Paradigm or pariah? : an architectural intervention into Daniel Burnham's timeless plan of Chicago

This thesis is not a eulogy to but an analysis of and contemporary intervention into Daniel Hudson Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago. It presses the boundary of what is known, and concentrates on dissecting and analyzing extremes brought about by the polar boundaries of (re)presentation and abstraction, in order to reveal the nature of time and move closer in my personal search for the qualities of timelessness (a timeless architecture). It allows one to imagine an instance in which Daniel Burnham's Plan for Chicago is physically overlaid upon a diagram of the city today. Then makes real the thesis, that further completions of Burnham's plan could occur through the building of appropriate architectural programs upon site transformations of coincidental junctures resulting from the juxtaposition of Burnham's plan and its corresponding contemporary overlay. This definition of appropriate programming is followed by the further locating of three sites, three sites upon which a further single site believed most exemplary or appropriate for a select mixed use Regional Public Library Facility is derived. A unique program for a library facility which seeks to establish connections to the theoretical designs of Burnham's Plan as well as with the contemporary site and time specific influences and demands of an existing urban fabric.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

1988

Author dc:creator

• Pettigrew, Paul Stephen

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• William Lyman Porter.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/79449

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/79449