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ARCHITECTURE AT THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN

EXPOSITION.

[graphic]

HE World's Columbian and seven miles south of the central part of Exposition was organized the city, with a length of a mile and a half on April 9, 1890, and on the the lake side and three quarters of a mile in 25th of the same month width. Topographically the place consisted of Congress passed the bill a series of low sand-dunes which had been giving Chicago the honor thrown up successively by the lake in lines. of this great enterprise. On nearly parallel with the shore, the most conJuly following, Jackson siderable of them having an average height of Park and the lake front of Chicago were se- not more than six feet above the high stages lected as the double site of the Exposition. On of the water. Between these dunes there were the 20th of August F. L. Olmsted & Co. were broad, low, flat, swampy swales, subject to ocelected consulting landscape-architects. Be- casional floods, with water generally standing tween then and the following December the or- one or two feet below the surface. On some ganization of the Department of Construction of these dunes groves of small, stunted oaks was perfected by the appointment of D. H. were growing, and the intermediate flats were Burnham as chief and of J. W. Root as consult- more or less overgrown by sedge and watering architect, Mr. Burnham having acted as grasses. professional adviser from the beginning of the enterprise. Undoubtedly to his sagacity, energy, and breadth of view, and to his wide experience in important architectural work, the Chicago Commission is largely indebted for the great effective working capacity which it has developed; and under his organizing power the complicated machinery of administration in respect to grounds and buildings was fairly established.

For reasons which we need not state, the double site was finally abandoned; and it then became the duty of the Committee on Grounds and Buildings, under the advice of their chosen experts, to review this all-important question of locality, and to discover, if possible, within the limits of Chicago, or in its near vicinity, an area of land capable of containing, without crowding, a series of buildings which, in the aggregate, should be at least 50 per cent. larger than those of the last Paris Exposition; should be conveniently and economically accessible for visitors and for material; not divided by railroads, streets, creeks, or cemeteries; and not so encumbered with buildings or other improvements that it would be difficult to obtain possession of it and to prepare it for the reception of the structures of the Exposition.

Of the few places answering these requirements all were flat, low, and, from a horticultural point of view, unsatisfactory. The only large, agreeable, or dignified element of scenery within many miles of the town was the lake, and there was discovered only one place on the lake presenting the desired conditions. This was a tract of five hundred acres between six VOL. XLIV. II.

This tract belonged to the South Park Commission, having been obtained twenty years before with a view to its future improvement as a public park. Practically it was in a state of nature, as we have described, except as to a limited area at its northern end, which had been graded, planted, diversified by ponds, and made accessible by drives and walks. The disadvantages of this site were sufficiently obvious; but it was considered that they, together with the inconvenience arising from its distance from the thickly populated parts of the city, would be offset by these advantages: first, that it was unencumbered with buildings; secondly, that it could be made readily accessible, either by boats on the lake or by public land conveyances of various sorts, without numerous railroad or river crossings; and thirdly, that a number of railroads passed within a few hundred feet of the landward boundaries of the tract, extending in one direction nearly to the heart of the city, and, in the other, connecting, or easily to be connected, with lines to all parts of the continent. Indeed, to the experienced eye and instructed imagination of the landscape-architects the very qualities in this desert-like waste which presented the most formidable obstacles to the realization of anything approaching the horticultural splendors, or finished park-like aspects, of previous international expositions suggested the possibility of procuring out of these most unpromising elements effects quite unusual, yet of a wholly appropriate character. The broad expanse of the great inland lake itself, with its ever-changing surface and its oceanic horizon, its waters prospectively alive

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with sails, and animated by the incessant movement of steamers and craft of every sort, "ornate, bedecked, and gay," beneath the unlimited summer sky, would give to the mise-enscène a peculiar character, under the influence of which the foreign visitor might forget to ask for that metropolitan opulence of shaded parkland which here could not be obtained. Steamdredges and the railroad grading-processes of the West could readily at small expense enlarge the areas of higher land, and create level plateaus and stately terraces as sites for the great buildings of the Exposition, with material excavated from the wet and sedgy intervals, converting the latter into a system of lagoons connected with the lake by walled canals and basins. Thus might be created within the grounds an interior water-system, four miles in length, which would be navigable by omnibus-boats, conveying visitors from every quarter of the Park to landings before each of the principal buildings.

