Architecture Of World's Fairs Essays Examples

In the last third of the XIX century the United States of America made a huge leap in the economy, changing from an agricultural country into a mighty industrial power. In the 80s the United States overtook Britain by smelting of iron and steel, the mining of coal and firmly took first place in the world. At a rapid pace were developing textile and food industries, rapidly went railway construction. Since the 90s quickly started to grow new branches of industry - chemical, electrical, rubber, oil. Great importance has gained the standardization of products and the development of invention. During the rise in the economic development of the country, it was decided to organize a new World Exhibition "Art, hard work and industry of the land, its subsoil and the seas" in Chicago to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. World Exposition 1893 (May 1 - November 1, 1893), held in Chicago, has become one of the largest in history. Being devoted to the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America, it was called "World's Columbian Exposition ".
Preparations for the exhibition took place simultaneously with the restoration of the city after the great fire of 1871. The exhibition was placed in a picturesque setting on the shores of Lake Michigan. In an area of 600 acres were presented 200 buildings, canals and lagoons, people and cultures from around the world. For 6 months the exhibition was visited by 27 million people. This fair had a significant influence on architecture, art, image of the city and the so-called "American industrial optimism." It was a serious bid of Chicago for the title of leader among cities in the US, and the United States itself - for world leadership. (Norm Bolotin et al. 1-11)
About 200 magnificent buildings with white exteriors (material - wood treated with a special plaster), elevated railway, moving walkways, glowing fountains, giant wheel-swing, Ice Mountain, the whole "street treats" with theaters, menagerie, markets - all this beckoned and fascinated. On the Chicago exhibition the public could witness the machine which sews 1 thousand buttons per hour on soldiers' uniforms (Department of machines), a whole library of books written exclusively by women (women's section), garden furniture made from corn (Department of Agriculture), and more. At the same time Columbian Exposition differed by the stunning lack of system. For example, in the Russian agricultural department has been exposed too much vodka and, moreover, in the foreground. The costs of Americans for Columbian Exposition were not in vain. "White" exhibition was very successful. From an architectural standpoint it was a triumph of the principles Bozar applied to American urban planning. Exhibition town have been designed by leading architects of the time - Daniel Hudson and Frederick Law Olmsted. On the basis of its exhibits was later built the Philadelphia Museum of trade - the largest in the world. Throughout the exhibition acted Parliament of World Religions, representing the official meeting of the Western and Eastern traditions from around the world.
An important role in the history of American architecture has played World Expo 1893 in Chicago. During this period, the period of eclecticism (1893-1920), occurs massive revival of the classical style. Many of the buildings of the World Exhibition were performed exactly in the classical style. One of the most notable was the building of transport, made by architect L. Sullivan. It was this building that reflected the basic trend of modern American architecture, introduced by Sullivan - "form corresponds to the function". Sullivan’s pupil was F. L. Wright, who most of his life engaged in the construction of suburban residences. He is the author of the concept of "organic architecture", which is based on the position that the buildings are functional and connected with the surrounding landscape. Among the most prominent buildings constructed by Sullivan projects are Wainwright Building in St. Louis, skyscraper Guaranty Building in Buffalo, a department store in Chicago and others. Also at this time, America enters the world stage as a major industrial and capitalist country, which also in turn postponed imprint on the buildings. The building is transformed into an object of purchase and sale, and its appearance - the object of advertising. Other prominent architects at this exhibition are R. A. Cram and B. G. Goodhue, who sought to revive Gothic architecture and improve its technique. Their desire is clearly expressed in buildings such as All Saints' Church in Brooklyn, Trinity Church in Havana and the Church of St. Andrew in Chicago. (David F. Burg 75 -114)
Thus, by the end of the XIX century in architecture appear new technical and constructive tasks, it retains only some external forms and details inherited from past styles, especially long held the fashion for Roman and Greek architecture styles. The original and innovative ideas in the field of architecture and construction have been connected with new technological advances, with the emergence of a new type of engineering and architectural techniques and structures. These include, first of all, the famous Brooklyn Bridge in New York, built by father and son Roebling. Opened in 1884, this bridge, striking in its innovation and use of new materials, has opened a new milestone in the development of architecture of the USA. It is possible to say that by the end of the XIX century architecture in the United States had generally imitative character, and only with the advent of the Chicago's Columbian Exposition it gets rid of any kind of influence, and what's more, it begins to actively influence the architecture of other countries. In the late 19th century were laid the basic architectural principles and ideals on which was based modern architecture of the United States.
