Urban Planning

Map from the Plan of Chicago showing
proposed parks, including the indicated
Skokie Valley Reserve, 1909.

 

As Daniel Burnham wrote in the Plan of Chicago, “natural scenery furnishes the contrasting element to the artificiality of the city.  All of us should often run away from the works of men’s hands and back into the wilds, where mind and body are restored to a normal condition, and we are enabled to take up the burden of life in our crowded streets and endless stretches of buildings with renewed vigor and hopefulness.”

The Plan of Chicago

Urban planning emerged around the turn of the 20^th century as a way to deal with the problems caused by industrialization and the booming populations of America’s cities.  In Chicago, inspiration for planning came from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.  The picturesque and orderly White City of the fairgrounds stood in stark contrast to the chaotic, filthy streets that characterized much of Chicago.

In 1906, lead architect of the World’s Columbian Exposition, Daniel Burnham, along with architect Edward Bennett began work on a comprehensive plan for the city, sponsored by the Commercial Club of Chicago.  Published in 1909, the Plan of Chicago called for reforms in the way that the city used its space in order to improve the lives of citizens.

One of the most important recommendations of the Plan included increasing parkland along the lakefront, within the city, and around the city beyond its corporate limits.  The proposed greenbelt of parks had been suggested several years earlier by the city’s Special Park Commission.  Both the Commission’s 1904 report and the Plan of Chicago recommended including the Skokie Marsh among the areas to be preserved.

The recognition by prominent civic leaders of the Skokie Marsh as a valuable natural space signaled its importance to the larger community, and that its fate would not be decided by local residents alone.

Edward H. Bennett, co-author of the
Plan of Chicago and Plan of Winnetka.

Plan of Winnetka

The success of the Plan of Chicago inspired other cities and towns to create comprehensive plans.  In 1921, Winnetka published its own plan for development, created in cooperation with Plan of Chicago co-author, Edward Bennett.  The Plan of Winnetka became a guide for the growth of the village, with most of the major proposed reforms eventually completed.

One of the biggest issues that the Plan addressed was the Skokie Marsh.  As the population grew, residential development pushed west toward the marsh.  Seasonal flooding became a problem for these new residents, and some wanted the marsh drained.  But many people in Winnetka and the Chicago area appreciated the beauty of the marsh and wanted to preserve it.  Echoing the advice of the Plan of Chicago, the Plan of Winnetka called for it to be protected.

By 1921, plans were already in place for the area to be acquired by the newly-created Forest Preserve District of Cook County.  The Plan of Winnetka endorsed this proposal, declaring that “to border on such a preserve would be the greatest good fortune for Winnetka and no effort should be spared to bring it about.”