“Make no little plans…”

I first mentioned the American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham in my discussion of The Big Switch by Nicholas Carr.  I've come to appreciate Burnham more now that I have been living in Chicago.  As I shared in my post ("The Big Switch"), Burnham served as Director of Works for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair), held from May 1 to October 30, 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas in 1492.  The city of Chicago's official flag has commemorated the Columbian Exposition with one of its six-pointed stars (the other three stars commemorate the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the Chicago World's Fair of 1933, and Fort Dearborn, the original settlement first built in 1803 on the Chicago River near present-day Chicago).

Burnham was a major proponent of the Beaux-Arts architectural movement, a style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century.  The Beaux-Arts style drew upon French neoclassicism, but also incorporated influences from the Renaissance and Baroque styles, using modern materials, such as iron and glass, and later, steel.  

The Chicago World's Fair had several important influences on later history (in addition to being the site of the first ever Ferris Wheel).  One major highlight was that the inventors Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse showcased their alternating current (AC) system, effectively winning the "war of the currents" against Thomas Edison's direct current (DC).  The Chicago World's Fair proved that electricity generation could be centralized and distributed over long-distances, both safely and efficiently using Tesla's and Westinghouse's system.  Prior to that time, individual factories had to generate their own power using massive localized steam-powered generators.  While Edison lost the "war of the currents", both he and Samuel Insull (who later founded Chicago's Commonwealth Edison) realized that centralizing electrical power generation could be advantageous.  It was this shift that changed electrical power generation from a highly decentralized, localized, private manufacturing cost to a centralized, shared, and easily accessible public utility (hence, Carr's "big switch").

Burnham helped to design all of the buildings at the World's Fair in the neoclassical style.  All of the buildings were covered in something known as white staff, a kind of artificial stone primarily used to cover temporary buildings (the majority of the buildings at the World's Fair were temporary).  The white buildings gave the World's Fair its nickname, "The White City" and apparently served as inspiration for L. Frank Baum's "Emerald City" in his book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

There is a quote from Daniel Burnham that I really love.  He once said, "Make no little plans.  They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big."

Burnham certainly was thinking "big" when he dreamed up the design of the so-called "White City".  And Nicholas Carr's book suggests that some of the changes incorporated as a direct result of the 1893 Columbian Exposition created a "big switch" in how power was distributed to manufacturing organizations, which subsequently played a major role in furthering the Industrial Age.  As leaders, we too need to "think big" and dream of the future, aiming high in both our hopes and dreams, making big plans instead of small ones.  By thinking big and aiming high, we can help architect a better future for our organizations and for society at large.