“The goal in this centennial year of the Plan of Chicago was to set the wheels in motion for a lasting memorial to Burnham and the Plan he co-wrote with Edward Bennett,” explained Peter Schlossman, AIA, President of the AIA Chicago Foundation. “The idea for the competition grew out of discussions among members of AIA Chicago’s Regional and Urban Design Knowledge Community and other partners about how Chicago’s architecture, design and urban planning community could honor Burnham’s legacy.”
The competition is part of the Burnham Plan Centennial Celebration honoring the legacy of Daniel Burnham and his and Edward Bennett’s Plan of Chicago, the first comprehensive planning document guiding the growth of an American city. The competition is endorsed by the City of Chicago and the Chicago Park District and is a joint effort of the Richard H. Driehaus Charitable Lead Trust and the AIA Chicago Foundation. The competition is being coordinated with the efforts of the Burnham Centennial Initiative, which is being administered by Metropolis 2020, and is being conducted with significant organizational and financial support from The Richard H. Driehaus Charitable Lead Trust. Other key sponsors include American Airlines, The Cliff Dwellers Arts Foundation, and The Talbott Hotel.
The competition was announced in February 2009 when 20 firms known for their work in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning were invited to submit Phase One conceptual designs in a competition. A distinguished jury selected three finalist designs and three honorable mentions in April 2009. The finalists – DWA, Hoerr Schaudt – both based in Chicago—and Sasaki Associates, Inc. of Boston - were given approximately nine weeks to fine-tune their concepts before the jury convened in Chicago last month for in-person presentations by the finalists.
February 2009 Invitations to submit conceptual designs are extended. Competition is officially announced.
March 2009 Deadline for Phase One design concepts. Jury reviews all Phase One preliminary design concepts.
April 2009 Three finalist firms and three “honorable mentions” are announced to the public. Finalist firms begin Phase Two design work .
June 2009 Finalist firms present Phase Two design concepts to the jury. Jury selects a winner; work begins on a scale model.
July 8, 2009 Winner and design concepts are made public. Scale model of winning design goes on display.
August 2009 Public meetings on the memorial begin. Exhibit opens at The Field Museum.
2011 Estimated completion of memorial.
Working with the Chicago Park District and consultant Edward Uhlir, FAIA, the Burnham Memorial Committee considered a number of possible locations. The site just north of The Field Museum was ultimately selected for a variety of reasons, according to Fred Brandstrader, AIA, chairman of the Burnham Memorial Committee: “Where better to share the story of Burnham’s visionary impact on Chicago than on the Museum Campus, a center devoted to education? Located in the front yard of a great museum designed by Burnham himself, this site offers a perfect vantage point from which to observe what the Plan of Chicago means to this great city.”
The competition, formally known as the Burnham Memorial Design Competition, is privately funded by the Richard H. Driehaus Charitable Lead Trust and overseen by the AIA Chicago Foundation.
Competition organizers will now seek formal public approval for the proposed memorial. The schedule of public meetings will be posted on AIA Chicago’s website as they are confirmed. They will also be launching a fundraising campaign, since construction would be funded through private donations and sponsorships.
The memorial would cost an estimated $5 million to create.[1]
Gia Biagi, Director of Planning and Development for the Chicago Park District
Howard Decker, Project Director of Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn (EE&K) in Washington
George Hargreaves, Design Director of Hargreaves Associates, a professional consulting firm comprising landscape architects and planners with offices in San Francisco, Cambridge, Massachusetts, New York City, and London
Tony Jones, Professor and Chancellor of The School of the Art Institute in Chicago
Douglas Kelbaugh, FAIA, Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan A. Alfred Taubman School of Architecture (currently on leave serving as the Executive Director of Architecture and Planning for Limitless, LLC, an international development company)
Dr. Kristen Schaffer, an expert on Daniel Burnham and the Plan of Chicago and the author of Daniel H. Burnham: Visionary Architect and Planner
Michael Vergason, FASLA, FAAR, President of Michael Vergason Landscape Architects, Ltd. in Alexandria, Virginia
The Burnham Memorial Design Competition was modeled on AIA National Design Competition guidelines and overseen by Edward Uhlir, FAIA, professional advisor.
Recognizing that participants would invest an enormous amount of effort and resources into this creative endeavor, the organizers wanted to offer some monetary compensation. Thanks to the generous support from the Richard H. Driehaus Charitable Lead Trust, organizers were able to offer an honorarium of $5,000 to each of the firms that submitted Phase One designs. This support allowed organizers to offer larger honorariums for the three entries that advanced to Phase Two of the competition.
Listed in alphabetical order:
Contestants selected to proceed to Phase 2:
Honorable Mention:
A web gallery showcasing all of the proposed designs for the memorial is available at AIA Chicago. Competition organizers will publish a catalog in late 2009 detailing all of the proposals received. Until the formal exhibition at The Field Museum opens, the scale model of DWA’s design will be on display at AIA Chicago.
