAGO. SKETCH PLAN OF THE INTERSECTION OF

MICHIGAN AVENUE AND TWELFTH STREET.

No less important than the widening and extension of Michigan Avenue is

the improvement of Halsted Street, often called “the king of streets”

by reason of its extreme length. This street begins near the Lake,

two and a half miles north of Lincoln Park, and thence runs directly

south through the center of population of Chicago to the southern city

limits and beyond them to Chicago Heights, a distance in the city of

over twenty miles. This street will inevitably be called upon to bear

a very heavy burden of traffic. One of the longest business streets

in the world, it is bound to become also one of the most important.

The necessity for widening Halsted Street becomes apparent when one

considers that this thoroughfare, situated midway between Michigan and

Ashland avenues, is already congested by reason of the traffic poured

into it by those important diagonals, Milwaukee Avenue on the northwest

and Blue Island Avenue on the southwest.

The conditions now prevailing near the intersection of Chicago Avenue

and Halsted Street need thorough transformation. There the smoke

from railroad shops and yards and from standing locomotives combines

with the soot sent up by nearly four hundred trains that come and

go each day. Steamships, tugs, and other river craft add their

contribution; the near-by tanneries and the garbage wagons contribute

their odors; the great coal docks, with their noisy buckets and

intermittent engines, increase the din; and the streets are covered

with the sawdust, coal, and dirt spilled from the thousands of wagons

that constantly use this crossing. Close to this intersection is a

cosmopolitan district inhabited by a mixture of races living amid

surroundings which are a menace to the moral and physical health of the

community.

[Illustration: CXX. CHICAGO. PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF THE PLAZA AT

MICHIGAN AVENUE AND TWELFTH STREET LOOKING SOUTH EAST.

The electrification of the railways within the city, which cannot be

long delayed, will serve to change radically for the better the dirt

conditions in this neighborhood; but the slum conditions will remain.

The remedy is the same as has been resorted to the world over: first,

the cutting of broad thoroughfares through the unwholesome district;

and, secondly, the establishment and remorseless enforcement of

sanitary regulations which shall insure adequate air-space for the

dwellers in crowded areas, and absolute cleanliness in the street, on

the sidewalks, and even within the buildings. The slum exists to-day

only because of the failure of the city to protect itself against

gross evils and known perils, all of which should be corrected by the

enforcement of simple principles of sanitation that are recognized to

be just, equitable, and necessary. It is no attack on private property

to argue that society has the inherent right to protect itself against

abuses; and when the city itself leads the way by the creation of broad

streets well paved and cleaned, restrictions against overcrowding,

defective drainage, and the heaping of waste in yards and side streets

are but a logical sequence. In respect to street cleanliness and

adequate air-space, Chicago may well take a lesson from Berlin, where

the streets are kept clean by daily washings, and where a property

owner may build on only two-thirds of his land, leaving the remainder

for a court. Chicago has not yet reached the point where it will be

necessary for the municipality to provide at its own expense, as

does the city of London, for the rehousing of persons forced out of

congested quarters; but unless the matter shall be taken in hand at

once, such a course will be required in common justice to men and women

so degraded by long life in the slums that they have lost all power of

caring for themselves.

[Illustration: CXXI. CHICAGO. PROPOSED TWELFTH STREET BOULEVARD AT ITS

INTERSECTIONS WITH MICHIGAN AVENUE AND ASHLAND AVENUE.

The proposed railway terminals are shown fronting on the Boulevard at

its level, which is raised to allow north-and-south traffic to flow

underneath. Access to the Boulevard is provided at alternate streets.

The rise begins at Michigan Avenue and may end at Canal Street. From

the intersection of Twelfth and Canal streets a diagonal thoroughfare

is shown extending to the proposed civic center. Between this diagonal

and the River is shown the beginning of the proposed West Side railway

stations.

Painted for the Commercial Club by Jules Guerin.

