David A' Lanegran

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Geography of the Twin Cities
Development Part 6 Planning Response to the
Industrial City
David A. Lanegran Geography Department Macalester
College
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The World Fair grounds in Chicago in 1892
resulted in the development of a new attitude
toward industrial cities. This fair was visited
by more people that any event in the history of
the world. The Chicago-based railroads brought
people from all across the country to visit the
grounds with its pavilion and the exciting Midway
entertainment district. It was an opportunity to
show off all sorts of new designs and styles.
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The Fair Committee gave the task of designing the
fair to Daniel Burnham, a Chicago architect who
was devoted to the City Beautiful Movement and
the Beaux Arts Style. He was essentially a
backward looking designer who used classical
motives and French Second Empire styles. It is
interesting to note that the Fair Committee did
not select Louis Sullivan or one of the other
modern architects working in the city at the
time.
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The City Beautiful movement argued that cities
did not have to be ugly to make money. The
fairgrounds were filled with huge, white fanciful
buildings, statues and public spaces that were
fundamentally different from the gritty
industrial cities of the time. The visitors were
mesmerized.
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However, most builders of cities largely ignored
the proponents of City Beautiful planning and
instead built structures like the Federal Court
Building in St. Paul (now Landmark Center) which
was built out to the lot line in the
Richardsonian Romanesque style.
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The leaders of Minneapolis were proponents of the
City Beautiful movement and hired Burnham's firm
to create a plan for the city which was released
in 1917. This is the frontice piece. Burnham
viewed Minneapolis as if it were a great
metropolis, although he did not make detailed
plans for the entire area until he clearly
understood the connections among the various
parts. He designed a metro area with Minneapolis
as the core.
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He believed a city needed a grand entrance. For
him that was the railroad depot. Therefore, he
proposed that two new depots be built in the
gateway district of the city which would provide
a grand backdrop to a busy and attractive public
space.
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He also wished to redesign the north façade of
the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Fair Oaks
Park. The chief design element is a grand
boulevard coming from the center via the Art
Institute onto Lake Harriet's northeast shore.
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This grand boulevard was justified as a solution
to traffic problems encountered by suburban
commuters and a way to provide housing for higher
income people in the city. The boulevard would be
a way to clear low quality housing in an early
urban renewal program. In addition, it would
provide a fire break in the event of a
conflagration such as the ones that devastated
Chicago and San Francisco.
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This is the Watergate where the boulevard
terminated on the shore of Lake Harriet. It is
the approximate location of the Rose Garden.
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Great effort was devoted to a plan for the
redevelopment of the Mississippi. The Mansard
roofs tell us that Burnham was using Paris as his
model. He also wanted all the bridges over the
river rebuilt to be more attractive. His idea of
a riverfront park has been implemented in recent
years.
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The plan also called for new crosscutting high
traffic roads and a new community in Northeast
Minneapolis.
13
The wall to wall development of mansard roofed
apartments he foresaw in the city contrasted
sharply with the single family homes in the
existing neighborhoods. He dismissed these
structures as a great solution for small towns
but not a good solution to the needs of the
regional capital.
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Burnham's plan was never implemented, and the
real estate companies built a city that would
yield high profits, adopting the skyscraper
design and technology developed in Chicago by
Sullivan and others. Burnham hated skyscrapers
for him they were bad because they concentrated
large numbers of people at one base location,
which created traffic problems. Also, they cast
shadows on neighboring blocks and the upper
floors could not be reached by existing
firefighting equipment. Furthermore, Burnham
believed they were just monuments to man's
vanity. When the Foshay Tower opened, John Philip
Sousa lead a band around the block playing the
Foshay Tower March. He was not paid for the music
and so it was not published until the 1990s.
Foshay did not live to enjoy his office tower,
but it provides us with an excellent example of
the changing nature of business in cities. The
service sector expanded greatly in the 1920s and
cities shifted away from a manufacturing base.
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The City of St. Paul hired the Burnham firm to do
a plan in 1926. Burnham also tried to get the
contract for the city hall and county court
house. He designed this tremendous structure that
was intended for the area where the Science
Museum of Minnesota and the River Centre now
stands.
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He was still interested in the railroad depot as
the front door of cities, so he redesigned a few
blocks near the St. Paul Union Depot, finished in
1917.
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The City rejected Burnham's design for the
courthouse and instead built an outstanding
example of a Streamline Modern skyscraper.
However, the government's and court's function
soon outgrew this building and have filled
numerous other structures in the city center.
Burnham may have known more about the future of
the city and its employment structure that he is
given credit for.