Daniel Burnham

Daniel Burnham (1846-1912), American architect and urban planner. Daniel Hudson Burnham was born in Henderson, New York. At the age of 26 he formed a partnership with the architect John W. Root in Chicago. Burnham was administrator while Root was designer. Together these leaders of the Chicago School built the first steel-frame structures, such as the Montauk Block (1882), that were forerunners of modern skyscrapers. Their many commissions in Chicago included the Masonic Temple (1890s), which was then the tallest building in the world. They also helped to plan the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Root died before the project was completed, but Burnham continued as chief of construction. The Exposition featured lavish pavilions in the classical Beaux-Arts style, designed by such well-known American architects as Charles Follen McKim and Richard Morris Hunt. Burnham's grandiose conception, with its monumental buildings and strongly axial layout, exerted enormous influence on town-planning in the early 20th century.

In Burnham's later buildings, such as the towering Flatiron Building (1902) in New York City, the steel skeleton is concealed by a traditional Beaux-Arts facing. He was also a member of the commission to enhance Washington, D.C. Burnham's most famous project was his Plan of Chicago (1909). This comprehensive design was intended to forestall the chaos of random urban growth. It included plans for a civic center with radiating boulevards, a system of city parks, and preservation of the Lake Michigan lakefront. Burnham also designed notable plans for the cities of Baltimore, Maryland; Buffalo, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; and San Francisco, California, and was commissioned to do plans for Manila and other cities in the Philippines.