Reading summary

Wacker’s manual of the plan of Chicago. Moody, Walter Dwight, 1874-1920. [Chicago, Printed by Calumet publishing company] 1916.

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112000754926

Public Domain, Google-digitized http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-google

We have determined this work to be in the public domain, meaning that it is not subject to copyright. Users are free to copy, use, and redistribute the work in part or in whole. It is possible that current copyright holders, heirs or the estate of the authors of individual portions of the work, such as illustrations or photographs, assert copyrights over these portions. Depending on the nature of subsequent use that is made, additional rights may need to be obtained independently of anything we can address. The digital images and OCR of this work were produced by Google, Inc. (indicated by a watermark on each page in the PageTurner). Google requests that the images and OCR not be re-hosted, redistributed or used commercially. The images are provided for educational, scholarly, non-commercial purposes.

WACKER’S MANUAL OF THE

PLAN OF CHICAGO

Municipal Economy

! Especially Prepared for Study in the Schools of Chicago

Auspices of the CHICAGO PLAN COMMISSION

HOTEL SHERMAN CHICAGO

BY WALT E R D . MO O D Y Managing Director, Chicago Plan Commission

SECOND EDITION

I 9 16 iii

70 WACKER’S MANUAL OF THE PLAN OF CHICAGO

CHAPTER XI

THE PLAN OF CHICAGO, ITS PURPOSE AND MEANING

The Plan of Chicago, to direct the future growth of this city along proper lines, is the greatest plan of any American city.

the past built according to a definite plan, aimed to avoid the crowding of large numbers of people into small areas. They were planned for ease of movement of merchandise and people from one part of the city to another. We modern people, owing to the advance in science during our times, have still another aim. This is to create and preserve conditions promoting

[….“*

CHICAGO. Plan of a Complete System of Street Circulation and System of Parks and Playgrounds,Presenting the City as an Organism in which all the Functions are Related One to Another. [Copyrighted by the Commercial Club.]

Modern people are realizing more and more each year that city planning is one of the most important problems which our cities must solve. This is true because the guid ing of the physical growth of a city along practical as well as beautiful lines is really fundamental. City planning underlies all commercial and social problems. Cities of tions.

public health. If a city is to continue to exist, its people must be healthy and its children robust. Commercially, city planning has to do with the regular arrangement of streets within a city. Its aim is to save time and effort in traffic between the various sec

Socially, city planning has to do

PURPOSE AND MEANING OF THE CHICAGO PLAN 71

with adequate provision for the public health. This is gained through the best location of parks and playgrounds and the opening to light and air of crowded housing districts. A proper city plan is the founda tion for all social and commercial advance. For people to continue healthy and happy, they must have proper houses in which to live. Adequate street facilities affect the housing problem, as people must be able to go quickly and easily to and from their homes and places of business. The Plan of Chicago solves our vital problems of congestion, traffic and public health. The completion of the plan will do away with crowding in the city and its streets and so promote the health and happiness of all. It will make traffic more convenient and so make it easier and cheaper to carry on business. Thus the wealth of the city and its people will in crease more rapidly than would otherwise be possible. The plan will give Chicago more and larger parks and playgrounds and better and lighter streets. Hence the whole people will be more healthy and better able to carry on the work of our great city. All over the world today, cities are grow ing as they never did before. Steam and electric transportation have made it easy to supply food for multitudes. Modern manufacturing methods draw large num bers of men together in cities to cheaply produce clothing, machinery and the varied supplies people need in their daily lives. No country in the world has given rise so rapidly to large cities as the United States. At the beginning of the civil war, only three per cent of the people of the United States lived in cities. Forty-six per cent of our people now live in large cities. Twelve per cent live in the three cities of New York, Philadelphia and Chicago.

