The city of domes; a walk with an architect about the courts and palaces of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, with a discussion of its architecture, its sculpture, its mural decorations, its coloring and its lighting, preceded by a history of its growth

Front matter

C. EDWIN DAVIS

WORLD'S • FAIR • COLLECTION

“the PIONEER MOTHER,” BY CHARLES GRAFLY, BRONZE GROUP IN FRONT OF THE MAIN ENTRANCE TO THE PALACE OF FINE ARTS. IT WAS PRESENTED BY THE PIONEER MOTHER MONUMENT ASSOCIATION, WHICH RAISED $25,000 BY POPULAR SUBSCRIP- TION. ITS PERMANENT DESTINATION IS THE CIVIC CENTER OF SAN FRANCISCO. THE INSCRIPTION ON THE PEDESTAL WAS WRITTEN BY PRESIDENT BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER, OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA: “OVER RUDE PATHS BESET WITH HUNGER AND RISK SHE PRESSED ONWARD TOWARD THE VISION OF A BETTER COUNTRY. TO AN ASSEMBLAGE OF MEN BUSIED WITH THE PERISHABLE REWARDS OF THE DAY SHE BROUGHT THE THREE-FOLD LEAVEN OF ENDURING SOCIETY FAITH, GEN-

Contents

Page.

Preface ix

Introduction I

Preface

n the main , this volume consists of articles originally published in the San Francisco Bulletin. It includes material gathered from many visits to the Exposition grounds and from many talks with men concerned in the organization and the building and ornamentation . Fhe brief history that forms the Introduction gives an account of the development . For me , as, I presume, for most people, the thing done, no matter how interesting it may be, is never so interesting as the doing of the thing, the play of the forces behind . Even in the talk with the architect, where the finished Exposition itself is discussed, I have tried to keep in mind those forces, and wherever I could to indicate their play.

Fhe dialogue form I have used for several reasons: it is easy to follow ; it gives scope for more than one kind of opinion ; and it deals with the subject as we all do, when with one fiend or more than one we visit the Exposition grounds . It has been my good fortune to be able to see the Exposition from points of view very different from my own and much better informed and equipped \ I am glad to pass on the advantage .

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PREFACE

The Exposition is generally acknowledged to be an achievement unprecedented. Merely to write about it and to try to convey a sense of its quality is a privilege. I have valued it all the more because I know that many people , not trained in matters of architecture and art , are striving to relate themselves to the expression here , to understand it and to feel it in all its bearings. If at times, dire Bly or indirectly , I have been critical, the reason is that I wished, in so far as I could, to persuade visitors not to swallow the Exposition whole, but to think about it for themselves, and to bear in mind that the men behind it, those of today and those of days remote, were human beings exactly like themselves, and to draw from it all they could in the way of genuine benefit.

Though the volume is mainly devoted to the artistic features associated with the courts and the main palaces, I have included, among the illustrations, pictures of the California Building, both because of its close relation to California and because it is in itself magnificent, and of two notable art features, the mural painting by Bianca in the Italian Building, and “ The Thin kerf by Rodin, in the court of the French Pavilion.

THE FIRST STEPS

N JANUARY, 1904, R. B. Hale of San Francisco wrote to his fellow-directors of the Merchants’ Association , that, in 1915, San Francisco ought to hold an exposition to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal. In the financing of the St. Louis Exposition, soon to begin, Mr. Hale found a model for liis plan. Five million dollars should be raised by popular subscription, five million dollars should be asked from the State, and dire million dollars should be provided by city bonds.

The idea was promptly endorsed by the business associations.

From their chairmen was formed a board of governors. It zvas decided that the exposition should be held, and formal notification was given to the world by introducing into C ongress a bill that provided for an appropriation of five million dollars. The bill was not acted on, and it was allowed to die at the end of the session.

Soon after formulating the plan for the exposition Mr. Hale changed the date from 1915 to 1913, to make it coincide until the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery by Balboa of the Pacific.

In 1906 came the earthquake and tire. The next few years San Franciscans were busy clearing away the debris and rebuilding. It was predicted that the city might recover in ten years, and might not recover in less than twenty-five years.

Nevertheless, in December, 1906, within nine months of the disaster, a meeting zvas held in the shack that served for the St. Francis Hotel, and the Pacific Ocean Exposition Company zvas incorporated.

