Burnham exhibit opens at SM Baguio

Friday, January 14, 2011

SM CITY Baguio in partnership with the Metropolitan Museum of Manila presents City Beautiful: The Burn-ham Plan for Manila's Urban Development, an exhibition featuring vintage photos, maps and models that highlight American urban planner Daniel Hudson Burnham's grand plan for Manila at the turn of the 20th century.

Daniel Burnham was commissioned by the American government to design and implement a blueprint for the capital of the Philippines, their new trophy colony. His urban design lays out a concerted attempt to signal the arrival of Manila as the most beautiful and progressive city in Asia at that time.

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The Burnham Plan is best seen in the context of world planning movements. It arose from a distinct con-fluence and perspectives rooted in the colonial project and requirements of the Americans. Plans like Burnham reveal the world views of the people who designed them.

This revisit to a grand plan affords a comparative study and analysis of how modern-day Filipino planners and leaders create urban landscapes that energize - or suffocate, its dwellers. City Beautiful will be on view from Jan. 17 to Jan. 31st SM City Baguio Atrium. (PR)