Under such circumstances the landscapearchitects felt authorized to recommend to the committee the use of the grounds known as Jackson Park, which, after much negotiation with the South Park Commissioners, and much controversy with those advocating other sites, were finally obtained under the agreement that, after the Exposition and after the removal of the buildings, they should be left in a condition well adapted to be formed into a permanent public park for the city. A succession of ingenious plans was then prepared and reported to the committee by these gentlemen, in intimate connection with Messrs. Burnham and Root, illustrating the gradual development of a general scheme for the occupation of the site, Mr. Root making sketch-designs of all the buildings as the work progressed. The leading motives of composition were to obtain such a disposition of the greater buildings as should make the best and most effective use of the natural conditions of the ground, when modified and corrected by the art of the landscapearchitect; should give to these buildings a proper and articulate relation, one to the other, and also to the water-system of the Park; should group them in a formal and artificial manner at those points where their great size and necessary mutual proximity invited a predominance of architectural magnificence, or picturesquely and accidentally, where the conditions of the landscape were such as to forbid a close observance of axial lines and vistas. But all these dispositions were made subordinate to the situation furnished by the wide expanse and horizon of the lake, so that this important element of composition should have its due value from all the principal points of observation.

Another fundamental condition affecting the general dispositions of the plan was the method of reaching the Park by the seven railroads, so that the difficult problem of debarking and embarking more than 60,000 people every hour by these means of transit should be solved with the least confusion, and at a point where the visitor should be introduced to the grounds through a monumental vestibule, from which a scene should open, stately, splendid, and surprising, alike in its architectural and in its natural elements. It was necessary, also, to consider every means of approach by streetcars and by water,-the latter suggesting the provision of moles and protected harbors on the lake side, and also to provide for an additional intramural communication by some form of elevated railway.

None of the difficulties to be surmounted, however, were greater than those presented by the necessity of converting into a garden a tract of land which was almost a desert waste; so that the grounds in which the great monumental buildings of the Exposition were to be placed should be set forth with something more than formal architectural terraces, balustrades, bridges, statues, fountains, and canals, and should enjoy at least some of the advantages to be obtained from ordered or picturesque vegetation. Unlike the sites of former expositions, located in the heart of ancient civilizations, the prairies of Illinois afford no imperial treasuries of trees and shrubbery, from which the modern Amphion could draw the means of establishing such vast, full-grown masses of foliage as were needed adequately to decorate these impoverished acres. When the thick ice which is formed on Lake Michigan during the winter is broken up, it is driven by prevailing north winds toward Chicago, and there lingers to prolong the tardy spring. A little later, while the first leaves are unfolding, a night gale from Canada sweeps over these five hundred miles of ice-cold water, and all forms of vegetable growth along the southern margin of the lake are discouraged and de'layed. Moreover, the fluctuations which are characteristic of the waters of the lake, not only from day to day, but in its normal and average elevations during the summer, must create bare and dreary shores where the intramural watersystem of the Park expands from the formal, stone-bordered canals into the broad and picturesque lagoon.

To obviate these difficulties it was determined-first, so to treat the existing groves of trees that their dwarfish character would be masked by the introduction of hardy, indigenous shrubs around the margin of each group, thus creating effects of massed foliage, as seen from a distance; secondly, to edge the water with a

nearly continuous strip of reedy, aquatic plants, which would bear occasional submergence; and thirdly, to provide these with backgrounds of low foliage, chiefly shrub willows and brightly flowering local plants. Occasional stretches of well-kept lawn would also, where necessary, serve to refine the rustic aspect of the grounds. At the outset the Committee on Grounds and Buildings, together with D. H. Burnham, Chief of Construction, were confronted by a delicate and difficult problem. How were the designs for these great buildings to be obtained? Should one architect be appointed for the whole, or, in view of the more practical alternative of appointing one architect for each building, should these be selected by general competition, by limited competition, or by direct selection? After a careful review of the subject, it was concluded by the committee, in accordance with the rec1 Innumerable experiments with architectural competitions have made it clear enough that, of all the methods of selecting the architect, this is the most wasteful, unscientific, tedious, costly, demoralizing, and uncertain. It is almost impossible to devise a competitive scheme which will, as its result, secure to the building the best service, or to the competitors an opportunity to express their most useful qualities as architects. It seems equally evident that the establishment of confidential professional relations in the beginning with an architect chosen because of his proved ability and experience, and not because of the accident of his success in a game of chance, is economical of time and money, and consistent with honest business principles. Therefore, the action of the Committee on Grounds and Buildings in this case is so memorable in the history of architectural practice, that we deem it important to print here the report upon which this action was based. This report was prepared by Mr. Burnham, and, at his request, was signed by all the professional advisers of the committee.

Dec. 6, 1890. THE HONORABLE THE COMMITTEE ON GROUNDS AND BUILDINGS, WORLD'S COLUMBIAN Ex

POSITION.

