Daniel Burnham quotes

Daniel Burnham was an influential American architect and urban planner, recognized for shaping the modern cityscape of Chicago and other major U.S. cities. His vision emphasized grand public spaces, wide boulevards, and orderly design. He helped design iconic buildings and led the planning of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, leaving a lasting legacy in architecture and urban planning. Here are 9 of his quotes:

The space of time in which a great work can now be accomplished is not marvelous. Brain, muscle, materials, and the means of rapid transport are instantly at command. If one has capital and a well-considered plan, the thing does itself. But that which is wonderful and which I can scarcely believe, although I have been in the midst of it, is the noble, artistic result which has come from the work of American artists who have had only a few months' time to prepare those very designs for the great buildings of the Exposition which have actually been executed with little change from the sketches which were presented in February, 1891.

Daniel Burnham

Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty.

Daniel Burnham

Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die, but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistence.

Daniel Burnham

Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us.

Daniel Burnham

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized.

Daniel Burnham

It was Chicago with its World's Fair which vivified the national desire for civic beauty.

Daniel Burnham

My subject is a city of the future under a Democratic government. Some very great men, and among them Herbert Spencer and Lord Macaulay, have predicted the downfall of the American democracy. Nevertheless, having firm confidence in our new mixture of bloods, our new environment, our searching publicity and our growing intelligence, I cannot doubt that the American democracy will persist. It takes far greater ability to subvert liberty now than ever before since man's history began, and so I promise permanence to democratic institutions. To these is vitally related the future of the cities. Plenary democracies can do what we want them to do. They have full power over men, land and goods, and can always make their laws and execute their purposes. Democratic peoples, when they perceive the value of plans to bring convenience and beauty into the hearts of cities can get such plans carried out.

Daniel Burnham

Broadly speaking, the city of the future will not bring to its center any goods not intended for use or consumption therein. At Chicago 66% of the tonnage in and out is not for home use, but for distribution to other places. In view of this fact we designed a general freight scheems for the entire city's use, with car yards, freight depots and warehouses combined, eight miles from the city, where all trains shall unload and reload. [...] I believe that such a course would be economical both for the public service companies and the city government; certainly it would prolong the life of the street paving and eliminate congestion and a constant source of dirty and disorder. Can it be doubted that the city of the future will operate its cental street system, possibly all its streets, in this manner?

Daniel Burnham