After this exhibition gradually start to emerge organizational principles of exhibits show - the construction along with the main pavilion, where are represented all States participating in the exhibition, theme (by industry) and national pavilions, as well as the grouping in one place of pavilions of the host country of the World Exhibition (Pavilions of separate states in the US). Design of "White City" pushed the urban development to trends to attach greater importance to the aesthetic factor in the design of cities, and the beautification of public spaces. (David F. Burg 114 - 180)
The 1933 Century of Progress Exposition. In May 27, 1933 in Chicago opened its doors World's Fair, designed to show the capabilities of the American nation. Unofficially, it has received another, which became better known, the name "Century of Progress". Century of Progress was the name of the second to be held in Chicago World's Fair, which the split into two halves, it was held on 27 May to 12 November 1933 and from 1 June to 31 October 1934 on the occasion of the centenary of the founding of Chicago and demonstrated technical progress and innovation. The show was very successful; it was visited by more than forty million people. The exhibition’s motto was "Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Conforms".
One of the most important "owners" of the exhibition, of course, was the car. In those years, increasingly began to sound magically fascinating new word - "design". The reforms have opened the green light to the works of young designers, who were then still called stylists, imposing on them the hope that they will be able to "turn the entire American reality." A peculiar obsession with the aesthetic design of all things has begun. World Expo, which took place in America during the Depression, gave the public the opportunity to get acquainted with the design of 1920-1930. For the Chicago exhibition 1933-34 "Century of Progress" buildings were built in Art Deco style with colorful facades and interiors in the same style. Some manufacturers have started to produce furniture and other products in the marked Art Deco style. Inexpensive furniture of factory production with curved elements made of veneer, probably reminiscent of Niagara Falls, brought the Art Deco in the homes of people with modest means. In general, the style of Art Deco can be seen as the last stage of development of the art Modernity period, or as a transitional style from modern to post-war functionalism, design of "international style". In the Art Deco continued favorite themes and motifs of modernity - more precisely the style of Art Nouveau - sinuous lines, an unusual combination of expensive and exotic materials, the image of fantastic creatures, waveform, shells, dragons and peacocks, swans' necks and languid, pale woman with her hair. (Edward Benoit 11-20)
World's Fair, which lasted two years, opened to the world not only new American car design, but also marked the so-called "Decade of streamlining" that lasted the last prewar decade. The exhibition was held in Barnhem Park, on the shore of Lake Michigan. Throughout its vast territory were placed the most cutting-edge technical avant-garde and American folklore: architectural futurism coexisted with primitive constructions of the first settlers in the Wild West, the most advanced cars were mixed up with carts of pioneers. Crowds of thousands people looked at numerous incredible creations on wheels, which gave birth a resurgent America. All exhibition constructions were suppressed by monumental pavilions of concerns "General Motors" and "Chrysler", as it was considered performed in best futuristic solutions with giant halls where intertwined cylindrical, spherical and cubic forms.
This fair became a kind of battleground of rationalistic directions with neoclassicism and eclecticism. New developments in the field of architecture though with difficulty, but still fought their way into the construction of unique public buildings. Such, for example, designed by architect Jean van Peck the Grand Palace of Century. The design of the overlap of its huge hall (reinforced concrete arches of parabolic contours) is not found in the external appearance of the building, the facade of which presents a stepped composition stylized in the spirit of classicism.
