THE Panama-Pacific International Exhibition Some Architectural and Decorative Features

Progress, Volume IX, Issue 11, 1 July 1914, Page 1141

THE Panama-Pacific International Exhibition Some Architectural and Decorative Features

In the building of this Exposition, its organisers are attempting not only to provide a fitting method of commemorating the ' opening of the Panama Canal, but as well are endeavouring to foster progress towards better architectural standards. To this end some of the -ablest men in the aesthetic professions have been brought together to

participate in the development of the comprehensive plan. Doubtless the immediate community, as well as distant communities to some extent, will feel its influence and be swayed in the future in favour of better things artistically.

The architecture of the Exposition will not follow one rigid and inflexible style. There will be various types, which will avoid all sameness and monotony. There will, however, be a satisfactory relation brought about between adjacent and attached structures. The main group lends itself particularly well to the architect's fancy. . Unlike other Expositions, this . Exposition has not commissioned the architect to prepare complete building plans. The buildings proper - within the facade

lines are designed by the engineers, the architect's function being to design the walls and courts. To better illustrate this it will be necessary to explain that the entire exterior wall of the main group has been put in the hands of one architect, while others have been selected to design the facades of courts. An entire court has been considered a decorative fea-

ture in itself, and in all cases is the result of one designer's efforts, producing thereby a perfect unit. "Where the work of one designer adjoins that of another, a transition has been accomplished by an intermediate architectural treatment.

All architectural features outside of the main group are, of course, cared for in the usual manner, and each individual building is completely designed by one architect. The principal structures under this scheme will be the Palace of Machinery, the Festival Hall and the Palaces of Horticulture and of Fine Arts and the California Building, the three former of which we illustrate.

A brief description of the various divisions of the main group and those outside of the main group will probably be of interest.

The Main Group comprises the following eight Exhibit Palaces: —Education and Social Economy, Food Products, Agriculture, Liberal Arts, Manufacture Transportation, Mines and Metallurgy and Varied Industries, and has as an integral part of its design the Main Tower and the Court of Honour, the Court of the Four Seasons, the Court of Abundance, the Court of Palms, and the Court of Flowers.

The three interior courts with their extensions have been developed longitudinally north and south in such a manner as to produce a maximum diversity of effect and to afford the greatest sheltered areas. It may be seen also that this arrangement gives relief to sightseers on warm or windy days. These courts are interconnected east and west, and open to the Esplanade on the north, while the two smaller, or South Courts (which are extensions of the East and West Courts), open on to the South

Gardens, and become virtually extensions thereof. The Court of Honour, approximately 500 feet wide by 900 feet long, suggests in size and contour the great Plaza approaching the Church of St. Peter at Rome.

On the east and west axes of the curved colonnades are triumphal arches, 150 feet long to base of sculpture, being larger than the Arc de Triomphe at Paris. Above these arches masses of sculpture

rise 40 feet higher. '■';"• ].\ , -. The last arch, named the Arch of the Rising Sun, leads to the Court of Abundance, and is surmounted by a group of sculpture symbolising the Orient. The western arch, which forms the entrance to the Court of the Four Seasons, will be of equal size, and sculpture representing the Occident will surmount it. These great arches will exemplify the theme of the composition, the meeting of the east and the west in the Panama Canal.