American Planning Association, Planners Press, 2013
Urban planning might have been born in Chicago (“Make no little plans”), but that was more than a century ago, in a very different city. Today’s city is not the product of Daniel Burnham, the White City, or Mrs. O’Leary’s cow. It’s the Rust Belt Metropolis That Could — the one that has not only thrived but shouldered its way onto the list of global cities. But what did planning have to do with it? Where did planning steer the city right, where did it fail, and where was it ignored? Most important, what does planning have to offer the city today?
In Planning Chicago, Hunt and DeVries tell the real stories of the planners, politicians, and everyday people who shaped contemporary Chicago, starting in 1958, early in the Richard J. Daley era. Over the ensuing decades, planning did much to develop the Loop, protect Chicago’s famous lakefront, and encourage industrial growth and neighborhood development in the face of national trends that savaged other cities. But planning also failed some of Chicago’s communities and did too little for others. The Second City is no longer defined by its past and its myths but by the nature of its emerging postindustrial future.
Planning Chicago looks beyond Burnham’s giant shadow to see the sprawl and scramble of a city always on the make. This isn’t the way other history books tell the story. But it’s the Chicago way.
Available from Taylor & Francis and Amazon
Press Release, Planning Chicago, April 2, 2013 (pdf)
Planning Chicago excerpt, January 2013 (pdf)
Video of Hunt and DeVries presenting at the City Club of Chicago, November 21, 2013 (YouTube)
Video Podcast of Hunt and DeVries discussing Planning Chicago (YouTube)
Review by Blair Kamin in the Chicago Tribune, October 31, 2013 (pdf)
Review by Greg Hinz in Crain’s Chicago Business, April 27, 2013 (pdf)
DeVries, Hunt, and Pollock Op-Ed in the Chicago Tribune, November 24, 2013 (pdf)
DeVries and Hunt on Chicago’s future in Urban Land, October 10, 2013
DeVries and Hunt profiled in Roosevelt Review Magazine, Fall 2013 (pdf)
Chicago Tribune Editorial on Comprehensive Plan for Chicago, February 2, 2014 (pdf)