Daniel Hudson Burnham and the American city imperial

Abstract

Architecture, landscape architecture and urban design are seldom merely benign aesthetic propositions. With its victory in the Spanish-American War (1898), the United States unexpectedly found itself in possession of an empire. Within a volcanic climate of patriotic fervour, Washington's new imperial status galvanized interest in improving the city in a manner commensurate with its enlarged role. On the strength of his work at the World's Columbian Exposition (1893), celebrated architect Daniel Hudson Burnham took the lead in Washington's transformation (1901-2) and urban design became his medium for imperialist expression. This potent mechanism's deployment would not be confined to the imperial hearth. The United States soon set its sights on modernizing, that is 'Americanizing', Manila, the antique capital of its newly-acquired Philippine colony, and similarly charged Burnham with the task (1904). Overtly emulating the British Raj in India, he was also to design a wholly new summer capital there. This essay canvasses Burnham's work at the American and Philippine capitals, along with his vicarious hand in the design of a new model American town in the Panama Canal Zone, considering it through the lens of imperialism. The location and imperial purpose of these projects also reminds us that -at least from an antipodean perspective -in the early 20th century, Great Britain held no monopoly on empire.

What About Beauty in Planning Theory and Practice?

“…He developed “the institutional definition of art,” meaning that art is what artists do and what museums present; neither is necessarily related to beauty (Danto and Goehr 2014). Weitz (1965) made a similar claim, mourning the end of aesthetic discourse, and recommended developing “smaller” discussions on the essence of the different kinds of arts: literature, music, theater, and the like (Lorand 2007). Goodman (1976) also sought to exclude the term “beauty” from aesthetic discussions; he found it confusing, misleading, and often meaningless.…”

“…Unlike Howard, Le Corbusier and Wright, and in accordance with the White City model, their projects were characterized by the aesthetics of classical buildings, shaped after Grecian-Roman architecture and the major cities of Europe. Their critics, Wright among them, disapproved of the return to the nineteenth-century and the ties to European culture, but Burnham was a great believer in the power of beauty to repair urban illness and construct a better society (Vernon 2014).…”

A Comprehensive Review of Studies Focusing on the Intersection of Urban Flooding and Historic Urban Landscapes

“…First, urban flooding, though rooted in ancient planning, has become a formal research focus since the 20th century due to city expansion and rapid urbanization. This necessitated advanced flood mitigation techniques, with early efforts like Daniel Hudson Burnham's urban design for Chicago offering valuable precedent [3]. Contemporary scientific algorithms now offer intricate solutions to urban rainwater issues.…”

A Free‐Radical Pathway to Hydrogenated Phenanthrene in Molecular Clouds—Low Temperature Growth of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

“…This is accomplished throughaf orward-convolution routine that transforms the laboratory data into the center-of-mass reference frame. [38][39] The outcome is two 'best-fit" center-of-mass functions:t he translational energy P(E T ) and angular T(q) flux distributions ( Figure 3). It is important to highlight that the laboratory data couldb ef it with as ingle reaction channel leadingt oC 14 H 12 plus atomic hydrogen via the 1-naphthyl radical and 1,3-butadiene reactants.…”