Authorities, who have studied city growth for years, tells us that this move ment of mankind towards cities has only started. They say that it is sure to con tinue with increasing force for many years to come. At the same time other men of science have devoted their lives to a study of the effect of city life upon humanity. They declare to us that the physical con dition of city dwellers is rapidly declining in comparison with that of those who live in the country. Everyone realizes that city life is more intense and nerve strain ing than out-of-door country life. City life saps the energy of men and makes them less efficient. The remedy for this lies in providing increased means of open air recreation, better sanitation in city houses and more light and air in city Streets. The Plan of Chicago provides for com plying with this imperative demand. It forms the foundation upon which proper recreation facilities may be supplied at the most essential locations. Sufficient park area in a great city is the thing most necessary next to a convenient and orderly street arrangement. Unless Chicago solves the problems outlined in the Plan of Chi cago, it cannot continue to grow and the people continue to be healthy, happy and prosperous. As the only means to avoid civic disaster due to haphazard growth, our city has entered upon the big constructive task of carrying out the Plan of Chicago. This general plan, with its two hundred miles of street improvements, its park and playground sites and its magnificent de velopment of the shore of Lake Michigan,

is fundamentally hygenic and humani tarian. The Plan of Chicago provides for the easy movement of traffic, by widening and extending existing streets, by cutting new

72 WACKER’S MANUAL OF THE PLAN OF CHICAGO

ones and by properly connecting al l Inland, it proposes a vast system of good

thoroughfares. It proposes also parks and roads encircling and radiating from the playgrounds in each section of the city. It city. These would give convenient access suggests a superb system of waterfront between the city and the magnificent parks, lagoons, driveways, harbors, and system of outer parks or forest preserves pleasure piers along the shore of Lake now being created just outside the city Michigan. These would extend twenty-one limits on all sides. miles from the Indiana State Line of the Two other questions of large public im south to Wilmette on the north. It con- portance are closely allied to the work of

tains provision for the improvement of the the Chicago Plan Commission. One is- CHICAGO. view looking West over the City, Showing the Proposed Civic Center, the Grand Axis,

Grant Park and the Harbor. Copyrighted by the Commercial Club.]

banks of the Chicago River. It provides the question of proper houses for the people for adequate transportation facilities, in- living in the congested districts. The Chi cluding the proper location of freight and cago Plan Commission felt that the ques passenger terminals, and for the location tion of housing was of such great im

of the west side postoffice and other public portance to the city that it deserved the buildings. The Plan of Chicago con- exclusive attention of a special organiza templates the creation of a five-mile course tion. It therefore suggested the creation for rowing regattas, a course for inter- of the Chicago Housing Board, and two of

national motor-boar races along the city’s its officers are members of the Board of

shore line between Grant and Jackson | Directors thereof. Parks and many large new bathing beaches. The other question is that of dividing

PURPOSE AND MEANING OF THE CHICAGO PLAN 73

the city into districts. In one kind of district only residences would be allowed, in another only factories and industries, and in a third only commerce and business. This is known as “zoning” or “districting” the city. The Chicago Plan Commission, in June, 1916, after months of study and research, started a thorough investigation into the city’s legal right to establish such districts. It is a co-incidence that almost at the same time a similar and independent movement was begun in the City Council. If the city does not have the right to establish these districts, such right will have to be secured through an act of the State Legislature. If it does have the right, however, then the way will be clear for making a comprehensive survey of the entire city so that such districts may be properly located. On October 9, 1916, a sub-committee of the City Council Com mittee on Judiciary and State Legislation began the consideration of a comprehensive report on the entire question of zoning, to the end that an adequate bill might be introduced in the State Legislature to grant the city the proper rights and powers. All of the difficulties in the way of carrying out the Plan of Chicago have been weighed carefully. In the opinion of the ablest men who have studied them, none are of sufficient importance to deter or delay us. To realize the plan, then, be comes a question of public desire. Whether the people of Chicago will determine to give the world an example of magnificent public spirit and public work may be well judged from the past. Chicago was little more than a village when the first tremendous task to try the spirit and character of her citizenship was brought forward. In the early 50’s it became apparent that it would be necessary to raise the level of all the streets within

