Architect - Geo. Kelham of San Francisco.
Architecture - Italian Renaissance with Byzantine touches. (See picture
facing page 22.)
These very beautiful towers are seen in pairs on either side The Court
of Flowers and The Court of Palms, and assist in the fine balance
preserved thruout the block of palaces.
They are not alike, as you will see when you examine them. The pair
flanking The Court of Flowers is far simpler, and produces quite a
different effect, when illuminated, from its sister towers.
The vibrant red that seems to give throbbing life to these beautiful
towers is one of the chief glories of the night-glow.
The entrances at the base of the tower are accented by magnificent Siena
marble columns, and the coloring from these entrances to the top of the
towers is most unique.
The long rectangular height is admirably treated with a most original
diaper design.
Jules Guerin, the colorist, has used small areas of color on the towers
to play upon the color of the courts below.
For instance, note the pastel-pink walls, the greatest color area of the
courts reflected, as it were, upon the largest colored area of the
towers; the travertine of the courts acting as a background for the
towers, the burnt orange capitals shown in the use of the same color on
the tower, the Indian red appearing through the design as it appears on
the capitals.
The result is a sort of dissonance that makes the harmony of the courts
more charming than ever.
The most adroit management of the blue-checkered border is seen. It is
the means of drawing your colored diaper work toward that blue
background, the sky, and is superb in its connecting force.
The little towers above, with the turquoise-blue columns, show a most
daring use of color when you consider the colors below, but how
admirably that turquoise blue works onto the domes and the blue columns
of The Tower of Jewels.
The longer you look at the Italian Towers the more you come to feel
their subtle connection with the beauties around.
Only a genius could manipulate his colors as Jules Guerin has done in
this splendid work before you.
The repeated cartouche in turquoise blue has a most lovely effect upon
the whole.
Poised on the top of the Italian Towers is The Fairy (by Carl Gruppe).
She looks afar and sees the vision of this wondrous Exposition.