Streets: Widening

Burnham and Bennett used a fair amount of precedence in their Plan of Chicago. One city they site as being most influential is Paris, France. In 1853, under the rule of Napoleon III, Paris underwent massive redevelopment, at the direction of Georges Eugene Haussmann. Haussmann's aim was to convert Paris from a cramped medieval city into on with wide, picturesque thoroughfares, scenic views, and a compositional cohesion that would make it a beautiful place to live and work. This process included the widening of streets all throughout Paris, in an effort to let the city breath, as it would be opened up to air and light. Burnham and Bennett wanted the same for the city of Chicago. 

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A large portion of the plan concerns the restructuring of streets throughout the city. Sometimes the Plan proposes the addition of streets, or the raising of a street, but several times it calls for streets to be widened. The Plan classifies different streets and their various purposes, and prescribes their width based on traffic studies and the type of traffic. In several instances, in order to make the city more commercially successful, the Plan calls for a street to be more than doubled in width. The goal was to allow for greater numbers of people to travel these streets and enter shops and business along them. Keep in mind that in 1909, while automobiles were beginning to enter the city, they did not yet dominate the roads. This widening also would create grand roads leading to the great new Civic Center that Burnham proposed, and just like in Paris, they believed it would be healthier for the city, if more space was open to the fresh air and sunlight. 

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One location that the plan explicitly calls for street widening is Michigan Avenue from Grant Park to Chicago Ave. You may know this stretch of road today as the Magnificent Mile. In the Plan Burnham and Bennett write,

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"This avenue or parkway should be made as specious as possible along its entire length. It should be wide enough to provide two broad parallel roadways: one to be used by those who wish to visit the shops, hotels, or theatres, and the other for passage of those who do not care to stop on their way through the city."

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While Michigan Ave. never was made quite as wide as Burnham and Bennett proposed, the Plan did put lots of focus on making the road walk-able and an enjoyable shopping experience, one that millions of people every year enjoy to this day.