Professor Carl Smith from Northwestern University spoke to a sizable crowd about the power of place, while focusing on Chicago.
- Smith talked a lot about trains, and the placement of the tracks. For example, the railroads were arranged so freight traffic wouldn't go through the city (for aesthetic purposes)
- He also spent a lot of time on the "Chicago Plan" of 1921, I believe it was called. Apparently architects had hopes of Chicago developing into a new Athens or Paris... it seems these plans were not fulfilled.
- Chicago underwent something called the "City Beautiful Movement." This movement emphasized a common theme in Smith's lecture- that appearance/aesthetics was vital in the creation of Chicago, and in nearly all places
- One ideology, "a good place to live is a good place to work" relates to our investigation of the Western suburbs. One suburb, Winnetka does not seem to follow this ideology. Winnetka seems to be primarily a residential community, and most residents travel away from their homes to go to work. Instead, this ideology seems to support the lifestyle that many people in Bellwood follow.
- An opposing ideology was, "a great place makes for a great people." This belief focuses more on the appearance and structure of a community, rather than on it's purpose as, like in Bellwood a logistic center.
-Lastly, Smith spoke about the 1921 Winnetka Plan. Evidently, this plan seemed to focus on zoning (like we spoke of in class today) as well as depressing the train tracks. This depression can be related to the "Big Ditch" completed in 1943.
Overall the presentation was extremely enlightening and really leaves one to wonder about the thought process that must be undergone when constructing a city or community such as Chicago or Winnetka. Where do you place everything? What's more important purpose or presence? It seems nearly everything was considered to create the Chicago we know and love today.
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