South Shore Park, Chicago, Illinois, Design Sketch
c. 1896
Medium
Watercolor on paper
Dimensions
16.5 × 25 cm (6 1/2 × 9 7/8 in.)
Classification
design sketch
Department
Architecture and Design
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
143402
Art Historical Context
Daniel H. Burnham, one of America's foremost architects and urban planners, created this delicate watercolor design sketch for *South Shore Park, Chicago, Illinois* around 1896. Fresh from his triumph as chief of construction for the 1893 Columbian Exposition—which transformed Chicago into a showcase of neoclassical grandeur—Burnham turned his visionary eye to the city's public spaces. This modest 16.5 × 25 cm sheet captures his early ideas for South Shore Park, a green oasis on Lake Michigan's edge, reflecting the era's growing emphasis on accessible urban parks amid Chicago's rapid industria...
About the Artist
Daniel Hudson Burnham · 1846–1912
Daniel Hudson Burnham (1846–1912) was one of the most influential American architects and urban planners of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Born in Henderson, New York, he twice failed the entrance examinations for Harvard and Yale, eventually finding his calling through an apprenticeship in architecture. His transformative partnership with John Wellborn Root, formed in Chicago in 1873, establ...