Editing World's Columbian Exposition (section)

==== Role in the City Beautiful movement ====
[[File:The great white city, World's Columbian Exposition, by Kilburn, B. W. (Benjamin West), 1827-1909.jpg|thumb|The "Great White City"]]

The White City is largely credited for ushering in the [[City Beautiful movement]] and planting the seeds of modern city planning.  The highly integrated design of the landscapes, promenades, and structures provided a vision of what is possible when planners, landscape architects, and architects work together on a comprehensive design scheme.

The White City inspired cities to focus on the beautification of the components of the city in which municipal government had control; streets, municipal art, public buildings, and public spaces. The designs of the City Beautiful Movement (closely tied with the municipal art movement) are identifiable by their classical architecture, plan symmetry, picturesque views, and axial plans, as well as their magnificent scale.  Where the municipal art movement focused on beautifying one feature in a city, the City Beautiful movement began to make improvements on the scale of the district. The White City of the World's Columbian Exposition inspired the [[Merchants Club]] of Chicago to commission [[Daniel Burnham]] to create the Plan of Chicago in 1909.<ref>Levy, John M. (2009) Contemporary Urban Planning.</ref>