[Illustration: CXXII. CHICAGO. RAILWAY STATION SCHEME WEST OF THE RIVER

BETWEEN CANAL AND CLINTON STREETS, SHOWING THE RELATION WITH THE CIVIC

CENTER.

This plan provides for the railways at a level below that of the

street, with the stations above.

Painted for the Commercial Club by Jules Guerin.

In other localities in Chicago besides the one adverted to like

conditions prevail, and must be dealt with in similar manner.

[Illustration: CXXIII. CHICAGO. ALTERNATE RAILWAY STATION SCHEME WEST

OF THE RIVER BETWEEN CANAL AND CLINTON STREETS.

This plan provides for the railways at a level above that of the

streets.

It is proposed ultimately to widen La Salle Street from Van Buren

Street south and to connect it with Wentworth Avenue, also widened;

likewise to widen La Salle Avenue from the river north,—changes which

will come about with the new arrangement of railway stations. By this

means a much needed thoroughfare can be opened between the North and

the South Sides; and when this is accomplished an open space should be

created at the intersection of La Salle and Congress streets, around

which should be grouped great business exchanges. This area would

become the financial heart of the city, being directly connected in the

best manner with the existing banking and office-building neighborhood.

Such an axis as La Salle Street, running from the South Side north to

Lincoln Park, and having no street cars on its surface, would seem to

be demanded for that future time (perhaps not so far off) when the

inhabitants of the city shall number several times as many as to-day.

Canal Street, also, should be widened and extended, as has already been

discussed in the chapter on Transportation.

The opportunity for one of the most comprehensive, convenient, and

dignified compositions known to city planning anywhere comes from the

combination of elements already existing in Chicago, together with the

manifest needs of the city in the immediate future. Chicago, unlike

many American cities, has not been drawn away from the water. The

creation of Grant Park adjacent to the Lake and extending along the

entire business front of the city is of inestimable value.

Grant Park readily lends itself to the function of a spacious and

attractive public garden. The location of the Field Museum in the

center of this space is a special instance of good fortune. The

purpose of this building is to gather under one roof the records of

civilization culled from every portion of the globe, and representing

man’s struggle through the ages for advancement. Hence it must become

a center of human interest, making appeal alike to the citizen and

the visitor; to those who are drawn by curiosity and those who come

for study. The very size of the building required to hold and display

such collections as are being formed fits it to play an important part

in the architectural development of the city.[23] At the same time

the great size of the area in which it is placed calls for supporting

buildings, to answer corresponding needs. The South Park Commissioners

have arranged also for the location of the new Crerar Library building

in Grant Park, and a fund of over one million dollars will be available

for that structure. This institution, intended for the use of the

student of social, physical, natural, and applied science, renders to

the community a special service which permits a location irrespective

of the center of population. It is the expressed intention of the

trustees to make the building monumental in character and classical in

style of architecture, so that it will harmonize with the design of

the Field Museum.[24] As meeting center for the scientific societies

of the West, the location in Grant Park, near the buildings devoted to

music and art, seems most appropriate. Moreover, the space set apart

on the plan for this structure allows for that expansion in the way

of lecture and convention halls which the growing importance of this

institution will render necessary. If it shall be found desirable, the

central building and administrative headquarters of the Public Library

might also be located at this point, thus establishing here a center of

letters, similar to the Sorbonne in Paris.

The Art Institute, already located in Grant Park, now occupies a site,

a portion of which is needed for the widening of Michigan Avenue; and

at the same time the increase in the collections will soon necessitate

a larger structure than the one now in use.[25] When the new gallery

and school shall be built, the location should occupy the same

relative position north of the Field Museum that is proposed for the

library group on the south. The plan shows a gallery of the fine arts,

together with a school of art, comprising lecture halls, exhibition

rooms, ateliers, and general administration quarters. To complete this

composition would be open-air loggias and gardens, the whole group

being akin to the great art museums and schools of Europe. In Boston

the new art museum now under construction in the Back Bay district

has been located in the midst of the most attractive surroundings,

near the fine group of buildings recently erected for the Harvard

Medical School, and near other educational institutions which have been

established on lands reclaimed by the city in much the same manner that

Grant Park has been created. In New York the large extension of the

Metropolitan Art Museum in Central Park indicates clearly the growing

demand for great galleries adapted for the exhibition of works of the

fine arts.

