Fussing With The CityScape

Many architects cannot stand him but voters love him. Chicago's Mayor reviews every major project built in the city and is determined to change his father's legacy.

1 minute read

March 7, 2001, 5:00 AM PST

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech

"[S]o firm is Daley's grip on power that he has conflated the traditionally separate roles of patron and planner into a single autocratic whole. He reviews every single major project built in his city (bad news for Modernists, because the mayor is no fan of steel and glass). He also is a public-works fanatic who scribbles notes to his aides as he rides around the city in his chauffeur-driven limousine: fill this pothole, fix that streetlight, trim that tree. Plenty of architects can't stand him; but the vast majority of voters love him. And therein lies a tale whose significance extends well beyond Chicago's borders. For in crucial ways Richard M. Daley could not be more different from another mayor who perfectly summed up the architecture and urban-planning attitudes of his time:his father, the late, legendary Richard J. Daley, who was Chicago?s boss from 1955 to 1976."

Thanks to Abhijeet Chavan

Read the full story: Fussing With The CityScape

Thursday, March 1, 2001 in MetropolisMag.com

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