Gentlemen: Preliminary work in locating buildings, in determining their general areas, and in other elementary directions necessary to proper progress in the design and erection of the structures of the Columbian Exposition, has now reached a point where it becomes necessary to determine the method by which designs for these buildings shall be obtained.

We recognize that your action in the matter will be of great importance, not only in its direct effect upon the artistic and commercial success of the Exposition, bat scarcely less upon the aspect presented by America to the world, and also as a precedent for future procedure in the country by the Government, by corporations, and individuals. In our advisory capacity we wish to recommend such action to you as will be productive of the best results, and will at the same time be In accord with the expressed sentiments of the architextural societies of America. Whatever suggestions are here made relate to the main buildings located at Jackson Park.

That these buildings should in their designs, relationships, and arrangement be of the highest possible architectural merit is of importance scarcely less great than the variety, richness, and comprehensiveness of the various displays within them. Such success is not so much dependent upon the expenditure of money as upon the expenditure of thought, knowledge, and en

ommendations contained in a remarkable memorial presented to them by their professional advisers, to give to the architectural part of the Exposition, so far as possible, an appropriate national character, by making a direct selection of representative architects; thus not only avoiding the serious delays and embarrassments which would inevitably accompany any form of competition, but at the same time enlisting the services of a body of professional experts to consider the architectural questions from the beginning and as a whole, and to lay out a scheme of efficient and harmonious coöperation.1

On January 12, 1891, the invited architects, Messrs. R. M. Hunt, George B. Post, and McKim, Mead, and White of New York, Peabody and Stearns of Boston, Van Brunt and Howe of Kansas City, together with Messrs. Adler and Sullivan, S. S. Beman, Henry Ives thusiasm by men known to be in every way endowed with these qualities, and the results achieved by them will be the measure by which America, and especially Chicago, must expect to be judged by the world. Several methods of procedure suggest themselves:

First. The selection of one man to whom the designing of the entire work should be intrusted. Second. Competition made free to the whole architectural profession.

Third. Competition among a selected few.
Fourth. Direct selection.

The first method would possess some advantage in the coherent and logical result which would be attained. But the objections are that time for the preparation of designs is so short that no one man could hope to do the subject justice, even were he broad enough to avoid, in work of such varied and colossal character, monotonous repetition of ideas. And, again, such a method would evoke criticism, just or unjust, and would certainly debar the enterprise from the friendly coöperation of a diversity of talent, which can be secured only by bringing together the best architectural minds of our country. The second method named has been employed in France and other European countries with success, and would probably result in the production of a certain number of plans possessing more or less merit and novelty. But in such a competition much time, even now most valuable, would be wasted, and the result would be a mass of irrelevant and almost irreconcilable material, which would demand great and extended labor to bring into coherence. It is greatly to be feared that from such a heterogeneous competition the best men of the profession would refrain, not only because the uncertainties involved in it are too great and their time too valuable, but because the societies to which they almost universally belong have so strongly pronounced on its futility. A limited and fair competition would present fewer embarrassments, but even in this case the question of time is presented, and it is most unlikely that any result derived through this means, coming as it would from necessarily partial acquaintance with the subject, and hasty, ill-considered presentation of it, could be satisfactory, and the selection of an individual would be open to the same objections made above as to a single designer. Far better than any of the methods seems to be the last. This is to select a certain number of architects, choosing each man for such work as would be most nearly parallel with his best achievements; these architects to meet in conference, and become masters of all the elements of the problems to be solved, and agree upon some general scheme of procedure. The preliminary studies re

