Never before was there an exposition in which color played such a part.
Here for the first time a director of color was placed above architect
and sculptor and painter. Jules Guerin, chief of color decoration, has
said that he went to work just as a painter starts to lay out a great
picture, establishing the warm buff of the building walls as a ground
tone, and considering each dome or tower or portal as a detail which
should add its brilliant or subdued note to the color harmony. Not only
do the paintings and sculpture take proper place in the tone scheme, but
every bit of planting, every strip of lawn and every bed of flowers or
shrubs, has its duty to perform as color accent or foil. Even the gravel
of the walks was especially chosen to shade in with the general plan.
As seen from the heights above the Exposition-and no visitor should go
away without seeing this view-the grounds have the appearance of a
great Oriental rug. The background color is warm buff, with various
shades of dull red against it, accented by domes and columns of pale
green, with occasional touches of blue and pink to heighten the effect.
In the courts the columns and outer walls are in the buff, or old ivory,
tone, while the walls inside the colonnades have a "lining color" of
Pompeian red; the ceilings are generally cerulean blue; the cornices are
touched with orange, blue and gold; and occasional columns of imitation
Siena marble, and bronzed statues, set off the whole.
In connection with the color scheme, great credit must be given to John
McLaren, chief of the department of landscape gardening, who has worked
so successfully in co-operation with architects and color director. The
Exposition is built almost entirely on filled ground, just reclaimed
from the bay; and it was a colossal task to set out the hundreds of
thousands of flowers, shrubs and trees which now make the gardens seem
permanent, and which set off the architecture so perfectly.