In three years the city recovered sufficiently to hold a week’s festival, the Portola, and to make it a success.

Two days afterward, in October , 1909, Mr. Hale gave a dinner to a small group of business men , and told of what had been done toward preparing for the Exposition. They agreed to help.

Shortly afterward a meeting was held at the Merchants' Exchange. It was decided that an effort should at once be made to raise the money and to rouse the people of San Francisco to the importance of the project of holding the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915.

As many as twenty-fve hundred letters were sent to business men , asking if they favored the idea of holding an exposition. Out of about eight hundred replies only seven were opposed. Presently there were signs of enthusiasm, reflected in the newspapers.

A committee of six representative business men zms appointed and the announcement zms made that the committee should be glad to hear from anyone in the city zvho had suggestions or grievances. It zms determined that every San Franciscan should have his day in court.

Eater the committee of six appointed a foundation committee of two hundred, representing a wide variety of interests.

The committee of two hundred chose a committee of three from outside their number.

The committee of three chose from among the two hundred a directorate of thirty. The thirty became the directorate of a new corporation, made in 1910, the Panama-Pacific International Exposition Company.

FINANCING

The Panama-Pacific Company two local millionaires, IV. H. Crocker and IV. B. Bourn, started financially with twenty-five thousand dollars each. They established the maximum individual subscription. They also secured forty subscriptions of twenty-five thousand dollars each. Then follozued the call for a mass meeting. Before the meeting zms held the business men of the city were thoroughly canvassed. The Southern Pacific and the Union Pacific together subscribed tzoo hundred and fifty thousand dollars. There were many other large subscriptions from public-service organizations.

On the afternoon of the meeting there was a croivd in the Merchants' Exchange Board Room. The announcement of the subscriptions created enthusiasm. In two hours the amount ran up to more than four million dollars. During the next few years they were increased to about $6,500,000.

Meanwhile, the State voted a tax levy of five million dollars, and San Francisco voted a bond issue of the same amount, and by an act of the Legislature, in special session, the counties were authorised to levy a small tax for county participation, amounting, in estimate, to about three million dollars.

RECOGNITION FROM CONGRESS

Next came the task of securing from Congress official recognition of San Francisco as the site of the International Exposition in celebration of the Panama Canal.

Headquarters were established in Washington. Presently serious opposition developed. Emissaries went from San Francisco to Washington singly and in delegations. Stress was laid on San Francisco's purpose not to ask for an appropriation from the national government . There were several cities in competition — Boston, Washington, Baltimore and New Orleans. New Orleans proved the most formidable rival. It relied on the strength of a united Democracy and of the solid South.

In the hearings before the Congressional Committee it was made plain that the decision would go to the city with the best financial showing. As soon as the decision was announced New Orleans entered into generous co-operation with San Francisco.

The Exposition was on the zuay.

NAMING THE PRESIDENT.

The offer of the presidency of the Exposition Company ivas made to a well-known business man of San Francisco , C. C. Moore. Besides being able and energetic , he zvas agreeable to the factions created by the graft prosecution of a half dozen years before. Like the board of directors, he was to serve without salary. He stipulated that in the conduct of the work there should be no patronage. With the directors he entered into an agreement that all appointments should be made for merit alone.

CHOOSING THE SITE

The choice of site was difficult. The sites most favored were Lake Merced . Golden Gate Park and LI arbor Vie zv. Lake Merced was opposed as inaccessible for the transportation both of building materials and of people , and, through its inland position, as an unwise choice for an Exposition on the Pacific Coast , in its nature supposed to be maritime. The use of the park, it was argued, would desecrate the peoples recreation ground and entail a heavy cost in leveling and in restoring.

Harbor View and the Presidio had several advantages. It zms level It was within two miles or walking distance of nearly half the city's inhabitants. It stood on the bay, close to' the Golden Gate, facing one of the most beautiful harbors in the world, looking across to Mount 7 amalpais and backed by the highest San Francisco hills. Of all the proposed sites, it zvas the most convenient for landing material by water, for arranging the buildings and for m a in taming sa n itary conditions.

After a somewhat bitter public controversy the Exposition directors, in July, 1911, announced a decision. It caused general surprise. There should be three sites: Harbor View and a strip of the adjoining Presidio, Golden Gate Park and Lincoln Park, connected by a boulevard, specially constructed to skirt the bay from the ferry to the ocean.

