Burnham, Daniel H

Burnham, Daniel H(udson)

(born Sept. 4, 1846, Henderson, N.Y., U.S.—died June 1, 1912, Heidelberg, Ger.) U.S. architect and city planner. He pioneered the development of Chicago commercial architecture with his partner, John Wellborn Root (1850–91). Three of the firm's Chicago buildings were designated landmarks in 1962: the Rookery (1886), the Reliance Building (1890), and the Monadnock Building (1891), the last and tallest (16-story) U.S. masonry skyscraper. As chief consulting architect for Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition (1893), Burnham chose firms working in academic eclecticism, the antithesis of the Chicago School. The exposition's resulting “White City,” with its boulevards, gardens, and Classical facades, influenced subsequent planning in the U.S. Burnham's plan for Chicago (1907–09), which the city used for many years, is a classic example of U.S. city planning.