WORLD'S FAIRS reds and terraces, sloping at the east down to the main lagoon. North of the plaza will be the two buildings devoted to mines and electricity, the latter bristling with points and pinnacles as if to entrap from the air the intangible element whose achievements it will display. A "South of the plaza will be Machinery Hall, with its power-house at the southeast corner. subway at the west will pass under the terminal railway loop of the Illinois Central Road to the cir low-roofed Romanesque structure, flanked by two vast circular aquaria, in which the spectator can look upward through the clear waters and study the creatures of ocean and river. This building will be directly west of the northern opening of the system of lagoons into Lake Michigan, and in a straight line with the Government Building and the Main Building, which extend along the lake shore to the southeast. "North of the lagoon which bounds this fisheries cular machinery annex within. North of this railway loop, and along the western limit of the park, will be the Transportation Building. Still farther north, lying west of the north branch of the lagoon at the point where it incloses the wooded island, will extend the long, shining surfaces and the gracefully curving roof of the crystal palace of horticulture. Following the lagoon northward, one will pass the Woman's Building, and eastward will reach the island devoted to the novel and interesting fisheries exhibit, shown in an effective, island lies the present improved portion of Jackson Park, which will be reserved for the buildings of states and of foreign governments. The Illinois Building will occupy a commanding position here, its classic dome being visible over the long lagoon from the central plaza. Along the Midway Plaisance will be placed a number of special exhibits like the historical series of human dwellings, reproductions of famous streets, etc., and it is probable that some of these may overflow into Washington Park," , THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT EXHIBIT BUILDING. The United States Government Exhibit Building was the first exposition structure to be planned. It occupies a delightful site near the lake shore, south of the main lagoon and of the area reserved for foreign nations and the several states, and east of the Woman's Building and of Midway Plaisance. Mexico's building will stand just north of that of the United States, across the lagoon. The Government Building was designed by Architect Windrim, now succeeded by W. J. Edbrooke. It is classical in style, and bears a strong resemblance to the National Museum and other Government buildings at Washington. It will cover an area of 350 by 420 feet; will be constructed of iron, brick and glass, and will cost $400,000. Its leading architectural feature is a central octagonal dome, 120 feet in diameter and 150 feet high, the floor of which will be kept free from exhibits. The building will Department of Agriculture. The north half will be devoted to the exhibits of the Fisheries Commission, Smithsonian Institution, and Interior Department. The State Department exhibit will extend from the rotunda to the east end and the Department of Justice from the rotunda to the west end of the building. The allotment of space for the several department exhibits is: War Department, 23,000 square feet; Treasury, 10,500 square feet; Agriculture, 23,250 square feet; Interior, 24,000 square feet; Postoffice, 9,000 square feet; Fishery, 20,000 square feet, and Smithsonian Institution, amount of space unsettled at this writing. A large area adjacent to the building will be devoted to field hospitals, life-saving stations, lighthouses, etc., making a most interesting display. The War Department will show all the machinery The gem and crown of the exposition buildings will be the Administration Building. It will be located at the west end of the great court, in the southern part of the site, looking eastward, at the rear of which will be the railroad loop and the great passenger depot. The first object which will attract visitors on reaching the grounds will be the gilded dome of this great building. To the south of the Administration Building will be the Machinery Hall, and across the great court in front will be the Agricultural Building to the south and the Manufacturers' Building to the northeast. The great Administration Building will be the only one besides the electrical building that will cost as much as $650,000. The architect is Richard M. Hunt, of New York, president of the American Institute of Architects. It will cover an area 250 feet square, and consist of four pavilions. 