The story of Daniel Burnham, a dreamer, who shaped some of America’s best-known places and spaces. The film explores Burnham’s fascinating career and complex legacy as public debate continues today about how and for whom cities are planned.

Few dreamers have had more impact on the American city than Daniel Hudson Burnham.

He built some of the first skyscrapers in the world; directed construction of the World’s Columbian Exposition that helped inspire the City Beautiful Movement in towns across America; and created urban plans for San Francisco, Washington, DC, Chicago, Cleveland and Manila and Baguio City in the Philippines all before the modern profession of urban planning existed. MAKE NO LITTLE PLANS: DANIEL BURNHAM AND THE AMERICAN CITY is the first film to explore Burnham’s fascinating career and complex legacy as public debate continues today about how and for whom cities are planned.