Burnham Plan of Manila

The Burnham Plan of Manila is a popular name for the Report on proposed improvements at Manila and Manila, P.I., coauthored by Daniel Burnham and Pierce Anderson in 1905. The report proposed a variety of projects to expand, modernize, and beautify the city of Manila, then under American rule, including new districts, boulevards, parks, and harbor facilities.

The plan was requested by then Philippine Governor-General William Howard Taft, four years before Burnham published the better known Plan of Chicago, which also appeared alongside plans for Washington, D.C., Cleveland, and San Francisco. The plan was partially carried out, most notably by architects William E. Parsons and Juan M. Arellano. However, the plan's implementation was effectively ended by the establishment of a new capital at Quezon City in 1939 and, later, the effects of World War II, including the merging of Manila with nearby cities to form Greater Manila in 1942 and the Battle of Manila in 1945. Efforts to revive the implementation of the plan have occurred over the years, and the plan remains a subject of discussions in urban planning in the Philippines.