the old city in order to secure proper drainage and protect the health of the city. To do the work was a tremendous task. There was little machinery for such labor in the city, and none at all such as is used today in engineering work. Yet the people went to work with a will to raise the streets and most of the buildings within the city. Everybody in the city worked, including the boys and girls. Soon the task the city had set itself to do was completed. That work, in its period, was a much more serious undertaking for the few thousand people who did it, than the rearrangement of streets according to the Plan of Chicago will be to a city of millions of people with modern machinery at their command. In the early 60’s Chicago undertook to acquire and improve a chain of parks and public grounds surrounding the city on three sides. This was when the idea of creating large city parks was new. A plan was adopted in which all the people had an interest and in which the city looked to everybody to do his share to advance the work. We all know how well this plan, undertaken by only a fraction of the num ber of people now living in Chicago, be came a reality. Parks were created which have served the city well and sufficiently until recent years, and it never was a burden upon the people to pay for them. Next, between 1880 and 1890, came the problem of Chicago’s water supply and of disposal of the city’s sewage. The people again rallied together. Conceiving the idea of digging a drainage canal, they energetic ally set about that formidable duty. They worked for years and spent $60,000,000 before they completed the civic feat which gives us of today the splendid benefits of the sanitary waterway. The joy of Chicago’s people in doing vast

74 WACKER’S MANUAL OF THE PLAN OF CHICAGO

public works was not abated in the drainage celebration of the 400th anniversary of canal construction. Before that big work America’s discovery by Columbus was a was completed, in fact, the people entered thrilling civic feat. Nothing like it had ever upon another enter p r is e which g a ve the i r c i t y worldwide fame —the World’s Columbian Ex position, out of which came the idea of the Plan of Chicago. The people joined hands through a committee of citizens. In a short time $20, 000,000 W as raised to spend- – – – CHICAGO. Clark Street in 1857, showing street level being111buildings and

raised. [Original Owned by Chicago Historical Society.]grounds. The before been given thought as possible in any city. These four tasks are the principal ones up on which Chicago’s fame as a city of great publicspirit a n d loyalty of citi Zen ship has been founded. Thus, through out the entire

Chicago Drainage Canal. history of the city has been

raising of that huge sum of money for the proven the readiness of the people of purpose of a public entertainment in Chicago to take up large plans for public

PURPOSE AND MEANING OF THE CHICAGO PLAN 75

improvements. Thus has been proven the faith of all the people of Chicago in their city’s future and power. Truly Chicago’s history is such as to indicate that its people will not let slip an opportunity to achieve such necessary improvements and greatness for their city as lies within the Plan of Chicago. The crowning necessity for the adoption of the Plan of Chicago by the city is shown in the fact that in the twenty-five years between 1880 and 1905 the people of Chicago expended $225,000.000 for ex traordinary public improvements with nothing to show for this vast sum but a city grown by chance and without order. Tur ing that time the people of Chicago actually spent for improvements but $35, 000,000 less than the city of Paris expended upon its plan for the rebuilding of the entire city which has made it the most beautiful and attractive city in the world. A still stronger reason than comes to us from our history indicates that the Plan of Chicago will be the next public enter prise which the citizens will undertake. That reason is the growing love of good order, due to advance in education. We all know that we would not allow today in our cities such conditions as we are told were usual in the days of our fathers. We may well believe, then, that the people of the future will not tolerate such conditions as surround us today. We are learning new lessons in municipal economy, in hygiene, and in city govern ment. We are learning that means and methods of time, labor and health saving are valuable to a city. We are learning that attractive surroundings encourage good morals. We are learning more and more every day the things that are neces sary to promote good conditions within our city. We are every day making