The winning concept for the memorial was created by David Woodhouse Architects, LLC (DWA), a local firm known for its work designing public spaces in and around Chicago.
The Memorial offers an opportunity to reconnect the site—disconnected from the whole by Lake Shore Drive—by completing the geometry and providing a public anchor to the southeast corner of Grant Park. Placing the Memorial in the exact corner, from its elevated position, allows the visitor to make this connection to its place in the City as they look down the line of Roosevelt Rd or along the waters edge. The Memorial's design is rooted in classical precedent (the Athenian Acropolis itself has a diagonal approach up an incline past an off-center cubic volume to a central pedimented portico) and principles of axiality—just as Burnham's designs were. Anchored by the classically formed axis of the Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium, it also recognizes the contemporary realities of the functional planning of generous public space by merging these elements within a site that is asymmetrically weighted to emphasize the spectacular views available.[2]
DWA’s design solution has three primary elements – a Corner, Overlook, and Lawn. The Corner formation of two memorial walls depicts elements of Burnham’s plan of downtown Chicago on the exterior and invites visitors to step inside for a near-panoramic view of the plan’s achievements. The Overlook forms a timeline of Chicago’s evolution from undisturbed prairie to the present and beyond. The Lawn, which slopes down to the waterfront, offers a grassy expanse from which to view the skyline and the lakefront. A three-dimensional scale model of DWA’s design will be on display today at the offices of the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA Chicago), along with all of the conceptual designs created as part of the competition. The scale model and all competition entries will be featured in an exhibition opening on Friday, August 21, 2009 in the T. Kimball and Nancy N. Brooker Gallery at The Field Museum.
DWA’s conceptual design takes advantage of the location itself to emphasize the Burnham legacy. As visitors step “inside” the Corner formation, “they are immediately confronted with the stunning view of the Plan’s handiwork – Grant Park meeting Lake Michigan, with the city’s center beyond,” explained David Woodhouse, FAIA. Inside the Corner, walls of highly polished material reflect views of the city onto the memorial. “This isn’t a monument designed to represent Burnham,” said Woodhouse. “It’s about connecting us to him and the city. Because the city is Burnham’s true monument.”
The proposal developed by DWA was the unanimous selection of the seven-member jury. One member of the panel summed up the jury’s reaction: “They did a superb job. Their solution is sensitively played and brilliantly understated.” Another told architect David Woodhouse, “You made the argument that this is the perfect site – you did it through design.”
“The design has an architectural elegance to it.”
“I love the effortlessness of the concept.”
“It has elegance, simplicity and, in the end, it’s a modern solution. It almost looks inevitable. It’s that appropriate to the site.”
“It’s minimal, respectful and restrained.”
“You made the argument that this is the perfect site. You did it through design.”
“The design is a real winner. We are very lucky to have it. In fact, it’s going to do the city proud and do Burnham proud.”
Edward K. Uhlir, FAIA
Ed Uhlir was Director of Architecture and Engineering and then the Director of Research and Planning at the Chicago Park District until his appointment in 1998 by Mayor Richard M. Daley as the Director of Design of the Millennium Park Project. He is now a consultant and the Executive Director of Millennium Park Incorporated (MPI) with the responsibility of managing the maintenance and improvement of the public art and gardens of Millennium Park; representing MPI with the Mayor, various government agencies and the public; managing MPI staff and budget; directing and designing continued additions and improvements for Millennium Park and assisting the City with the continued programming, maintenance and development of Millennium Park. He also is a consultant to various private and public organizations regarding park planning and development and an Adjunct Professor of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago.
A graduate of the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois, Chicago he received the Alumni Association’s 2002 City Partner Award. He has received many other awards including the Burnham Award for Excellence in Planning from the Metropolitan Planning Council, the American Society of Landscape Architects National Honor Award for the Lincoln Park Framework Plan, the Chicago Civic Federation Urban Innovation Award and the Friends of Downtown Award for Lifetime Achievement. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and the Chicago Chapter presented him with its Distinguished Service Award in 1999. Ed Uhlir and Millennium Park have received over 40 awards including the Barrier-Free America Award from the Paralyzed Veterans of America and the American Institute of Architects, 2006 National Honor Award for Urban Design.
He is the Secretary of NeighborSpace, a land trust for community gardens and is a Member of Mayor Daley’s Parks and Open Space Committee. Ed Uhlir is also a recognized authority on park development, has lectured to a wide variety of audiences all over the world, and has authored Ark in the Park, The Story of Lincoln Park Zoo.
The competition has drawn criticism from civic activists and architecture critics who argued that other problems on the lakefront, such as the lack of a Lake Shore Drive pedestrian crossing between Queens Landing and Buckingham Fountain, should rate higher on the civic priority list than improving the 11-year-old Museum Campus.[3]