Daniel Burnham: His Life and Creations

After a career in Politics out west had failed, Burnham moved back to Chicago and began to gain experience while working with William Le Barron Jenney. Jenney at this time was known as the “father of the skyscraper.” At the age of 27 Burnham embarked on a partnership with John Root and began to make a name for their firm by designing Chicago landmarks and homes for the elite. With the help of Burnham’s father in-law John Sherman, a wealthy industrialist, his firm became influential and famous. Some of the famous landmark designed by this pair included the Kent House, Monadnock Building, and the Reliance Building. When Root died prematurely from Pneumonia, Burnham t

Overall I think Daniel Burnham was an extremely talented and interesting man. There had been some controversy that Burnham didn’t do much of the actual designing of many projects, and that his partner John Root was the mastermind. Burnham did most of the material designing and Root actually took care of all the technical and physical aspects that had to do with constructing a sound building. I think what the people who were criticizing him were missing was the fact that most of Burnham’s fame came from his work in city planning, after all he has buildings designed solely by him across the country. Without his revolutionary work, I think America would not have grasped the aspect of actually planning a city until much later. Some cities could have turned out to be a sprawling disaster with no form or proper function. When this would have happened the idea for city planning would have occurred, unfortunately it would probably be too late to reverse the damages. I would describe him as inspirational and l

Some topics in this essay:
John Root, Lake Michigan, Japan Burnham, Henderson York, Manila Philippines, Columbian Exposition, Daniel Burnham, York City, John Sherman, Jenney Jenney, city planning, john root, washington dc, daniel burnham, fame city,