Chapter 15 of 18 · 9541 words · ~48 min read

CHAPTER VII

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.