[Illustration: CXXIV. CHICAGO. PLAN OF GRANT PARK AND THE HARBOR,

SHOWING PROPOSED ARRANGEMENT.

Three main groups of buildings devoted to letters, science, and arts;

meadows, playgrounds, plazas, and avenues; yacht clubs, at the water’s

edge; passenger steamer landings and lagoons.

From a drawing by F. Janin.

[Illustration: CXXV. CHICAGO. ELEVATION OF GRANT PARK AND HARBOR; THE

EASTERN FAÇADE OF THE CITY ON MICHIGAN AVENUE, AND THE DOME OF THE

ADMINISTRATION BUILDING OF THE CIVIC CENTER, LOOKING FROM LAKE MICHIGAN.

Twelfth Street Congress Street Washington Street

[Illustration: CXXV. CHICAGO. SECTION LOOKING NORTH, TAKEN THROUGH

PROPOSED GRAND AXIS OF THE CITY, SHOWING THE CIVIC CENTER AND GRANT

PARK.

Halsted Street Chicago River Michigan Avenue

The assembling in Grant Park of three monumental groups so as to

form one composition offers opportunity for treatment impressive and

dignified in the highest degree. It is such opportunities which when

properly utilized give to a city both charm and distinction, because

of the satisfaction which the mind obtains in contemplating orderly

architectural arrangements of great magnitude both in themselves and

in relation to the city of which they thus become an integral part. On

the other hand, the failure to realize such possibilities inevitably

creates dissatisfaction over lost opportunities; and this feeling

increases with the years and is shared by all the people.

Economy, as well as effectiveness, dictates the adoption of a group

plan; for the buildings have kindred uses, and should express

relationship both in their architecture and also in their landscape

settings. Indeed they may well be bound together by porticos to protect

the visitor against sun and rain; and such porticos would offer

abundant means of adornment by statues, paintings, and commemorative

inscriptions. One has only to recall the impressiveness of the

Peristyle at the World’s Fair to understand the value of the colonnade

as an adjunct to buildings beautiful in themselves.

The landscape setting of the Grant Park group offers opportunities

of the highest order. The broad terraces need for their relief the

green of trees and the judicious use of parterres; and the walks and

driveways, if well located, will give the sense of unity, while at the

same time adding to the convenience of the visitor.

It should be realized clearly that as Michigan Avenue is widened and

extended, the great traffic which this thoroughfare is sure to bear

will come to require large open spaces for gatherings of people to

witness parades and pageants and for similar occasions. Much of the

passing from north to south will utilize the lakeside drive; and at

gala times, when the harbor is illuminated, the terraces of Grant Park

will afford unsurpassed views of the spectacle. Such pleasures make a

universal appeal, and give charm and brightness to the life of people

who must of necessity pass long summers in the city.

The yacht harbor, planned to extend the entire length of the park, is

enclosed on the north and south by broad recreation piers stretching

for a mile and a half into the Lake; and provision is made for transit

lines reaching to the ends of the piers, so as to make these places

parks of decided value. The movement among the yachts and small craft;

the life of the clubhouses by day and the bright lights by night

already lend interest to the Lake front; and as the city grows, the

increased boating facilities will afford opportunities for indulging

in one of the most universally popular sports, while at the same time

imparting life to the otherwise monotonous stretch of water.

Such a treatment for Grant Park is not only feasible, but it requires

no radical change in present procedure. It is the obvious and natural

manner in which the work will be conducted unless some violent change

or some regrettable failure to act shall work distortion in a plan

that must commend itself to the judgment of those who study the whole

problem of the development of the Lake front in its relation to the

city of Chicago. No additional expense is involved; for public money is

being spent continuously to accomplish the same ends. The plan merely

provides for the most effective and satisfactory manner of expending

that money.