Cobb, W. L. B. Jenney, and Burling and Whitehouse of Chicago, were called together to consult with the chief of construction, the consult ing architect, and with Frederick Law Olmsted and his partner, Henry Sargent Codman of Boston, regarding the architectural conditions involved in the scheme of the Exposition. The latest plans of the consulting architect and landscape-architects, which, as a whole, had been accepted by the National Commission and by the Chicago directors, were laid before this board of architects for consideration. After an exhaustive study of the whole problem, during which many revisions and modifications more or less fundamental were suggested and considered, it was finally resolved to recommend to the Committee on Grounds and Buildings the acceptance of the general scheme of location of buildings and waterways, as prepared by Messrs. Root, Olmsted, and Codman, with but little modification. In fact the problem had been developed by these gentlemen with so much skill and with such exact forethought for all the conditions embraced in this vast complication of interests, and the several stages of development had been so intelligently discussed by the committee and by the chief of construction, that it was evident to the board of professional experts that they could devise no better starting-point for their specific part of the work. The sudden death of Mr. Root, after a very brief illness, during these preliminary sessions of the Architectural Board, deprived this great enterprise of services which would have been of peculiar value in perfecting the architectural work, and which already had been an essential factor in laying out the general scheme of the buildings, and in facilitating an effective, fraternal coordination of professional labor such as rarely, if ever, has occurred in the history of architecture. The strong initiative force furnished by the generous enthusiasm and bright genius of Root remained, however, with the Architectural Board, and has been an element constantly working for unity and strength in its councils. In all projects relating to the decoration of the grounds by sculpture and monumental fountains, the large experience and cminent authority of Mr. Augustus St. Gaudens have been forces working silently for higher art, greater nobility of expression, and more effective results. Unfortunately the work of his own hand will not appear in these decorations; but his advice in the selection of sculptors for sulting from this to be compared and freely discussed in a subsequent conference, and, with the assistance of such suggestions as your advisers might make, to be brought into a harmonious whole.

The honor conferred upon those selected would create in their minds a disposition to place the artistic quality of their work in advance of the mere question of emolument; while the emulation begotten in a rivalry so

them has been of permanent value, and has been followed with generous intelligence and to the manifest advantage of the Exposition. The basis of operations is explained by the plan of the grounds herewith presented, which exhibits in outline the result, not of the latest studies, but of that stage of the work reached at the time when it was necessary to prepare the map for the purpose of illustrating this paper. In a subsequent paper we hope to present a more comprehensive plan, indicating the nature of the modification to which the whole scheme has been subject from month to month. It will be observed that there are three grand divisions. Of these the northernmost, which had already been laid out as a park by the city, is to be occupied centrally by the Department of Fine Arts, the State pavilions being grouped north and west of it; while the foreign government buildings will be placed east of it, toward the lake, and, if occasion requires, in the Plaisance, which is a long reserved tract 600 feet wide between 59th and 60th streets, forming a boulevard approach to Jackson Park from the west. In this tract also areas have been granted to foreign enterprise for the establishment of model villages and groups of pavilions illustrating the characteristics of domestic and industrial life in remote countries.

The middle division is formed by the lagoon, the most characteristic landscape feature of the grounds. This is an irregular, artificial water-way surrounding several islands, the largest among them being a wooded tract about 1700 feet long and from 200 to 500 feet wide, the natural conditions of which will be enhanced by aquatic shrubbery and flower-beds, with kiosks and rustic pavilions approached by bridges. A part of the northern end of this island has been applied for by, and will probably be granted to, the Japanese commissioners, who propose to lay out a considerable area in a characteristic garden, according to their ancient traditions in this art, and to embellish it with exact reproductions of several of their most venerable temples. The outer margins of the lagoon will be occupied on the west by the Transportation Building, by the Horticultural Building, with its gardens, and by the Woman's Building; on the east, toward the lake, will stand the Palace of Manufactures and Liberal Arts, and the United States Pavilion. The lagoon branches capriciously northward and eastward, giving water-fronts to the Pavilion of Fine Arts, to the Illinois State Builddignified and friendly could not fail to be productive of a result which would stand before the world as the best fruit of American civilization.

D. H. BURNHAM, Chief of Construction.
JOHN W. ROOT, Consulting Architect.
F. L. OLMSTED & Co., Consulting Landscape-Arch'ts.
A. GOTTLIEB, Consulting Engineer.

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ing, and to the Fisheries and United States Government buildings. Southward this irregular quadrangle is closed by the north façades of the Mines and Electricity buildings.

The lagoon connects southward with a system of formal stone-bordered canals and basins, where will be symmetrically placed the great plaza, or cour d'honneur, of the Exposition, a regular quadrangle 700 by 2000 feet, about equal in size to that of the last Paris Exposition. Water-communication will be provided for at the east end of this court, and the system of railroads will debouch at the west end in a railroad terminus, masked by the Administration Building, which will be treated so VOL. XLIV.- 12.

as to serve as the monumental porch of the Exposition. From the railroad terminus, through. the arches of this porch and beneath its lofty dome, the visitors will enter the court, which is bounded on the right hand (southward) by the Departments of Machinery and Agriculture, on the left (northward) by those devoted to Mines, Electricity, and to Manufactures and the Liberal Arts, and in front (eastward) by Lake Michigan. The center of this court is occupied by a great artificial basin which forms a part of the water-system of the Park. Connecting with this basin, a broad canal, bordered by double terraces and crossed by arched bridges, will run southward into a minor court between the pal

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