Overview
In this volume the authors tell the real stories of the planners, politicians, and everyday people who shaped contemporary Chicago, starting in 1958, early in the Richard J. Daley era. Over the ensuing decades, planning did much to develop the Loop, protect Chicago’s famous lakefront, and encourage industrial growth and neighborhood development in the face of national trends that savaged other cities. But planning also failed some of Chicago’s communities and did too little for others. The Second City is no longer defined by its past and its myths but by the nature of its emerging postindustrial future. This volume looks beyond Burnham’s giant shadow to see the sprawl and scramble of a city always on the make. This isn’t the way other history books tell the story. But it’s the Chicago way.
Full Product Details
Author: D. Bradford Hunt ,
Jon DeVries (Roosevelt University, Chicago)
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Inc
Imprint: American Planning Association
Dimensions:
Width: 13.80cm
, Height: 2.00cm
, Length: 21.60cm
Weight: 0.489kg
ISBN: 9781611900804
ISBN 10: 1611900808
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 13 November 2013
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
Hunt and DeVries have written an accessible, handy grand tour of Chicago s planning history, which from City Beautiful to urban renewal to Millenium Park, mirrors the history of American planning at large. One-stop shopping for all that is Chicago planning: a remarkably wide ranging set of ideas and facts and history, both confirming what we know about Chicago s planning and also surprising us too. Though many take Chicago s current economic and cultural vibrancy for granted, between the boom years of the early 20th century and the current era lay the crisis of deindustrialization and outmigration from the 1950s into the 1980s. Hunt and DeVries concisely describe the transformational rebranding of Chicago from the industrial city to the globalized city and the resulting contradictions and long-term vulnerabilities: booming tourist-friendly islands and persistent poverty, inequality and demographic decline elsewhere. The book both celebrates the best of Chicago s planning but doesn t shy away from asking hard questions, concluding with a call for the reassertion of formal city planning in an era where TIFs and other financial policies serve as a problematic substitute for planning. Hunt and DeVries astutely expose a sobering irony about Chicago: this city, known as a birthplace and showcase of modern American planning, has arguably witnessed the devolution and devaluation of planning in recent decades. --Scott D. Campbell, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan
Hunt and DeVries have pulled off the impossible: they have produced an impartial treatment of postwar planning in a city where every decision to alter the built environment is politicized and contentious. A combination of meticulous research and years of experience with the projects and policies they describe allow them to navigate this high road. Happily, the authors do not just rehash well-trodden narratives of great men and their grandiose visions for the downtown or Lakefront; planning for neighborhoods, industrial districts, and the Chicago River share the stage with the Loop, filling out our understanding of who makes planning decisions and why they ultimately succeed or fail. --Rachel Weber, University of Illinois at Chicago
Hunt and DeVries have written an accessible, handy grand tour of Chicago s planning history, which from City Beautiful to urban renewal to Millenium Park, mirrors the history of American planning at large. One-stop shopping for all that is Chicago planning: a remarkably wide ranging set of ideas and facts and history, both confirming what we know about Chicago s planning and also surprising us too. Though many take Chicago s current economic and cultural vibrancy for granted, between the boom years of the early 20th century and the current era lay the crisis of deindustrialization and outmigration from the 1950s into the 1980s. Hunt and DeVries concisely describe the transformational rebranding of Chicago from the industrial city to the globalized city and the resulting contradictions and long-term vulnerabilities: booming tourist-friendly islands and persistent poverty, inequality and demographic decline elsewhere. The book both celebrates the best of Chicago s planning but doesn t shy away from asking hard questions, concluding with a call for the reassertion of formal city planning in an era where TIFs and other financial policies serve as a problematic substitute for planning. Hunt and DeVries astutely expose a sobering irony about Chicago: this city, known as a birthplace and showcase of modern American planning, has arguably witnessed the devolution and devaluation of planning in recent decades.--Scott Campbell
Author Information
D. Bradford Hunt is Vice President for Research and Academic Programs at the Newberry Library. Jon B. DeVries was founding director of the Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate at Roosevelt University in Chicago, (2002-2017).