The advantages of developing Grant Park as the intellectual center

of Chicago cannot be overestimated; for art everywhere has been a

source of wealth and moral influence. Already the students at the Art

Institute number more than four thousand, and as art collections and

opportunities for study increase Chicago will draw pupils from many

states. The influence of this training in raising the standard of

public taste and in creating demands for better physical conditions

must be manifest. The possession of Saint-Gaudens’ statue of Lincoln

is a distinction to the city of Chicago, in the same sense that the

Sistine Madonna enriches Dresden. Take the Louvre from Paris, the

Rubens collection from Antwerp, the National Gallery and the British

Museum from London, the Public Library and the Art Museum from Boston,

the Metropolitan Museum from New York, and the Library of Congress

from Washington, and the commercial loss to those cities would be

very considerable. When Chicago realizes all the advantages of the

location in Grant Park of three great groups of buildings devoted to

the intellectual and æsthetic cravings of man, it must be apparent that

the city will have a great asset in the gifts of those public-spirited

citizens who have found satisfaction in leaving to the public useful

memorials of the successful lives of the givers.

Public-spirited citizens have left precious legacies by providing for

the intellectual and æsthetic needs of the people; and it should be

esteemed a high privilege as well as a sacred duty to administer those

gifts in such a manner as to accomplish the most effective results

from the benefactions. So to manifest appreciation encourages others

to emulate the good example; and simply by taking thought the city

gains constantly by the addition of monuments which benefit the whole

community.

South of Grant Park, and extending along the lagoon between Twelfth

and Twenty-second streets, the plans show a great meadow developed as

an athletic field, with central gymnasium, outdoor exercising grounds,

swimming beaches, and such other features as have been found advisable

in the playground parks.

Another great opportunity comes from the fact that the river flows

through the center of the business district. It has been the experience

of European cities that the banks of a river, although at first devoted

only to commercial purposes, sooner or later are transformed into

places which combine business uses with drives and promenades for

traffic and for the pleasure of the people. The treatment of the Thames

in London, the Seine in Paris, the Danube in Vienna and Budapest, the

Scheldt at Antwerp, the Riverside Drive in New York, and the proposed

Potomac Quay at Washington are, all of them, instances of a development

which indicates clearly what must also result to the Chicago River when

the city comes to give attention to other needs in addition to those of

commerce and manufactures.

The grouping of railway passenger terminals along Canal and Twelfth

streets will add another element of good order, convenience, and

architectural dignity; for it is not to be conceived that as the

railroads replace their present inadequate structures the new buildings

will be less important or less dignified than those which have been

built in other cities. It is to be supposed rather that the greatest

railway center in the world will be able to command terminal stations

equal in every respect to any that have been constructed elsewhere.

[Illustration: CXXVII. CHICAGO. BIRD’S-EYE VIEW AT NIGHT OF GRANT PARK,

THE FAÇADE OF THE CITY, THE PROPOSED HARBOR, AND THE LAGOONS OF THE

PROPOSED PARK ON THE SOUTH SHORE.

Painted for the Commercial Club by Jules Guerin.

[Illustration: CXXVIII. CHICAGO. PROPOSED PLAZA ON MICHIGAN AVENUE WEST

OF THE FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY IN GRANT PARK, LOOKING EAST FROM

THE CORNER OF JACKSON BOULEVARD.

Painted for the Commercial Club by Jules Guerin.

[Illustration: CXXIX. CHICAGO. THE BUSINESS CENTER OF THE CITY, WITHIN

THE FIRST CIRCUIT BOULEVARD, SHOWING THE PROPOSED GRAND EAST-AND-WEST

AXIS AND ITS RELATION TO GRANT PARK AND THE YACHT HARBOR; THE RAILWAY

TERMINALS SCHEMES ON THE SOUTH AND WEST SIDES, AND THE CIVIC CENTER.

