ATDTDA (2): The Chicago Plan / Pynchon's error? (38.30 - 31)

[Mark Kohut]

    Chicago_Fire_map.JPG‎ (41KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) 
   
  Chicago (mostly) laid out grid-like seems to have always been



Tim Strzechowski <dedalus204 at comcast.net> wrote:  As he began again to walk, the first thing he noticed was how few of the streets here followed the familiar grid pattern of the rest of town [...] (p. 38).



Hmmmm. I wonder if we've caught Pynchon in a bit of an historical error?

In the above passage, he is making reference to the street organization that Chicago is well-known for and which came to fruition as a result of Daniel Burnham's "Chicago Plan." Problem is, that plan was put into effect in 1909:



The Burnham Plan is an essay, principally authored by Daniel Burnham in 1909, entitled The Plan of Chicago. The essay was written in response to a request by the city's social and business upper crust for a detailed city plan. The Plan of Chicago was initially a project begun by the Merchants Club in 1906 and that was continued by the Commercial Club of Chicago, who published the entire plan in 1909. It proposed the moral up-building and physical beautification of Chicago. Burnham took charge of this project after being commissioned by the Merchants Club. Foremost among the project's goals was reclaiming the lakefront for the public and increasing the park areas and public playgrounds. As a result of this project, Chicago precluded waterfront industrialization. Thus, today, Chicago's Lake Michigan lakefront is Park District land composed of beaches, harbors, nature preserves, and marinas.

[...]

This plan was enacted by the executive and legislative branches of Chicago government. On July 6, 1909, the City Council of Chicago granted Mayor Fred A. Busse permission to appoint the Chicago Plan Commission. On November 1, 1909, the City Council approved Mayor Busse's appointment of the 328 men selected as members of the Commission - men broadly representative of all the business and social interests of the city. Charles H. Wacker was appointed permanent chairman by the Mayor. The plan continues to guide Chicago government through descendant governing bodies. Its influence can be seen in the development of Millennium Park, Navy Pier, and the reclamation of Meigs Field.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnham_Plan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:BurnhamPlan3.jpg



[...] Burnham's vision of the City Beautiful ideals, tentatively explored in the planning of the world's fair, was realized in his report Plan of Chicago (1909). The plan has long served as the most important of City Beautiful documents and continues to be the benchmark for planning decisions in Chicago. The Art Institute holds the largest body of documents on Burnham's life and works, including business and personal correspondence, diaries, project files, photographs, drawings, memorabilia, published and unpublished manuscripts for speeches, articles, and reports.

http://www.artic.edu/aic/libraries/rbarchives/rbarchcoll.html



Anyone care to come to P's defense here??


 
---------------------------------
Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20070208/8fc84b3f/attachment.html>