Jules guerin's drawing

OF THE EXPOSITION, MADE IN 1912, BEFORE THE FIRST BUILDING WAS UNDER- TAKEN. IT SHOWS THAT THE GENERAL PLAN HAS BEEN PRETTY CONSISTENT- LY CARRIED OUT. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THIS PLAN AND THE EXPOSITION AS IT STANDS CONSISTS MAINLY OF DETAIL. THE DOMED BUILDING TO THE LEFT OF THE PALACE OF HORTICULTURE, NOT TO BE FOUND ON THE GROUNDS, WAS INTENDED TO BE THE TEMPLE OF PEACE. THE TWO GATEWAYS ON THE MARINA, DEDICATED TO COLUMBUS AND BALBOA, WERE OMITTED IN THE CURTAILING OF EXPENSE.

That plan proved to be somewhat romantic. The boulevard alone, it zvas estimated, would cost eighteen million dollars.

Harris D. H. Connie k , the assistant city engineer, was called on as a representative of the Board of Public Works, and asked to make a preliminary survey of Harbor View. He showed that, of the proposed sites, Harbor View zvould be the most economical. The cost of transporting lumber zvoidd be greatly reduced by having it all come through the Golden Gate arid deposited on the Harbor View docks. The expense of filling in the small ponds there would be slight in comparison with the expense of leveling the ground at the park.

A few weeks later Harbor View and the Presidio zvas definitely decided on as the site, and the only site.

For months agents had been at work securing options on leases of property in Harbor View, covering a little more than three hundred acres, the leases to run into December, 1915* Reasonable terms were offered and in one instance only zms there resort to condemnation. The suit that followed forced the property owner, zvlio had refused fifteen hundred dollars, to take nine hundred dollars. President Moore zms tempted to pay the fifteen hundred dollars, but he decided that this course zvould only encourage other property ozvners to be extortionate. Some trouble zms experienced with the Vanderbilt properties, part of which happened to be under zvatcr. After considerable negotiating and appeals to the public spirit of the owners, it zms adjusted. About seven hundred thousand dollars zvas paid for leases and about three hundred thousand dollars for property bought outright.

THE DIRECTOR OF WORKS

While President Moore zvas looking for the man he zvanted to appoint as head of the board of construction, Harris D. H. Connick called to suggest and to recommend another man. Later the president offered Connick the position as director of zvorks.

Connick had exactly the qualifications needed: experience, youth, energy, skill and executive ability. He hesitated for the reason that he happened to be engaged in public work that he wished to finish. But he was made to see that the new work teas more important. He removed all the buildings at Harbor View, about 150, and he filled in the ponds, using two million cubic yards of mud and sand, and building an elaborate system of se zvers. The filling in took about six months. On the last day mules z were at work on the nczv land. And within a year the ground work and the underground work was finished.

THE ARCHITECTS

Meanwhile, President Moore asked for a meeting of the San Francisco Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, with more than 250 members. He explained that his purpose was to have them select twelve representatives from whom he should himself appoint five to act as an architectural boar- 3 When the board zcas formed zmth Willis Polk at .wad, it included John Galen Howard, Albert Pissis, William Curlett, and Clarence R. Ward. This board was dissolved and an executive council composed of Polk, Ward and W. B. Faville was put in charge. Later it gave zvay to a commission consisting of W. B. Faznlle, Arthur Brozmi, George W. K el ham, Louis Christian Mullgardt, and Clarence R. Ward, of San Francisco ; Robert Farquhar, of Los Angeles; Carr ere & Hastings, McKim, Mead & White, and Henry Bacon, of Nezv York. When it had completed the preliminary plans the board discontinued its meetings and G. W. Kelham zvas appointed Chief of Architecture.

THE BLOCK PLAN

At the first meeting President Moore explained that, at the St. Louis Exposition, according to wide-expressed opinions, the buildings had. been too far apart. He favored maximum of space zmth minimum of distance. The architects first considered the conditions they had to meet, climate and physical surroundings. They were mainly influenced by zmnd, cold and rain.