[Illustration: CXXX. CHICAGO. PLAN OF THE PROPOSED GROUP OF MUNICIPAL

BUILDINGS OR CIVIC CENTER, AT THE INTERSECTION OF CONGRESS AND HALSTED

STREETS.

This plan indicates a possible orderly and harmonious arrangement of

public buildings grouped for the purpose of administration, near the

center of population. The central building is planned not only to

dominate the place in front of it, but also to mark the center of the

city from afar, and it is in part a monument to the spirit of civic

unity.

[Illustration: CXXXI. ELEVATION SHOWING THE GROUP OF BUILDINGS

CONSTITUTING THE PROPOSED CIVIC CENTER

From drawing by F. Janin. ]

[Illustration: CXXXII. CHICAGO. VIEW, LOOKING WEST, OF THE PROPOSED

CIVIC CENTER PLAZA AND BUILDINGS, SHOWING IT AS THE CENTER OF THE

SYSTEM OF ARTERIES OF CIRCULATION AND OF THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY.

Painted for the Commercial Club by Jules Guerin.

An adequate study of existing conditions in the Heart of Chicago

must show the necessity of providing adequate means of circulation

from west to east throughout the business center. Chicago Avenue is

already a wide thoroughfare capable of carrying the heavy traffic which

inevitably it will be called upon to bear; and the widening of Twelfth

Street is required as a means of giving access to the Lake front to the

dense population west of the River, which is now practically shut off

from the enjoyment of this most attractive feature of Chicago life.

It would be desirable to widen several of the east-and-west streets

that pass through the present business district, but such a course

would be inexpedient, on account of the prohibitive cost of the land

and buildings abutting on those thoroughfares. For this reason it is

not proposed to widen east-and-west streets north of Congress. It is

within reasonable financial possibility, however, to develop a great

avenue, extending from Michigan Avenue throughout the city and westward

indefinitely. This would result in providing for all time to come a

thoroughfare which would be to the city what the backbone is to the

body. Thus, and thus only, is it possible to establish organic unity,

and, in connection with the improvement of the streets above mentioned,

to give order and coherence to the plan of Chicago.

[Illustration: CXXXIII. PARIS. THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE, LOOKING OVER

THE SEINE TOWARDS THE MADELEINE.

This square is one of the great circulatory centers, placed on the

grand axis of the city (the Champs Élyseés) and the circuit of the

grand boulevards.]

[Illustration: CXXXIV. DRESDEN. THE ZWINGERHOF.

A formal arrangement of architecture and public gardens in the center

of a city.]

The selection of Congress Street for development into a broad cross

avenue is urged by many considerations. First, this particular street

coincides substantially with the center of the business district;

and also is about equidistant from the other east-and-west streets

(Twelfth and Washington, and Twenty-second and Chicago Avenue) which

most readily lend themselves to development as arteries in the street

system; and it is also equidistant from the two great east-and-west

railroad rights-of-way at Kinzie and at Sixteenth streets. Secondly,

the very fact that Congress Street now exists only in disconnected

portions, and that the buildings throughout the proposed cutting are

comparatively inexpensive, offers a very strong argument for its

selection on the score of economy. The widening of another street would

mean the destruction of two frontages in order to obtain sufficient

width without encroaching on the building space on parallel streets.

Thirdly, Congress Street stands in such relations to Grant Park that

its use as a central axis of the city allows park and avenue to

sustain reciprocal relations in the highest degree conducive both to

convenience and to good order. Fourthly, the opening of Congress Street

would create, in combination with Van Buren Street on the north and

Harrison Street on the south, a triple set of arteries at the center of

things. There are no arguments favoring the selection of another street

which present such a combination of advantages as is to be found in

the choice of Congress Street. The diagram showing business occupancy

indicates that Congress Street is already very near the center of the

great commercial activities, and also that this center has steadily

moved in a southwesterly direction.

[Illustration: CXXXV. VIENNA. THE RINGSTRASSE, SHOWING THE PUBLIC

BUILDINGS GROUPED ABOUT SQUARES AND GARDENS ALONG ITS COURSE.]

