In this January 2018 lecture, architect Philip Bess imagines what metropolitan Chicago might look like in about one hundred years if it were designed according to classical humanist principles and with an overt acknowledgement of sacred order. In the pre-modern era, cities were physical expressions of shared beliefs about the sacred and civic order, but Chicago, like other modern cities, gives physical expression to an order driven by capitalism and individualism. Bess explores ideas and principles from Daniel Burnham’s 1909 classical humanist Plan of Chicago and re-configures them for a flourishing future for the city. Because cities have overlapping and competing orders (environmental, economic, demographic, moral, etc.), Bess argues for a holistic urban planning perspective. He claims that Catholic metaphysical realism and sacramentality have historically nourished physical spaces that contribute to human and cultural flourishing. Bess is the author of City Baseball Magic: Plain Talk and Uncommon Sense About Cities and Baseball Parks (Knothole, 1991); Inland Architecture: Subterranean Essays on Moral Order and Formal Order in Chicago (Interalia / Design, 2000); and Till We Have Built Jerusalem: Architecture, Urbanism, and the Sacred (ISI, 2006).
This lecture is heavily supported by a visual aids. Listeners may view the slides for the presentation as they follow along with the lecture; the slides are reproduced in a downloadable pdf file found here.
This lecture is provided courtesy of the Eliot Society.
93 minutes
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