THE SITE OF THE EXPOSITION AS IT APPEARED BEFORE THE CONSTRUCTION WAS BEGUN. THE PICTURE ABOVE SHOWS THE OLD LIFE-SAVING STATION AT HIGH TIDE. THE LOWER PICTURE SHOWS THE GROUND AFTER BEING FILLED IN.

The result was that for the protection of visitors , they agreed to follow what zvas later to be generally known as the block plan , the buildings arranged in four blocks, joined by covered corridors and surrounded by a wall, zmth three central courts and two half-courts in the south wall. It had been developed in many talks among the architects. Valuable suggestions came from Willis Polk and from E. H. Bennett, of Chicago, active in the earlier consultations. The plan finally accepted was the joint work of the entire commission.

Twelve buildings zvere put under contract, each designed to illustrate an epoch of architecture, ranging from the severity of the early classic to the ornate French renaissance of to-day.

THE ARCHITECTURE

From the start it was realized that, vast as the Exposition zvas to be, representing styles of architecture almost sensationally different, it must nevertheless suggest that it zvas all of a piece. The relation of San Francisco to the Orient provided the clue. It was fitting that on the shores of San Francisco Bay, zvhere ships to and from the Orient were continually plying, there should rise an Oriental city. The idea had a special appeal in providing a reason for extensive color effects. The bay, in spite of the California sunshine, somewhat bleak, needed to be helped out with color. The use of color by the Orientals had abundantly justified itself as an integral part of architecture. The Greeks and the Romans had accepted it and applied it even in their statuary. It zvas, moreover, associated with those Spanish and Mexican buildings characteristic of the early days of California history.

THE GENERAL ARRANGEMENT

The general arrangement of the Exposition presented no great difficulties. The lay of the land helped. Interest, of course, had to center in the palaces and the Festival Hall , zmth their opportunities for architectural display. They naturally took the middle ground. And, of course, they had to be near the State buildings and the foreign pavilions. The amusement concessions, it was felt, ought to be in a district by themselves, at one end. Equally sequestered should be the livestock exhibit and the aviation held and the race track, which were properly placed at the opposite end. There would undoubtedly be many visitors concerned chiefly, if not wholly, with the central buildings. If they chose, they could visit this section without going near the other sections, carrying away in their minds memories of a city ideal in outline and in coloring.

CONSTRUCTION

As soon as the plans were decided on, the architects divided the work and separated. Those who had come from a distance went home and in a few months submitted their designs in detail. A few months later they returned to San Francisco and the meetings of the architectural board were resumed. Soon the modifications were made and the practical construction was ready to begin. Incidentally there zvere compromises and heartburnings. But limitations of funds had to be considered. Finally came the question of the tower, giving zvhat the architects called “the big accent.” There were those who favored the north side for the location. Others favored the south side. After considerable discussion the south side was chosen. At one of the meetings, Thomas Hastings did quick work zvitli his pencil, outlining his idea of zvhat the tower should be. Later, he submitted an elaborate plan. It zvas rejected. A second plan zvas rejected, too. The third zvas accepted. It cost five hundred thousand dollars.

Designs for two magnificent gateways, to be erected at the approaches to the Court of the Ages and the Court of the Four Seasons zvere considered. They had to be given up to save expense.

CLEARING THE LAND

The task of clearing the land zvas finished in a few months. In addition to the government reserve, the Exposition had seventy-six city blocks. They represented two hundred parcels of land, with 175 owners, and contained four hundred dwellings, barns and improvements. Most of the buildings were torn dozmi. A few were used elsewhere. Precautions were taken to re-enforce with piles the foundations of the buildings and of the heavy exhibits.

The director of works became responsible for the purchase of all the lumber to be used in building. It was bought wholesale, shipped from the sawmills and delivered to the sites. So there was a big saving here, through the buying in bidk and through reduced cost in handling and hauling. The first contracts given out were for the construction of the palaces. An estimate was made of the exact number of feet available for exhibits and charts were prepared to keep a close record on the progress of the zuork. Incidentally , other means of zmtching progress consisted of the amounts paid out each month. During the earlier months the expenditures zuent on at the rate of a million a month. Every three zveeks a contract for a building would be given out. The same contractors figured on each building. From the start it Was understood that the work should be done by union men. The chief exceptions were the Chinese and the Japanese. The exhibitors had the privilege of bringing their ozvn men. In all about five thousand men zvere employed, z corking either eight or nine hours a day. During the progress of the work there zvere few labor troubles.