Thus far the argument for the selection of Congress Street has dealt

with purely practical questions, which in themselves would seem to be

conclusive. The choice of Congress Street is quite as logical from an

æsthetic point of view. In a sense the Field Museum will be one of the

important buildings in the city. The site selected is exactly opposite

the intersection of Congress Street with Michigan Avenue. To create

a great cross avenue without utilizing the element of symmetry which

this noble building stands ready to furnish would be to set at defiance

every law of civic order, and to perpetrate a crime against good taste

that could never be atoned for. It is inconceivable that in the present

state of public taste any people would permit such a barbarism.

[Illustration: CXXXVI. ROME. ST. PETER’S CATHEDRAL, SHOWING THE

APPROACH.]

[Illustration: CXXXVII. CHICAGO. VIEW OF THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT IN

THE CENTER OF THE CITY, FROM TWENTY SECOND STREET TO CHICAGO AVENUE,

LOOKING TOWARDS THE EAST OVER THE CIVIC CENTER TO GRANT PARK AND LAKE

MICHIGAN.

Painted for the Commercial Club by Jules Guerin.]

The new Congress Street should be created with a width, from Wabash

Avenue westward, of from 200 to 250 feet to Canal Street; and thence to

the civic square the width should approximate 300 feet. The roadways

should be divided for the various kinds of traffic, and it should

furnish opportunities for the highest class of adornment known to civic

art. Theaters, public and semi-public buildings, retail shops, and

all the other structures which are to be found on frequented streets

would come to be built along a thoroughfare which from the time of its

opening would be of the first importance.[26]

As it is proposed to group in Grant Park the buildings pertaining to

art, literature, and science, so it is planned to create on the axis of

Congress Street a composition representing the dignity and importance

of the city from the administrative point of view. Where Congress

Street intersects Halsted Street, a civic center should be established.

At this center radiating arteries naturally converge. The population

in Chicago has stretched itself along the Lake shore; but the center

of density has moved steadily in a southwesterly direction. Beginning

with the original Fort Dearborn reservation, the line of density of

population passes through the present location of the City Hall and

the Court House, thence a little to the south of the proposed civic

center. Moreover, the point selected for the civic center is the center

of gravity, so to speak, of all the radial arteries entering Chicago.

Even now the proposed center is not far in advance of the growth of the

city; while at the same time land values in the area selected are not

excessive.

[Illustration: CXXXVIII. BERLIN. SPREE ISLAND, IN THE HEART OF THE

CITY.]

The buildings comprised in the civic center naturally fall into three

divisions, represented by the City of Chicago, by Cook County, and by

the Federal Government; and inasmuch as a single building would be

insufficient to accommodate the offices either of the city or of the

general government, there should eventually be three groups. Of these

three the city group would predominate, with the city hall as the

central building. The city administration building should accommodate

the mayor and the common council, together with the clerks and officers

directly connected with the administrative and legislative departments;

also the headquarters of the fire department; the offices of the board

of education, including those of the superintendent of schools; the

offices of the city attorney, the auditor, the board of assessors,

the tax collectors, the license department, the board of local

improvements, the elections bureau, and others of like character.

Ultimately there should be a separate building for the department

of public works; but for the immediate future one wing of the

administrative building may be set apart for the engineers and

surveyors, for the electrical department, and the departments of

sewers, water, and gas, and the superintendent of streets. The need of

special quarters for this division of the public service arises not

only from the extent and character of the work of the various bureaus,

but also because of the great number of people who of necessity resort

to them in order to obtain permits for constructing and repairing

buildings, for establishing electrical, gas, and water connections, and

to transact the vast amount of business arising in a department that

affects every business, institution, and home.

The department of public health, requiring extensive laboratories,

should include an emergency hospital, rooms for the commission on

insanity, and a detention place for the insane, as well as a bureau of

vital statistics; offices for the health, food, and milk inspectors;

quarters for the coroner, including autopsy and inquest rooms and a

public morgue.

