Washington D.C.
Burnham had been a busy little bee since the Great White City and City Beautiful had certainly gathered considerable momentum in its aftermath. The prospect of yet another centennial-type event soon appeared on the horizon. In 1900 Washington D.C. would have its one hundred year birthday. Our friend, Downing had developed a plan, back in the 1850’s and Alexander Shepherd, our bureaucratic machine boss had spruced up the place with many buildings, streets and what-have-you in the post-Civil War Grant Administration. So in 1900 when the American Institute of Architects held its convention in D.C., it sparked the interest of Michigan Senator James McMillan. In time-honored Washington-style, a commission (the McMillan Commission) was formed by the D.C. Congressional Committee to figure out what could be done to “class up” the joint.
No doubt smelling lush contracts, Burnham, Olmsted’s son (the father by this time was not well) and Charles McKim (partner in the most prestigious Beaux Arts architectural firm, along with Stanford White) were appointed and drew up plans to update L’Enfant—an update organized about a great mall between the capitol and the Potomac around which key government buildings would be built, and a series of parks (Rock Creek a centerpiece), and monuments throughout the city. Working with the Pennsylvania Railroad, they proposed to remove offending rail lines and centralize rail access to D.C. in an impressive Beaux Arts railway station.[1] In effect, the proposed plan created a national civic center with companion parks and boulevards and monuments—the Cadillac of City Beautiful. In true style, the Commission jaunted off for a six week tour of the Continent to derive proper inspiration for their image of what a national capital should look like. The McMillan Plan was released in 1902 and over the next several decades, monument by monument it was put into place. The D.C. of present day seen by the average tourist is the McMillan Plan D.C.
The union station and plaza, the [Federal] triangle of massive, neoclassical federal buildings, the mall, … the Lincoln Memorial, and the memorial bridge to Arlington, the Jefferson Memorial (as a substitute for [the Paris] Pantheon [and] …. Olmsted [Jr.]’s scheme for a park system, extending beyond the boundaries of the District of Columbia to include scenic areas along the Potomac River from Great Falls to Mount Vernon [and Rock Creek Park] …. all testify to the strength of the McMillan commission’s ideas.[2]
The plan served as a model for other cities to imitate. In 1910 Congress established the Commission of Fine Arts to implement the McMillan Plan and over the next decade much of the mall was rebuilt and the Lincoln Memorial was constructed. Following this lead World Fairs in Saint Louis, San Francisco and San Diego propelled the city beautiful design to ever-higher visibility and added a considerable “coolness” factor to the movement,
Burnham’s Washington Plan drove home the value of comprehensive city planning. Like the Chicago’s World Fair, the monumental Washington plan awakened and nurtured the belief that urban life could be orderly and efficient, that cities could be beautiful and inspiring. Capturing the attention of civic leaders in other cities, Burnham’s grandiose Washington plan gave new impetus to urban planning.[3]
New York City (Improvement Commission Report of 1907), Philadelphia (City Parks Association) and Baltimore (Municipal Art Society) kicked into high gear to get things going in their communities. New York’s effort didn’t come to much in the long run, and for various reasons neither did Baltimore. Philadelphia, however, although it took a considerable while to develop (1919) and carry out, built today’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Footnotes
N. Glaab and A. Theodore Brown, A History of Urban America (3rd Ed) (New York, Macmillan Publishing Co, 1983), pp. 262-263.
[2] Mel Scott, American City Planning, op. cit., pp. 55-56.
[3] Raymond A. Mohl, The New City, op. cit. p. 79.
Ron W. Coan 