become a guide for the future development of Chicago. outer parkways, with pleasure islands dotting the lake here and there. The The main features of the plan of im- lagoons would be admirably suited to provement, as, summarized in the con- boat-racing, and, stretching as planned for cluding chapter of the report, are: long distances along the shore, they would First. The improvement of the lake be convenient for the boat crews both of front. the University of Chicago, located near Second. The creation of a system of Jackson Park, and of Northwestern Unihighways outside the city. Third. The improvement of railway terminals, and the development of a complete traction system for both freight and passengers. Fourth. The acquisition of an outer park system, and of parkway circuits. Fifth. The systematic arrangement of the streets and avenues within the city, in order to facilitate the movement to and from the business district. Sixth. The development of centers of intellectual life and of civic administration, so related as to give coherence and unity to the city. Each of these six fundamental features calls for explanation. First. The project for lake front improvement contemplates the creation of broad strips of parkway adjacent to the shore line, then long lagoons flanked by versity, situated on Lake Michigan, in Evanston, a suburb just north of Chicago. Yacht harbors and suitable driveways would be provided, and access to the lake front would be made easy to dwellers in all parts of the city. Second. The designers of the plan of Chicago did not confine their vision to the present limits of the municipality. They have indicated the need for highways, both circuit and radial, extending for miles into surrounding areas. The larger of these suggested outer circuits would begin at Kenosha, Wisconsin, nearly sixty miles north of the center of Chicago, and extend by a semicircular route around the city to Michigan City, Indiana, on the east. Third. The question of railway terminal facilities in Chicago presents a problem of very great difficulty. The framers of VIEW LOOKING SOUTH OVER THE LAGOONS OF THE PROPOSED PARK FOR THE SOUTH SHORE SECTIONS WITH MICHIGAN AVENUE AND ASHLAND AVENUE convenient of access to all the railways. Fourth. The acquisition of outer park areas of large extent and the creation of connecting driveways are regarded as necessary to give the people of the city easy access to places of natural beauty and restful quiet. Fifth. In connection with the systematic arrangement of streets and avenues, suggestions of a radical nature are deemed necessary. It is proposed to widen and otherwise to improve Michigan Avenue so as to transform it and the connecting Lake Shore Drive and Sheridan Road into one of the most magnificent pleasure thoroughfares in the world. Michigan Avenue runs north and south. Congress Street, on the southerly edge of the busi once is not expected. Washington is to-day a more beautiful city because its development has followed in the main the plan made for it by L'Enfant more than a century ago, which at the time was the object of much scorn and ridicule. The various governing authorities exercising. jurisdiction over the territory comprised in the city of Chicago have spent in the past twenty-five years, for improvements classified as permanent, the sum of $220,000,000. The total expenditures for the reconstruction of Paris in accordance with the plans of Baron Haussmann are given as only $265,000,000. The money actually paid out for so-called permanent improvements in Chicago during the past quarter of a century would have counted for much more if spent in accordance with a well-considered plan. The framers of the Commercial Club report do not, of course, consider their plan perfect, nor unchangeable. They present it as something to work toward. Adherence to a plan, they insist, is necessary if the tendency in city development is ever to be toward order, unity, and beauty. The project for lake front improvement, which might seem at first thought to be fanciful and enormously expensive, is held to be easy of realization at low cost. The lake front is the cheapest part of Chicago in which to dump dirt from building excavations and other refuse. The amount of such refuse is at least 1,000,000 cubic yards a year, or enough to build from 27 to 30 acres of park in the lake, if used according to the plan. All the public authorities have to do is to build the breakwaters and bridges and finish the grounds. The utilization of this material in the manner suggested would in thirty CLINTON STREETS, SHOWING THE RELATION WITH THE CIVIC CENTER |