Before I came to Chicago, I knew about the Commercial Club’s 1909 Plan of Chicago. I picked up a reprinted edition at the Seattle Public Library and pored over its luminous illustrations by Jules Guérin and magisterial prose by architects Daniel H. Burnham and Edward H. Bennett promising a greatly improved system of parks and highways, and a grand civic center where all governmental matters would be addressed efficiently and professionally.
Today a casual stroll through River North reveals a thicket of pricey steak houses, boutique hotels, and an endless parade of fast-casual eateries. Seven decades ago, the area was better known as the Near North neighborhood and it was commonly known for an endless parade of adult entertainments, clip joints, single residency occupancy hotels, and bars set up to fleece visiting conventioneers.
Prepared by the Finnish architect Eero Saarinen, the plan offered a response to increasing “blight” and “neighborhood deterioration” identified by University of Chicago researchers and those working on the long-term plans for Hyde Park’s urban renewal program. It is not surprising that it includes recommendations to create cul-de-sacs for 59th and 60th Streets, effectively curbing traffic into and from Stony Island Avenue.
While only intended as a bit of prospective speculation, the presentation served as the spark to create a World’s Fair committee three years later. From 1980 to 1985, the Chicago’s World Fair Corporation lobbied for an extensive development along Burnham Harbor that would have included a new International Center for the Arts and a high-speed “skytrain.”