One ztrise feature of the planning lay in the economy of space. It succeeded in reaching a compactness that made for convenience without leading to overcrowding. Great as this Exposition was to be, in its range worthy to be included among the expositions of the first class, it- should not weary the visitors by making them zrnlk long distances from point to point. In spite of its magnitude, it should have a kind of intimacy.

CHOICE OF MATERIAL

There zvere certain dangers that the builders of the Exposition had to face. One of the most serious was that buildings erected for temporary use only might look taivdry. It was, of course, impracticable to use stone. The cost zvould have been prohibitive, and plaster might have made the gorgeous palaces hardly more than cheap mockeries.

Under the circumstances it was felt that some new material must be devised to meet the requirements. Already Paul E. Denneville had been successful in working with material made in imitation of Travertine marble, used in many of the ancient buildings of Rome, very beautiful in texture and peculiarly suited to the kind of building that needed color. He it was who had used the material in the Pennsylvania Station, New York, in the upper part of the zvalls. After a good deal of experimenting Denneville had found that for his purpose gypsum rock was most serviceable. On being ground and colored it could be used as a plaster and made to seem in texture so close to Travertine marble as to be almost indistinguishable. The results perfectly justified his faith. As the palaces rose from the ground, making a magnificent walled city, they looked solid and they looked old and they had distinct character. Moreover, through having the color in the texture, they zvould not show broken and ragged surfaces.

THE COLOR SCHEME

For the color-effects it was felt that just the right man must be found or the result would be disastrous. The choice fell on Jules Guerin, long accepted as one of the finest colorists among the painters of his time. He followed the guidance of the natural conditions surrounding the Exposition, the hues of the sky and the bay, of the mountains, varying from deep green to tawny yellozv, and of the morning and evening light. And he worked, too, zvith an eye on those effects of illumination that should make the scene fairyland by night, utilizing even the tones of the fog.

MRS. EDITH WOODMAN

burroughs’ “fountain OF

YOUTH.” THE FIGURE OF THE GIRL IS DESIGNED WITH GREAT SIMPLICITY AND BEAUTY. BEHIND ARE THE EMBLEMS OF THE EAGLE AND THE LAUREL, SUGGESTING NATIONALITY AND SERVICE.

THE PANELS AT EITHER SIDE REPRESENT THE OLDER GENERATIONS ON THE VOYAGE OF LIFE, ROWED BY THE YOUNGER PEOPLE.

THE ATTITUDE AND FACES OF THE OLDER FIGURES INDICATE THAT THEY ARE LOOKING TOWARD THE BEAUTY AND HAPPINESS OF THEIR LOST YOUTH.

THE PLANTING

There zvas no difficulty in finding a man best suited to plan the garden that zms to serve as the Exposition’s setting. For many years John McLaren had been knozvn as one of the most distinguished horticulturists in this part of the world. As superintendent of Golden Gate Park he had given fine service. M oreover, he zvas familiar zvith the conditions and understood the resources and the possibilities. Of course a California exposition had to mamtain California’s reputation for natural beauty. It must be placed in an ideal garden, representing the marvelous endozmnent of the State in trees and shrubs and plants and dozvers and shozving what the climate could do even zvith alien grozvths.

The first step that McLaren took zvas to consult the architects. They explained to him the court plan that they had agreed on and they gave him the dimensions of their buildings. Against zvalls sixty feet high he planned to place trees that should reach nearly to the top. For his purpose he found four kinds of trees most serviceable: the eucalyptus, the cypress, the acacia and the spruce. In his search for what he wanted he did not confine himself to California. A good many trees he brought dozvn from Oregon. Some of his best specimens of Italian cypress he secured in Santa Barbara, in Monterey and in San lose. He also drezv largely on Golden Gate Park and on the Presidio. In all he used about thirty thousand trees, more than two-thirds eucalyptus and acacia.

PREPARING THE LANDSCAPE

Two years before the Exposition zvas to open McLaren built six greenhouses in the Presidio and a huge lath house. There lie assembled his shrubs, his plants, and his bulbs. In all he must have used nearly a million bulbs. From Holland he .imported seventy thousand rhododendrons. From Japan he brought tzvo thousand azaleas. In Brazil he secured some wonderful specimens of the cineraria. He even sent to Africa for the agrapanthus, that

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grew close to the Nile. Among native flowers he collected six thousand pansies, ten thousand veronicas and five thousand junipers, to mention only a few among the multitude of flowers that he intended to use for decoration. The grounds he had carefully mapped and he studied the landscape and the shape and color of the buildings section by section.

