They also helped to plan the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Root died before the project was completed, but Burnham continued as chief of construction. The Exposition featured lavish pavilions, designed by the leading architects of that time. "Burnham's plans, with its monumental buildings and strongly axial layout, exerted a great influence on town planning in the early 20th century- (www.ci.chi.il.us). In Burnham's later buildings, such as the towering Flatiron Building in New York City, the steel frame was hidden by traditional beaux-arts facing. He was also a member of the commission to enhance Washington D.C. Burnham's most famous project was his Plan of Chicago. "This comprehensive design was intended to forestall the chaos of random urban growth- (www.public.iastate.edu). It included plans for a civic center with radiating boulevards, a system of city parks, .
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and preservation of the Lake Michigan lakefront. Burnham also designed plans for the cities of Baltimore, Maryland; Buffalo, New York; Cleveland, Ohio and San Francisco, California, and did plans for Manila and other cities in the Philippines. .
William Holabird began his education at the West Point Military Academy, but after two years he moved to Chicago and worked as a draftsman for William Le Baron Jenney. Holabird founded his own practice in 1880, and started a partnership with Martin Roche in 1881. In addition to their Chicago skyscrapers, Holabird and Roche became leading designers of large hotels. After William Holabird's death, the business was then taken over by his son. The new firm, Holabird & Root, was highly influential in the 1920s. .
Louis Sullivan, the son of a dancing teacher, was born in Boston on September 3, 1856. After studying architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he spent a year in Paris at the École Des Beaux-Arts and in the office of a French architect. Coming back to Chicago in 1875, he was employed as a draftsman, then in 1881 formed a partnership with Dankmar Adler.