greater and greater demands upon the city, and we realize that our responsi bilities and duties as citizens grow greater and greater every day. Nearly two hundred American cities today are engaged upon some feature of city planning effort. Credit, however, be longs to Chicago for having the first com plete plan for an entire city. For the accomplishment of its plan Chicago has a citizenship which has never shrunk from big tasks for the common good. Chicago’s people, awake and alive to their oppor tunities, are preparing for Chicago’s des tiny. They are marching forward, shoulder to shoulder, toward the prosperity that unquestionably will come to the city through the development of the Plan of Chicago. – 1. What are the purposes of city planning? Why are the populations of cities growing so rapidly, and what percent of our people now live in cities? State briefly in your own words what the Plan of Chicago provides for the city. What was the big public task under taken by the citizens of Chicago in the early 50’s? What task did they accomplish in the early 60’s, and how do the children of today benefit from it?

. How did the people of Chicago solve our problem of water supply and sewage disposal? • .

What great civic feat was accomplished by our fathers and mothers between 1880-90? Why will the Plan of Chicago probably be the next public work undertaken by the people of Chicago? Why may we be sure that our citizens will accomplish the beneficial improve ments suggested in the Plan of Chicago?

REALIZING THE PLAN OF CHICAGO 123

CHAPTER XVIII. citizens who are proud of Chicago andanxious to see their home city grow in- power, importance and good order. REALIZING THE PLAN We have seen, though, that in the earnest

desire to make the future Chicago theOF CHICAGO ideal great city of the world, some of the most far-sighted and able citizens of our

There have been presented in the previ- city have labored together for a long our chapters only some of the larger and time, and as a result of their labor we more important facts bearing upon the have been given the Plan of Chicago. The

CHICAGO. Suggested improvement of Michigan Avenue, view looking North from a Point East of the Public Library. [Copyrighted by the Commercial Club.]

Plan of Chicago. No idea can be given men interested in the production of this in this volume of the immense amount of plan do not say it is perfect in every de study and labor involved in producing the tail. They believe, however, it is as near plan, and of the infinite pains and pa- perfection as architectural skill makes tience required to work out all the details | possible, considering the physical condi and fit them together perfectly. No idea, tions within the city. They are giving us either, can be given in a sketch of the plan this design for a future city in confident so brief as this one, of the amounts of belief that it points the way for us to very money and the many days and hours of greatly improve our magnificent Chicago. time devoted to the Plan of Chicago by | When it is worked out in any of its details,

124 WACKER’S MANUAL OF THE PLAN OF CHICAGO

they say, we will have a better and more convenient city, and when it is completed in all its details Chicago will stand alone among all the world’s great cities in pub lic health, good order, attractiveness and civic economy. The men who have produced and given to us the Plan of Chicago have not done their work blindly. They realized, when they undertook their task, that Chicago was a city of great accomplishments. They knew that the plan, when completed, was

|

CHICAGO. Twelfth Street.

to be given into the care of a people who never have failed or faltered in their devotion to their city. They knew that no task, however great, has ever proven too great a task for the people of Chicago to undertake, and that when Chicago’s men and women start out to do anything nothing can keep them from SU1(*GeSS.

It is realized, in giving the people of Chicago this plan for a complete, beautiful and unified city, that they are being asked

to carry out a great work, and one which will occupy them for many years. It is probable that in carrying out the plan some changes will have to be made in our laws. It is clear that we can have these changes whenever the people desire them. One of these changes that might be desirable is to have a law passed by which the city could take over from the owners all the property along a street, widen the street as much as necessary, and then resell the remaining property. Where

Typical scene of building removal for the 42 foot widening, 1916.

ever streets have been widened in Chicago it has been found that land values upon them have increased immediately in sums large enough to more than repay the cost of widening. If the city had been the owner and could have secured the profits resulting from the increase, the widening would not only have cost nothing, but would have been a source of profit. Under the law as it is today the city can take over for purposes of improvement only such property as is actually needed for the im

