Burnham, << BUR nuhm, >> Daniel Hudson (1846-1912), was one of the chief members of the Chicago School of architecture. He felt that the architect’s most important contribution lay in the broader area of city and regional planning. His reputation was established by urban plans for Chicago, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; San Francisco, California; and Washington, D.C. Burnham believed that an architect needed a large, highly trained technical staff and an ability to work in the worlds of business and politics. His approach to the practice of architecture anticipated the way successful American architects organized their practices after 1900.
Burnham was born on Sept. 4, 1846, in Henderson, New York. He and John Root formed a partnership in Chicago in 1873. Their stark, simple Monadnock Building (1891) in Chicago is considered a forerunner of architecture of the 1900’s. The firm’s Reliance Building (1894) in Chicago, with its steel frame and terra-cotta covering, marked a notable advance in skyscraper design. After Root’s death in 1891, Burnham served as director of works for the World’s Columbian Exposition, a historic world’s fair held in Chicago in 1893. Burnham later designed the Flatiron Building (1902) in New York City, New York, and Union Station (1908) in Washington, D.C. He died on June 1, 1912.
