Tim Long: Daniel Burnham's Enduring Vision for the Phillippines

As Chicago celebrates the Centennial of its Burnham Plan, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs presents an exhibition of photographs taken by architectural and landscape photographer Tim Long. In a month long residency in 2008, Long documented the buildings and streets of Manila built according to its own Burnham Plan. Two years before he began work on the “Plan of Chicago,” Daniel Burnham drew plans to modernize Manila, the capitol of the Philippine Islands, and Baguio, a nearby small city. Though shifting political and economic interests in the U.S. eventually disrupted the projects, these plans continued to influence architects and city planners, even building codes, well into the 1940s.

The greatest concentration of Burnham’s legacy can still be found in Metro Manila, an urban continuum of more than 10 million people. Clustered around the large city park that Burnham designed are several graceful Beaux Arts buildings built by his protégés. Typical of Burnham’s “City Beautiful” plans for San Francisco and Chicago, street systems emanate outward from the park to eventually fade into the fabric of a remarkably chaotic urban landscape.

Tim Long: Daniel Burnham’s Enduring Vision for the Philippines is presented by the Department of Cultural Affairs. The project is supported in part by Columbia College Chicago and a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

Fri., Sept. 4, 5-7 pm: Opening Reception