The hall of records should be accessible to the courts and the other

departments of the public service, and to the general public. The

building should be so constructed as to secure its contents from

possible danger from fire or the results of dampness; and it should

be so arranged and administered as to make the records immediately

available.

The court-house building offers architectural opportunities of the

first order; and here again the dignity, majesty, and impartiality of

justice should be made manifest in every appointment, so as to teach

the lesson that “obedience to law is liberty.” The highest of the city

courts, with chambers for the judges; the grand jury quarters; trial

jury rooms, with accommodations for lodging juries over night; the

offices of the district attorney; the marriage license department; and

the law library should be housed in this edifice.

To the building used as the police headquarters would be assigned the

central police court with its official clerks, stenographers, bailiffs,

bond and warrant officers; the city prison, with its complement of

vaults for criminal records of all kinds; the headquarters of the chief

of police and of the staff of detectives; a drill-room, assembly-room,

gymnasium, and practice gallery for shooting, and arsenal. One reason

for making this building one of the civic group is to promote the

convenience of the citizens who are called to the court for jury duty

or as witnesses.

The central administrative building, as shown in the illustrations,

is surmounted by a dome of impressive height, to be seen and felt by

the people, to whom it should stand as the symbol of civic order and

unity. Rising from the plain upon which Chicago rests, its effect may

be compared to that of the dome of St. Peter’s at Rome. The buildings

are shown raised on terraces one story in height. These terraces would

give great dignity to the structures, and would mark the transition

from them to the great open space on which they front. The motifs

surmounting the terraces, with such other accessories as refuges,

shelters, subway stations, balustrades, and lamps, would combine to

unite the square into an harmonious whole. The group of buildings

may be connected by subways, or even bridges treated in the form of

colonnades or arcades of a decorative character, all contributing to

the general effect of the square.

Space at the civic center should be reserved for the next county

building which Cook County will build when the present one becomes too

small to accommodate the county business. Experience shows that in this

country a public building is no sooner finished than it is found not

sufficiently extensive to provide for the public business that it was

meant to serve.

The designs for this square and its buildings are suggestions of what

may be done, for the report does not seek to impose any particular form

on structures that when executed must carry out a program written by

the growing necessities for adequate accommodations for administrative

offices and the rapidly developing demand on the part of the public for

order and beauty in the arrangement of these elements of city life.

[Illustration: CXXXIX. CHICAGO. THE PROPOSED CIVIC CENTER SQUARE,

SHOWING THE GROUP OF SURROUNDING BUILDINGS, CROWNED BY THE CENTRAL DOME.

The administration building, located on the main axis, is placed in

such a manner that, while dominating the square, it does not obstruct

the flow of traffic which will be poured into this open space from the

streets reaching it, and in particular from the great radial arteries.

The latter thoroughfares are schemed to center upon an obelisk in the

middle of the square, the base of which it is proposed to combine with

a decorative fountain, treated with the greatest richness, since it

will be located on the spot which is to be the center of interest in

the city.

The Federal group should be only less extensive than that devoted

to city purposes. The Chicago Federal Building, completed in 1905,

is already inadequate. Indeed it has been the custom of the general

government to attempt to house many and divergent departments of

administration under one roof. In a great city like Chicago the

dignity and the business of the United States courts demand a building

exclusively for that one purpose. The post-office is now seeking a

site on the West Side. Thus the opportunity is at hand to begin the

civic center group with a building of importance, by locating it

in connection with ground reserved on the plan as a public square

which finally shall be surrounded with administrative buildings. The

custom-house and the internal revenue office; the various offices of

the engineers employed on lake and river improvements and surveys; the

lighthouse service; the inspectors of steam vessels; the life-saving

service; the recruiting officers for the army and the navy; the

emigrant inspectors; and the various other officials charged with

enforcing the rapidly growing body of laws for the protection of

health and the promotion of good order,—all this army of employees of

the United States should have suitable quarters in buildings erected

for the exclusive use of the government. The Federal buildings alone,

if they are to be adequate to the demands of the public business,

would require a group of buildings of the first order in so far as

architecture and location are concerned.