84 feet square, one at each end of the four angles of the BUILDING. square of the plan, and connected by a great central dome 120 feet in diameter and 220 feet in height, leaving at the center of each façade a recess 82 feet wide within which will be one of the grand entrances of the building. The general design is in the style of the French Renaissance, and it will be a dignified and beautiful specimen of architecture, as befits its position and purpose among the various structures by which it will be surrounded. Externally the design may be divided in its height into three principal stages. The first stage consists of the four pavilions, corresponding in height with the various buildings grouped about it, which are about 65 feet high. The second stage, which is of the same height, is a continuation of the central rotunda, 175 feet square, surrounded on all sides by an open colonnade of noble proportions, it being 20 feet wide and forty feet high, with columns four feet in diameter. This colon WORLD'S FAIRS nade is reached by stair-cases and elevators from the four principal halls, and is interrupted at the angles by corner pavilions, crowned with domes and groups of statuary. The third stage consists of the base of the great dome, 30 feet in height and octagonal in form, and the dome itself, rising in graceful lines, richly ornamented with heavily moulded ribs and sculptural panels, and having a large skylight of glass to light the interior. At each angle of the octagonal base are large sculptured eagles, and among the springing lines are panels with rich garlands. This great dome will be gilded, and, asserting itself grandly at the end of the long vistas which open up in every direction, Between every two of the grand entrances, and connecting the intervening pavilion, with the great rotunda, is a hall, or loggia, thirty feet square, giving access to the offices and provided with broad, circular stairways and swift running elevators. Internally, the rotunda is octagonal in form, the first story being composed of eight enormous arched openings corresponding in size to the arches of the great entrances. Above these arches is a frieze 27 feet in width, the panels of which are filled with tablets borne by figures carved in low relief and covered with commemorative inscriptions. The principal story of the rotunda is crowned with a richly decorated cornice, on the shelving THE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING. across the lagoons and between the neighboring palatial buildings, will form a fitting crown to the first and second stages. The four great entrances, one on each side of the building, will be 50 feet wide and 50 feet high, deeply recessed and covered by semicircular arched vaults, richly covered. In the rear of these arches will be the entrance doors, and above them great screens of glass, giving light to the central rotunda. Across the face of these screens, at the level of the office door, will be galleries of communication between the different pavilions. On each side of these entrances, and in the entrant angles of the corner pavilions, groups of statuary, of an appropriate and emblematic character, will be placed. The interior features of the building will even exceed in beauty and splendor those of the exterior. top of which is a continuous balcony on the same level as the colonnade outside and from which can be viewed the vast interior. Above the balcony is the second story, 50 feet in height. The walls are embellished with plasters, between which a frieze of windows is placed, giving light to the rotunda from the rear wall of the surrounding colonnade. From the top of the cornice of this story rises the interior dome, 200 feet from the floor, and in the center is an opening 50 feet in diameter, transmitting light from the exterior dome overhead. The underside of the dome is enriched with deep panellings, richly molded, and the panels are filled with sculpture, in low relief, and immense paintings, representing the arts and sciences. In size this rotunda will rival if not surpass the celebrated domes of a similiar character in the world. Will cost about $650,000 and cover about five acres. The architects are Van Brunt and Howe, of Boston and Kansas City. The building has its major axis running north and south. The south front is on the great quadrangle or court; the north faces the lagoon. The general scheme of the plan is based on a longitudinal nave 115 feet wide and 114 feet high, crossed in the middle by a transept of the same width and height. The nave and transept have a pitched roof, with a range of skylights at the bottom of the pitch and clear story windows. The rest of the building is covered with a flat roof 62 feet in height and provided with skylights. The second story is composed of a series of galleries connected across the nave by two bridges, with access by four grand staircases. There are subordinate staircases in the four corners of the building. The area of the galleries in the second story, as at present arranged, is 118,543 feet, or 2.7 acres, but there is capacity for an extension of this area if necessary. The exterior walls of this building are composed of a continuous Corinthian order of pilasters, 3 feet 6 inches wide and 42 feet high, supporting a full entabulature and resting upon a stylobate 8 feet 6 inches high. Above is an attic story 8 feet high, the total height of the walls from the grade outside being 68 feet 6 inches. This order is divided into bays 23 feet wide, this dimension serving as the module of proportion for the plan of the whole building. In the center of each of the four sides is an entrance pavilion, against which the higher roof of the nave or transept abuts. The north pavilion is placed