REALIZING THE PLAN OF CHICAGO 125

provement. Usually such property is se cured only at high cost. All of the difficulties in the way of car rying out the Plan of Chicago have been weighed carefully, and none of them are of sufficient consequence, in the opinion of the ablest men who have studied them, to deter or delay us. To realize the plan then, becomes a question of public desire, and whether the people of Chicago will deter mine to give the world an example of mag nificent public spirit and public work may well be judged from the past. Throughout the entire history of the city there has been proven the readiness of the people of Chi cago to take up large plans for public im provements. Truly Chicago’s history is such as to demonstrate that its people will not let slip such an opportunity to achieve such necessary improvements and greatness for their city as lies within the Plan of Chicago.

In crystalizing in our minds the various aims of the Plan of Chicago, to decide for ourselves, perhaps, what feature is the most necessary to begin upon at once, we naturally conclude there are four main ele– ments in the plan. These are: 1. The systematic arrangement of the streets and avenues within the city in or der to save time and effort in the move ment of people and merchandise between the various parts of the city. This in cludes the cutting of new streets where necessary in and through the congested parts of the city. It includes the widening of many streets to care for increased traf fic, to add to the city’s attractiveness and to conserve our greatest asset—the health of the people. 2. The centralization and improvement of our railway terminals, the perfection of harbors, and the creation of a proper sys tem of transportation. This includes the

CHICAGO: Twelfth Street. Removing old buildings for the 42-foot widening, 1916.

126 WACKER’S MANUAL OF THE PLAN OF CHICAGO

building of a general dock system near the mouth of Chicago river, and a coal and grain dock system on the lake at South Chicago, with a warehousing and freight center for all through merchandise at a point southwest of Chicago, the whole connected by belt railways. 3. The acquirement and development of an extended park system to supply the needs of the city for all time to come. This includes the building of islands along the lake front, providing an enclosed lagoon skirting the entire city shore; the secur ing of a park a mile or more square upon each of the three sides of the city, and their con nection by a majestic bow shaped boule vard and the || purchase of ex tensive wood lands lying in a broad belt in the suburban territory, to be held forever as places for picnics and recreation of city dwellers. 4. The development of a civic center so located as to give coherence and unity to the city. This includes the securing of a large area at West Congress and South Halsted streets, at the convergence of numerous new diagonal streets, and the holding of this tract near the city’s geo graphical center for gradual improvement. In reporting the street plan the archi tects of the Plan of Chicago admitted that it involves a very considerable amount of money. It was added in their report that it will be found in Chicago, as in other cities, that the opening of new thorough

CHICAGO: Canal Street. Old Union Station at Adams Street. [Copyrighted by Chicago Plan Commission]

fares, although meaning a large expense to initiate the work, creates a large increase in values. This is due to increase in con venience and the creation of large num bers of new and very valuable building sites adjoining the new streets. The cost will amount to many millions of dollars, but the result will be a continuous benefit for all dwellers in Chicago. The suggestions of the Plan of Chicago in regard to the railroads and the har bors are many and serious. The aim is to produce results beneficial to all interests —the manufacturers and shippers who

patronize the railroads by im proving service; the railroads themselves by making their service to the public more ef fe c ti v e a n d therefore more largely patroniz ed. Over all considerations, however, is that

– of economy in the handling of freight at Chicago as a shipping center. The methods of the plan will give to the manufacturers and shippers all the advantages which naturally should be theirs, and so mean constant operation of factories and employment of the people. The commercial prosperity of the com munity is represented by the cost per ton of handling freight into and out of the Chicago territory. General changes in railroad con ditions take years to accomplish, but the public will not be compelled to pay for the changes suggested in the plan. They will be railroad enterprises, undertaken by the railroads and carried out by the railroads.