The civic center will be dependent for its effectiveness on the

character of the architecture displayed in the buildings themselves,

in their harmonious relations one with another, and in the amount of

the space in which they are placed. Surely, the results attained at

the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 so amply proved the truth of

these principles that it is not necessary to enlarge upon them. The

attainment of harmony, good order, and beauty is not a question of

money cost, for in the end good buildings are far cheaper than bad

buildings. What is required is enlightened understanding and competent

planning; the great buildings of the world are simple and inexpensive

when compared with many of the over elaborate structures of the present

day; but for centuries they have served their important purposes and

the people will not give them up, because they have become part and

parcel of their life. They typify the permanence of the city, they

record its history, and express its aspirations. Such a group of

buildings as Chicago should and may possess would be for all time to

come a distinction to the city. It would be what the Acropolis was

to Athens, or the Forum to Rome, and what St. Mark’s Square is to

Venice,—the very embodiment of civic life. Land should be acquired in

quantity sufficient to carry out a plan commensurate with Chicago’s

needs, and with her dominating position in this region. This plan first

should be worked out by the architects, and then should be realized by

the concerted action of the community.

Important as is the civic center considered by itself, when taken in

connection with this plan of Chicago it becomes the keystone of the

arch. The development of Halsted Street, and Ashland and Michigan

avenues, flanked by the great thoroughfares of Chicago Avenue and

Twelfth Street, will give form to the business center; while the

opening of Congress Street as the great central axis of the city will

at once create coherence in the city plan. Nowhere else on this

continent does there exist so great a possibility combined with such

ease of attainment. Simply by an intelligent handling of the changes

necessary to accommodate the growing business of Chicago, a city both

unified and beautiful will result. The Lake front will be opened to

those who are now shut away from it by lack of adequate approaches;

the great masses of people which daily converge in the now congested

center will be able to come and go quickly and without discomfort;

the intellectual life of the city will be stimulated by institutions

grouped in Grant Park; and in the center of all the varied activities

of Chicago will rise the towering dome of the civic center, vivifying

and unifying the entire composition.

[Illustration: CXL. STUDY FOR THE DOME OF THE PROPOSED CIVIC CENTER.

From a study by F. Janin.

FOOTNOTES:

[23] The Field Museum of Natural History, established in 1894, at

the close of the World’s Columbian Exposition, was made possible by

the gift of one million dollars by Marshall Field, who at his death

in 1906 bequeathed a further eight million dollars, one-half for the

erection of a building, and one-half for endowment. Another half

million has been contributed by various individuals; and to the $25,000

annual income aside from the endowment, about $100,000 for maintenance

will be raised annually by taxation. On the collections representing

anthropology, botany, geology, and zoölogy, over two million dollars

has been expended, and the institution (now occupying temporary

quarters in Jackson Park) has a staff of directors and curators, a

library of 50,000 titles, a well equipped publication bureau, and

other appropriate accessories. By a contract between the South Park

Commissioners and the trustees of the Field Museum, dated January 31,

1907, the site in Grant Park was set aside for the new building.

[24] The Crerar Library had its foundation in the bequest made by the

late John Crerar, a resident of Chicago from 1862 until his death in

1894. The endowment fund is upwards of $3,400,000. The new building

will have accommodations for a million volumes, and provisions will be

made for extensions when necessary.

[25] The collections of the Art Institute now give the galleries a rank

among the first three or four in the country. The present building was

opened in 1893.

[26] While Congress Street is the ideal location for the grand axis,

the development of one of the parallel streets and a corresponding

change in the site of the Field Museum and of the civic center might

be resorted to, if obstacles to the use of Congress Street arise which

shall seem insuperable.

[Illustration: CXLI. VIEW EASTWARD TO LAKE MICHIGAN.