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The passionate quote above represents a centuries-long pattern of exchanging urban design principles across continents. This Fulbright research project focuses on one instance of this exchange.
In the 1890’s,
the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais
was drawing up plans to build a new capital city. Eager to depart
from their colonial past, Mineiro elites wanted to propel their state into
the twentieth century as a “commercial emporium, industrial center, and an
intellectual sanctuary.”2
Chicago, at the time developing at breakneck speed and demonstrating to the world its technological prowess at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, proved
the ideal aspirational model for Mineiro planners. Chicago had a railway that connected disparate rural regions as well as a track record of attracting immigrants to bolster the labor force. Chicago was also a planned city - instigating an urban grid after the fire of 1871.
These days Belo Horizonte is dubbed the “Chicago
of Brazil”, which is commonly credited to their shared abundance of cows, bars,
and Midwestern niceties.3 Yet, digging deeper, there emerges a lesser known
urban history that connects the two cities.
In my Fulbright research fellowship, I am investigating
this hidden connection between Belo Horizonte and Chicago. I ask...
Did all go as planned?
The project uses archival research, observational sketching,
and interviews to understand the urban histories of these two cities. The ultimate goal is
to record the modern implications of the shared urban design techniques employed by Brazilian and American
planners at the time of their Plans.
I proposing that the comparison between Brazilian and American cities
sheds light on the ways that large-scale design principles exported across
continents can be a tool to build more sustainable cities.
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1983 Plan of Belo Horizonte4
1892 Promotional material from the Chicago Columbian Exposition5
1 McDonald DL. The Origins of Informality in a Brazilian Planned City: Belo Horizonte, 1889-1900. Journal of Urban History)
2 Adelman, J. (1974). Urban planning and reality in republican Brazil: Belo Horizonte, 1890-1930.
3 Bourdain, A. Parts Unknown: Belo Horizonte. (2018). Parts Unknown. Retrieved February 10, 2022, from https://explorepartsunknown.com/minas-gerais/art-money-mines/.
4 Trevisan, Ricardo & Ficher, Sylvia. (2016). Brazil: one Century, five new Capitals cities.
5 Knight, Leonard & Co, eng., Wabash Line, via Detroit, to Chicago. Shortest Route to the World’s Fair City. Chicago: Knight, Leonard & Co., 1892.