REALIZING THE PLAN OF CHICAGO 127

As to the park plans, it is imperative that extensive additions be made to our public recreation grounds. The location and arrangement of the parks and park ways of Chicago today are entirely inade quate to the future of the city. Fifty years ago, before the population of the city was large and densely crowded together, peo ple could live in comfort and good order without public parks, because of the ex istence of large open spaces. We of today can not do without parks. They are a vital

ing it five feet above the surface of water fifteen feet deep. The park authorities, then, would have only to furnish breakwa ters and finish off the ground. The dirt to be removed in the construction of subways in the city, when that work is undertaken, will go far to help redeem the lake front. The creation there of an extremely beau tiful and useful public recreation ground will involve very little public expense. The extensive woodlands proposed as forests for the people, make an additional

CHICAGO. Canal Street. New Union Station at Jackson Boulevard, replacing the old station at Adams Street.

necessity to the city. We regard the pro motion of robust health of body and mind as necessary to good citizenship, which is, after all, the prime object of good city planning. The lake front improvement from Wil mette to the Indiana line is an economic necessity. We have noted before the enor mous amount of waste material seeking dumping ground on the lake shore because it is the cheapest place to deposit it. En gineers say this material is sufficient to fill

in one hundred acres of land per year, rais

park feature not usually designed for cit ies in America, but almost invariably used

in Europe. The cost of these wooded sites will be considerable, and it must be borne by the public, but the people will gain from the fifty thousand acres of forests, in

health and recreation, much more return than money invested in any other security so safe as that land could earn them. These outer parks can be acquired and im proved within ten years, and if the cost

is distributed over that period it will not prove burdensome. The health and joy of

128 WACKER’S MANUAL OF THE PLAN OF CHICAGO

living of all the people will be increased, and incidentally the value of all real estate within and around the city will be in creased. The interurban highway system to link the outer parks together can be realized very cheaply. Ninety-five per cent of the roads exist now. The remaining five per cent can be acquired at small cost, which will be widely distributed through many townships, and will serve to connect and complete the system. The cost of concrete roadways and

its establishment can be created. Values at that point are reasonable, but are sure to advance. If the city were to take the land today it could be cleared of buildings and treated as park space for a time, and the various buildings in the plan could be erected as they are found necessary, all being put up in accordance with a plan adopted at the start. To adopt such a scheme of purchase would save a very large sum in the purchase of public build ing sites in future, and also give stability

to real estate tree planting to provide shade for travelers upon them will be only inciden tal. The We St Side park has already been established. To acquire the land for the park necessary for the South Side is a matter of comparatively small expense now. The land selected is almost entirely vacant, stretch ing for hundreds of acres as farms and truck gardens. The North Side tract would prove much more costly. Since the plan was drawn much of the territory pro posed for the park in question has been cut up into lots, and numerous substantial buildings have been erected. The cost, however, would not be prohibitive, even if the park work there is to be delayed for ten or twenty years. The land necessary for the civic center should be secured as soon as sentiment for

[Copyrig

|NOls’– *:

CHICAGO. Park Row. To be merged into new East Twelfth Street. Old Illinois Central passenger station and adjacent buildings, 1916£ by Chicago Plan Commission]

values in the vicinity. It would be an ex cellent thing for the City to es tablish the civic center on the West Side, as it would give that side of the city the impetus toward higher standards in construction of which it is so much in need. The cost of the civic center

should be paid by the whole community. Summing up the subject of cost of adopting the Plan of Chicago, it seems probable that the plans for outer highways and of all the lake front improvements will come about naturally and without great expense to the city. The railways will pay most of the expense of their changes and betterments, which leaves all the cost of the civic center, of the parks and park ways, and of the street development for the general public to pay. The community has ample financial ability to do this.

— – – NOBEY- TREADS-

Our website has a team of professional writers who can help you write any of your homework. They will write your papers from scratch. We also have a team of editors just to make sure all papers are of HIGH QUALITY & PLAGIARISM FREE. To make an Order you only need to click Ask A Question and we will direct you to our Order Page at WriteDemy. Then fill Our Order Form with all your assignment instructions. Select your deadline and pay for your paper. You will get it few hours before your set deadline.