When San Francisco was destroyed by fire in 1906, many people predicted
that the city would never be rebuilt. A great number of men and women
packed their goods and chattels and hastily bade farewell to the still
smoking ruins of a City That Was, firmly believing that destiny had
determined that it should remain forever buried in its own ashes.
There was another class of men and women who were optimists. They
predicted that the city would be rebuilt, but that it would require from
twenty to thirty years.
There was still another class of men and women who knew by observation
that it required no more time to build ten buildings than one, provided
the Spirit of Energy and Determination existed, to fortify the desire.
We all know now that the Spirit of Energy and Determination did abound
in San Francisco--that the City did not remain buried in its own ashes,
and that it did not require from twenty to thirty years to rebuild it.
The City was not only rebuilt in less than ten years, but, in addition
thereto, an International Exposition, surpassing all previous
Expositions, was built by its people.
San Francisco wisely selected for the location of this International
Exposition what seemed to many to be an impossible site, for it was
disorderly and uninteresting to look at. But the site was appropriately
situated on the shores of San Francisco Bay--beautiful in its
surroundings and most convenient alike to its citizens and visitors. It
consisted of a pond and a strip of waste land and marsh land, apparently
destined to remain unfilled and unorderly for years to come. The People
of Energy, Determination and Desire have also made this strip of waste
land permanently available.
The arrangement of this Exposition is distinctive because of its Court
Plan. Eight Palaces seemingly constitute a single structure, containing
five distinct courts or places for large public gatherings, which are
open to the sky.
This colossal group of buildings, consisting of the Palaces of
Education, Food Products, Agriculture, Liberal Arts, Manufactures,
Transportation, Mines, and Varied Industries, is terminated east and
west by Machinery Hall and the Palace of Fine Arts. To the south of this
group, and on the lateral axis of the two end courts, are the Palace of
Horticulture and Festival Hall. This group of eight buildings, with its
Tower of Jewels, and the separate buildings, Festival Hall, the Palace
of Horticulture, the Palace of Fine Arts and Machinery Hall, constitute
the main structures.
The buildings and gardens of Foreign Countries and of the States of the
Union adjoin, at their western termination, the thirteen main structures
erected by the Exposition Company. Still further west, are the Livestock
Barns and Poultry Houses. The Aviation, Military and Polo Fields,
including the Race Course, occupy the extreme end of the site. The
amusement section, "The Zone," extends for a distance of seven city
blocks eastward from the main group.
President C. C. Moore of the Exposition first appointed an Advisory
Architectural Board, in the fall of 1911, consisting of Messrs. Willis
Polk, Clarence R. Ward, John Galen Howard, Albert Pisses and William
Curlett. This Advisory Board was succeeded by an Architectural
Commission, consisting of Messrs. Willis Polk, Chairman, Clarence R.
Ward, W. B. Faville, George W. Kelham, Louis Christian Mullgardt (all of
San Francisco), Robert D. Farquhar of Los Angeles, McKim, Mead and
White, Carrere and Hastings, and Henry Bacon (all of New York); Messrs.
Bakewell and Brown and Bernard R. Maybeck were subsequently commissioned
as Exposition Architects. The first named nine architects constituted
the permanent Architectural Commission which recommended to the Board of
Directors the General Plan of the Exposition, which was substantially
followed as a guide to the results accomplished.
Three important elements in the design of an Exposition are represented
by Planting, Sculpture, Color and Decoration. The Chiefs of these
Departments were selected by the Architectural Commission at its second
conference, August, 1912; John McLaren, of San Francisco, was appointed
to the important position of Landscape Engineer; Karl Bitter and A.
Stirling Calder of New York were appointed chief and assistant chief of
the Department of Sculpture; Jules Guerin, of New York, became chief of
the Department of Color and Decoration. The Chiefs of these departments
attended the architects' conferences and collaborated in their
deliberations.
Another very important element in the design of this Exposition was
represented by the Department of Travertine Texture, for the proper
manipulation of colored plastic materials to give correct surface
expression to all buildings and sculpture. This department was placed
under the direction of Paul E. Denivelle of New York. The element of
Texture as embodied in the construction of this Exposition, has again
emphasized its general importance in plastic architecture.