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The White City and the Making of Modern America: An Alternate History by Gerald Larson

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2026
5:30 PM Cocktails, 6:00 PM Lecture

Gerald Larson, Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the University of Cincinnati and author of The Skyscraper and the White City, offers a provocative alternate history of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Larson will explore architect John Wellborn Root’s original—and unrealized—vision for the Fair: a colorful, architecturally diverse environment oriented toward Lake Michigan that would allow visitors to encounter competing visions of American architecture. Root’s sudden death in 1891 changed everything. His partner, Daniel Burnham, instead created the unified, classically inspired ensemble of stark white facades that became the celebrated “White City.” Drawing on his extensive research into Root’s work, Larson will examine why Root’s ideas were abandoned and how that decision shaped the Fair’s legacy. He concludes with a provocative question: Had Root lived, might he, rather than Burnham, have become the “Father of American city planning”?