The View From the Hill"The best way to see the Exposition, in my opinion," said the architect, "is to stand on the top of the Fillmore Street hill and look down.Then you will find out what the architects were up to.The finest point of observation would be at the corner of Divisadero Street and Broadway."The next day, as we stood at that point, the Exposition stretched out beneath us like a city of the Orient.
"When the architects first discussed the construction they knew it was to be looked at from these hills.So they had to have a scheme that should hide the skylight and avoid showing lack of finish on top and that should be pictorial and impressive from above.One of the problems was to make the roof architectural.Now as we look down, see how stunning the effect is - like a Persian rug.""And the color helped there, too, didn't it?""Of course.And notice how skilfully the architecture and the coloring harmonized.As the Exposition was to be built on low, flat ground, it had to be lifted up.One way was by using the domes.The central portion of each of those palaces was lifted above the main surface of the roof to introduce a row of semi-circular windows to light the interior like a church.And the domes, besides being ornamental in themselves, gave spring to the towers.The big tower provided scope for the splendid archway that served as an approach and set the standard for the other arches."It was plain enough that the top of the Exposition had not received the praise it deserved."Think how crude that scene would have been if it had presented a straggling mass of roofs.And even as it is, with its graceful lines, if it were lacking in color it would seem crude.Perhaps it will help us to realize how unsightly most of the roofs of our houses are, and how unfinished.There's no reason in the world why they should be.The Greeks and the Romans had the right idea.They were very sensitive to lack of finish.They felt the charm of decorated roofs.See that angel down there that keeps recurring at the points of the gables.
What a pretty bit of ornamentation.The Greeks used it to suggest the gifts of the gods coming down from heaven.'Blessings on this house.' Isuppose the wreath in the hand used here was meant to suggest the crowning of the work.It explains why the figure is called "Victory." By the way, it has an architectural value in giving lightness and grace to the roofs."The builders, we could see, had cleverly adapted their plans to the conditions."The effect might so easily have been monotonous and cold, and it might have been flat and dreary.It was a fine idea to lift the central portion of each of those main palaces above the surfaces of the roofs to introduce the semicircular windows in the domes.It helped to infuse the scene with a kind of tenderness and spirituality.And see how the two groups on top of the triumphal arches, the Orientals and the Pioneers, contribute to the soaring effect and to the finish at the same time.The Romans disliked bareness on the top of their arches.They wanted life up there, the more animated the better.So they put on some of their most dramatic scenes, like their chariot races."The expert proceeded to point out the architectural balance of the buildings.The severe and mighty Palace of Machinery, impressive in its long sweep of line, at one side made a dramatic contrast with the delicately imagined and poetic Palace of Fine Arts on the other.In front of the walled city, between the long stretch of garden, stood two harmonious buildings, the Palace of Horticulture, with its glorious roof of glass, and the Festival Hall, closely related in outline, and yet very different in detail.And the garden itself, with its dark, pointed trees standing against the wall, and with its simplicity of design, made an agreeable approach to the great arched entrance under the Tower of Jewels."Those banners down there, shielding the lights, are a stroke of genius, both in their orange color and their shape.And those orange-colored streamers, how they add to the spirit of gaiety.The trees have been placed against the wall to keep it from seeming like a long and uninteresting stretch.And observe the grace in line of the niches between the trees.Even from here you can feel the warmth of the color in the paths.The pink effect is made by burning the sand.Only a man like Guerin, a painter, would have thought of that detail.I wonder how many visitors down there know that the very sand they walk on has been colored."Around the Tower pigeons were flying, somehow relieving the mechanical outlines.Was the disproportion between the great arch, forming a kind of pedestal, and the outlines above due to mathematical miscalculation or to the interference of the ornamentation? We finally decided that the proportions had probably been right in the first place.But they had been changed by the Exposition authorities' cutting the Tower down one hundred feet, thereby saving $100,000.A matter of this kind could be reduced almost to an exact science.Besides, though the ornamentation interfered with the upward sweep of line, the effect of flatness was made by those horizontal blocks which seemed to be piled up to the top.