between the two great apsidal or semicircular projections of the building. It is flanked by two towers 195 feet high. The central feature is a great semi-circular window, above which, 102 feet from the grade, is a colonnade forming an open loggia or gallery, commanding a view over the lagoon and all the north parts of the grounds. Access to the loggia is obtained by elevators. The east and west central pavilions are composed of two towers, 168 feet, 6 inches high, between which the transept roof finishes in a gable or pediment with a row of windows beneath, giving light to the transept. In front of these two pavilions there is a great portico composed of the Corinthian order with full columns. Within this portico is an inner porch, forming a vestibule in each case. The south pavilion is a hemicycle or niche, 78 feet in diameter and 103 feet high. This niche is covered by a half dome, with ribs and decorations in relief, the Corinthian order being carried round the walls of the niche. The opening of this niche is framed by a semi-circular arch, the impost of which is supported by four full Corinthian columns continuous with the order of the façades. This arch is crowned by a gable or pediment with smaller gables on the returns, and sumounted by an attic, the whole reaching the height of 142 feet. In the Ionic order is converted into an arcade where it passes in front of the north pavilion, forming there an open portico with a wide balcony above looking toward the lagoon. All this exterior ordonnance is carried out strictly according to the formulas of the Italian Renaissance, all the architects employed upon the buildings forming the great quadrangle or square having agreed to use a strictly scholastic form of architectural expression, similar in respect to the height of the order, but varing in regard to its character and distribution. In this way, by frequent comparisons of designs, they have endeavored to obtain for the quadrangle, which is the main architectural feature of the exposition, a unity of feeling, recalling in scale and character the most dignified and important manifestations of architecture obtained in the baths and forums of classic times. According to agreement among the architects of the buildings around the quadrangle, the Electrical Building will, like the rest, have an open por tico extending along the whole of the south façade, the lower or Ionic order forming an open screen in front of it. The various subordinate pavilions are treated with windows and balconies. The details center of this niche, upon a lofty pedestal, is a colossal statue of Franklin. At each of the four corners of the building there is a pavilion, above which rises a light, open spire or tower, 169 feet high. Intermediate between these corner pavilions and the central pavilion on the east and west sides, there is a subordinate pavilion bearing a low, square dome upon an open lantern. There are thus ten spires and four domes, which combine to give to the otherwise rigid horizontal lines of the building an effect of lightness and animation in accord, it is hoped, with the purposes of the building. All these towers are composed of one or more orders of architecture, with open arches, interior domes and balustrades. The entablature of the great Corinthian order breaks around each of the pilasters of the four fronts, and above each pilaster in the Attic order is a pedestal bearing a lofty mast for the display of banners by day and electric lights by night. Of these masts there will be in all fifty-four. The first story of the building is indicated in these façades, between the great pilasters of the Corinthian order, by a subordinate Ionic order, with full columns and pilasters forming an open screen in front of the windows of this story. Above this Ionic order is an order of arches in front of the windows of the second story. The of the exterior orders are richly decorated, and the pediments, friezes, panels, and spandrils will receive a decoration of figures in relief, with architectural motifs, the general tendency of which will be to illustrate the purposes of the building. It is intended that the friezes of the Ionic order shall bear in each bay the name of a discoverer or inventor associated with the development of the science of electricity, thus setting forth a biographical history of the science. The color of the exterior will be marble, but the walls of the hemicycle and of the various porticoes and loggias will be highly enriched with color, the pilasters in these places being decorated with scagliola and the capitals with metallic effects in bronze. In the design of this building it is proposed by the architects so to devise its details and general outlines that they may be capable of providing an electric illumination by night on a scale hitherto unknown, the flagstaffs, the open porticoes, and the towers, especially, being arranged with this in view. It is proposed that the hemicycle or niche, which forms the south porch, shall have either a great chandelier or crown of lights suspended from the center of the half dome, or shall be provided with electric lights masked behind the triumphal arch which forms the opening of the niche. |