Plan of Chicago: 1909

"Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big."
- Daniel Burnham

The Plan of Chicago 1909 was prepared by
- Daniel Burnham, and
- Edward H Bennett
It was commissioned by the Commercial Club of Chicago. It was the first comprehensive city and regional planning of the Chicago Metropolitan Area.

The "Plan of Chicago" was an outgrowth of the City Beautiful Movement ... The City Beautiful movement was a Progressive reform movement in North American architecture and urban planning that flourished in the 1890s and 1900s. It was based on the notion that a reform of the landscape, would complement the reforms in other areas of society.

An excerpt from the Enclyclopedia of Chicago ...
"The plan consisted of a system of parks and broad avenues that transcended the street grid in a pattern reminiscent of the French Baroque tradition favored for nineteenth-century Paris. The physical integration of systems of transportation and systems of recreation was the organizing principle for the buildings, streets, and parks. In the following decades, as a result of a flexible and well-publicized planning process, the Plan of Chicago inspired the creation of a permanent greenbelt around the metropolitan area, the development of the lakefront parks with cultural enhancements such as the Field Museum of Natural History, and the establishment of new transportation elements, from road to river to rail".

Although it was the first comprehensive plan , But there were several plans that preceded this ...
- Aaron Montgomery Ward's campaign to preserve "Grant park" for public use.
- Sanitary and Ship Canal Commission to reverse the Chixago River by means of a system of canals and locks in order to protect the Lake Michigan from being contaminated by sewer discharge.

- Burham himself had played important role in the planning and construction of the World's Columbian Exposition.