The Burnham Plan Centennial is a moment-in-time opportunity to develop Bold New Plans for a sustainable future in terms of transportation, water, energy and quality of life issues.
How are we living?
Daniel Burnham wrote, “The people of Chicago have ceased to be impressed by rapid growth or the great size of the city. What they insist on asking now is, How are we living?” This question still resonates today. Massive congestion on our roads, continual funding crises for an aging public transportation system, and ever-expanding growth patterns are causing people to ask the same question.
The Centennial year of 2009 will be a time to plan for the next century. Chicago Metropolis 2020 will produce a practical vision for investing in a dynamic 21st-century transportation system for the region and lead a campaign for its implementation. The transportation agenda that comes out of Chicago Metropolis 2020’s work – along with other agendas for water, energy, and open space that will be part of the Centennial – will help to set federal and state policy agendas.
Go To 2040 Regional Plan
The new Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) will use the Burnham Centennial as a springboard for stimulating widespread public participation in developing its GO TO 2040 regional plan – the first since Burnham’s – which will be published in 2010. Cultural events, lectures and public programs during the Centennial year will dovetail with the CMAP GO TO 2040 campaign, and will be designed to increase the public dialogue about pressing issues that get at the heart of how we live, how we travel from home to work, and how we make opportunity available throughout the region.
The Centennial will inspire our region’s communities, leaders and institutions to act boldly together to make our region one of the world’s best places to live and work.
Burnham Pavilions
Architectural exhibits in Millennium Park designed by London-based Zaha Hadid and Amsterdam-based Ben van Berkel of UNStudio emphasize the importance of boldly imagining a better future for all.
Leaders for Industry
In conjunction with other Local Industrial Retention Initiative (LIRI) organizations of the Chicago Department of Planning & Development, LEED Council plans to launch a planning process for the future of Chicago’s industrial corridors and planned manufacturing districts (PMDs).
Invent the Future with GO TO 2040
To coincide with the Burnham Plan Centennial, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning's GO TO 2040 campaign is making it easy for you to have your say about regional investments and policies. In this new "Invent the Future" public-input phase, you can:
- Use CMAP's MetroQuest GO TO 2040 web tools to create your own growth scenarios and compare them to CMAP's.
- Attend one of 50 GO TO 2040 "Invent the Future" workshops that CMAP will hold with partners across the seven counties.
- Visit one of the interactive GO TO 2040 kiosks at dozens of locations, including Millennium Park, Metra stations, libraries, festivals and other sites around the region.