1890
Daniel Burnham
Daniel Burnham
1900
Burnham, early 1900s
Daniel Burnham
1900
Burnham, early 1900s
Daniel Burnham
Daniel Burnham
Daniel Burnham took an apprenticeship as a draftsman under William LeBaron Jenney of the architectural firm Loring & Jenney.
John Wellborn Root was a business partner of Daniel Burnham.
https://www.amazon.com/Plan-Chicago-Daniel-Burnham/dp/1878271415/?tag=2022091-20
1908
https://www.amazon.com/Report-Francisco-Daniel-Hudson-Burnham/dp/1275512097/?tag=2022091-20
1908
Daniel was born on September 4, 1846, in Henderson, New York, United States. He was the son of Edwin and Elizabeth Burnham. He was raised in the teachings of the Swedenborgian called The New Church, which ingrained in him the strong belief that man should strive to be of service to others.
Burham was not a good student, but he was good at drawing. He went east at the age of 18 to be taught by private tutors in order to pass the admissions examinations for Harvard and Yale, failing both apparently because of a bad case of test anxiety.
In 1867, when he was 21, he returned to Chicago and took an apprenticeship as a draftsman under William LeBaron Jenney of the architectural firm Loring & Jenney.
Burnham still had a streak of wanderlust in him, and in 1869 he left his apprenticeship to go to Nevada with friends to try mining gold, at which he failed. He then ran for the Nevada state legislature and failed to be elected.
Broke, he returned again to Chicago and took a position with the architect L. G. Laurean. When the Great Chicago Fire hit the city in October 1871, it seemed as if there would be endless work for architects, but Burnham chose to strike out again, becoming first a salesman of plate glass windows, then a druggist. He failed at the first and quit the second.
In 1871, he joined John W. Root (1850-1891) in the practice of architecture in Chicago. To this firm were entrusted many important commissions, among them the general architectural superintendence of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. In order to take care of their large commissions, Burnham and Root developed the large departmentalized type of architectural office later found in many American cities. Burnham and Root were important in the development of the steel-skeleton building frame which made possible the American skyscraper. Among their Chicago buildings which were milestones in this development may be named the Rookery Building, the Rand-McNally Building, and the Masonic Temple, which for a time was the highest building in existence.
On January 15, 1891, while the firm was deep in meetings for the design of the World's Columbian Exposition, Root died after a three-day course of pneumonia. As Root had only been 41 years old, his death stunned both Burnham and Chicago society. After Root's death, the firm of Burnham and Root, which had had tremendous success producing modern buildings as part of the Chicago School of architecture, was renamed D.H. Burnham & Company.
Initiated in 1906 and published in 1909, Burnham and his co-author Edward H. Bennett prepared a Plan of Chicago, which laid out plans for the future of the city. It was the first comprehensive plan for the controlled growth of an American city and an outgrowth of the City Beautiful movement. The plan included ambitious proposals for the lakefront and river. It also asserted that every citizen should be within walking distance of a park.
Burnham's Flatiron Building in New York has become a famous landmark. His practice extended from coast to coast and to foreign lands, as in the development of the city plan for Manila. He prepared plans also for San Francisco, Baltimore, and Chicago, the last with E. H. Bennett. He had much to do with the development of Washington, and his firm designed the Union Station in that city.
In 1910 Burnham was appointed a member and first chairman of the United States Commission of Fine Arts, helping to ensure implementation of the McMillan Plan's vision. Burnham served on the commission until his death in 1912.
Daniel Burnham was a pivotal U.S. architect of the early twentieth century. He was best known for his skyscrapers, city planning, and for the White City. Of the 27 building designed by Burnham and Root for Chicago's Loop, only The Rookery and the Reliance Building, now the Hotel Burnham, remain. Besides, he held many positions during his lifetime, including the presidency of the American Institute of Architects.
He also was the author of Plan of Chicago, Report on a Plan for San Francisco and other works.
Burnham was an early environmentalist.
Quotations: "Up to our time, strict economy in the use of natural resources has not been practiced, but it must be henceforth unless we are immoral enough to impair conditions in which our children are to live," although he also believed that the automobile would be a positive environmental factor, with the end of horse-based transportation bringing "a real step in civilization ... With no smoke, no gases, no litter of horses, your air and streets will be clean and pure. This means, does it not, that the health and spirits of men will be better?"
On January 20, 1876, Daniel Burnham married Margaret S. Sherman. Burnham and Margaret remained married for the rest of his life. They had five children, two daughters and three sons, including Daniel Burnham Jr., born in February 1886, who became an architect and urban planner like his father.