The planting of trees consumed many months. The best effects McLaren found he could get by massing. He zms particularly successful za nth the magnificent Fine Arts Palace, both in his groupings and in his use of individual trees. About the lagoon he did- some particularly attractive planting, utilizing the water for reflection. There was a twisted cypress that he placed alone against the colonnade with a skill that sliozved the insight and the feeling of an artist. On the water side, the Marina, he used the trees to break the bareness of the long esplanade. And here and there on the grounds, for pure decoration, he reached some of his finest effects with the eucalyptus , for which he evidently had a particular regard. As no California Exposition would be complete without palm trees, provision was made for the decorative use of palms along one of the main walks.

About two weeks before the opening the first planting of the gardens zms completed, the first of the three crops to be displayed during the Exposition. The flowers included most of the spring flowers grown here in California or capable of thriving in the California spring climate. In June they were to be replaced zvith geraniums, begonias, asters, gilly-flozvers, foxglove, hollyhocks, lilies and rhododendrons. The autumn display would include cosmos and chrysanthemums and marguerites.

THE HEDGE

As the work proceeded, W . B . Faville, the architect, of Bliss and Faville, made a suggestion for the building of a fence that should look as if it were moss-covered with age. The result was that developing the suggestion Me-

EL DORADO, BY MRS. GERTRUDE VANDERBILT WHITNEY, WELL-KNOWN AS MRS. HARRY PAYNE WHITNEY, IN THE NICHE TO THE LEFT OF THE ARCH UNDER THE TOWER OF JEWELS AS ONE ENTERS FROM THE SOUTH GARDENS. AN IMAGINATIVE AND SATIRICAL CONCEPTION OF THE COMPETITIVE STRUGGLE FOR SUCCESS AND HAPPINESS, TWO DECORATIVE EGYPTIAN FIGURES GUARDING THE DOORS AND KEEPING THOSE THAT REACH THE THRESHOLD FROM ENTERING.

Laren devised a new kind of hedge likely to be used the world over. It was made of boxes, six feet long and tzvo feet unde, containing a two-inch layer of earth, held in place by a wire netting, and planted with South African dew plant, dense, green arid hardy and thriving in this climate. Those boxes, when piled to a height of several feet, made a rustic zvall of great beauty, Moreover, they could be continuously irrigated by a one-inch perforated line of pipe. In certain lights the water trickling through the leaves shimmered like gems. In summer the plant would produce masses of small purple flowers.

McLaren found his experiment so successful that he decided to build a hedge twenty feet high, extending more than a thousand feet. He also used the hedge extensively in the landscape design for the Palace of Fine A rts.

THE SCULPTORS

The department of sculpture was placed under the direction of one of the most distinguished sculptors in the country, Karl Bitter, of N'ew York, whose death from an automobile accident took place a few zueeks after the Exposition opened. He gathered around him an extraordinary array of co-operators, including many of the most brilliant names in the world of art, with A. Stirling Colder as the acting chief, the man on the ground. Though he did not contribute any work of his oztm, he zms active in developing the zvork as a whole, taking special pains to keep it in character and to see that, even in its diversity, it gave the impression of harmony.

Colder zvelcomed the chance to work on a big scale and to carry out big ideas. With Bitter he visited San Francisco in Ait gust, 1912, for a consultation zvith the architectural commission. Minutely they went over the site and examined the architectural plans. Then they picked the sculptors that they unshed to secure as co-operators.

In December, 1912, Bitter and Colder made another insit to San Francisco for further conferring with the architectural commission , bearing sketches and scale models. Bitter explained his plans in detail and asked for an appropriation. He liras told that he should be granted six hundred thousand dollars. The amount was gradually reduced till it finally reached three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars.

It was at this period that Calder submitted his plan for the Column of Progress. He had worked it out in New York and had the scale models made by MacNeil and Konti. It won the approval of Me Kim , Mead & White, who declared that it made an ideal feature of the approach from the bay side to their Court of the Universe, then called the Court of the Sun and Stars.