Plan of Chicago

"A visionary meditation on urban experience." – Carl Smith, on the Plan of Chicago

Own the volume that turned Chicago into a world-class city!

In 1909, the Commercial Club of Chicago published one of the most influential documents in the history of urban planning:

Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago.

As a Burnham Plan Centennial program partner, The Great Books Foundation is proud to announce the publication of Plan of Chicago: Centennial Edition in a superior, facsimile reprint of the original. The new volume includes:

• A fascinating introduction by Carl Smith, professor at Northwestern University and author of The Plan of Chicago: Daniel Burnham and the Remaking of the American City.
• Striking, high-quality illustrations that capture the plan in vivid four-color detail.

Available in two outstanding versions, the volume is a great addition to anyone’s personal library, or a perfect gift for anyone interested in history, Chicago, architecture, landscape design, or green space planning.

• Cloth, a limited print run in a handsome binding $125 [Collector’s Edition!]
• Paperback, offering the same production quality at value pricing $39.95

For more information, read our press release.

The Great Books Foundation is one of 250 Burnham Plan Centennial Partner institutions offering hundreds of ways for the people of Chicago's three-state metropolitan region to dream big and plan boldly. This 100th anniversary of the Plan of Chicago is once again stirring a diverse community to action on a grand scale -building the best possible quality of life for all. Visit the Burham Plan Centennial site to see what you can do. And aim high!