In the architecture of the pavilions first massively has been used a color (colouristic scheme authors D. Urban and S. Vogelgesang), anti-aircraft searchlights and gas-discharge tubes with colored light (lighting designer Ryan W. D'Arcy). On the roof of the pavilion "Ford" in a circle with a diameter of 60 m were installed 24 powerful spotlights with rays of light one mile high. This solution is considered to be one of the originals of "light cathedrals" of A. Speer. The exhibition was closed in 1934 under the motto "Festival of lights: the apotheosis of man-made light." (Cheryl R. Ganz 72-150)
The 1939 New York World's Fair. The United States has already in the XIX century accumulated substantial experience in various international and world exhibitions. The first major exposition can be called an international industrial exhibition in 1853 in New York. The organizer of the show was a group of influential citizens, inspired by the success of the first World Exhibition in London in 1851. A great success to the United States brought the World Exhibition in Philadelphia (1876), Chicago (1893). The beginning of the twentieth century was marked by large international exhibitions in St. Louis (1904) and San Francisco (1915). The US government in May 1937 submitted an application to the International Exhibitions Bureau (BIE) to hold the world exhibition in New York in 1939, dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the independence of the United States or as refined by Americans, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the inauguration of the first president George. Washington. In contrast to previous world exhibitions it has been designed for two summers and finally was closed in October 1940. The exhibition was held under the theme "Building of the world of tomorrow" ("The World Tomorrow").
For the construction was chosen a large area on the outskirts of the city, in the valley of Flashing, an area of about 500 hectares. Such a large exhibition area has not yet broken record in the history of world exhibitions. In this area for building plot have been allocated about 150 hectares. The territory of the exhibition had a clear functional zoning in accordance with the thematic division. Disposition of the exhibition was divided into seven sectors, grouped around the central square. These are area of the national pavilions, transport, communications, food industry, trade, production and distribution and, finally, a vast area of shows and entertainment.
World Exhibition was opened in April 30, 1939 by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. At the grand opening of the exhibition was also Albert Einstein. The opening ceremony, in addition to broadcast on national radio, was first shown on television. On the first day it was visited by 200 thousand people, and the total number of visitors during the work of the show has reached more than 44 million. The exhibition was attended by 52 countries, of which 22 member countries had their own national pavilions. The main architectural accent and symbol of the exhibition became "Trilon and Perisfera" created by the famous architect William Harrison and M. Abramovich. The composition of this structure is built on the contrast of forms. "Trilon" - a silver-steel 210-meter triangular obelisk, looking skyward, and "Perisfera" - white reinforced concrete ball with a diameter of 56 m, which, as it hovered in the air over a large circular pool, lapped by jets of water from below. Both buildings were connected by a bridge. Inside the ball was escalator and moving galleries. It housed a model city of the future, which introduces visitors to the "luminous, comfortable and democratic future." If "Trilon", which is in the form of an obelisk, is not new to his idea, the "Perisfera" was the first building in the shape of a ball, functioning as expositional. These buildings maintained the principle of pure geometric forms as aesthetic foundations of modern architecture. The prototype of the central ensemble of the exhibition could probably serve as a well-known project of the Institute named after V. I. Lenin, developed in 1927 by the outstanding Soviet architect I. I. Leonidov. (Bill Cotter 12-34)
The architecture of the exhibition was varied in style orientation, but compared to the Paris World Exhibition in 1937 here were more pavilions with elements of neoclassicism. The exhibition continued tendency of strengthening expositional values of national pavilions and reducing the total number of industrial buildings. The main exposition was placed in the national pavilions (22 pieces), the pavilions of individual states, numerous pavilions of large private companies and several thematic pavilions. Pavilions of American companies "General Motors", "Ford", "General Electric", the pavilion Edison and others enjoyed a great success. In many American pavilions was arranged a demonstrative production of large quantities of goods. In the pavilion of company "Ford" was demonstrated an almost complete cycle of manufacturing of vehicles. The special interest of the public caused the latest developments in aviation, the first televisions, tape recorders and air conditioners, fluorescent lights, nylon stockings, etc. The real sensation was the first speaking robot presented in the pavilion of the company "Westinghouse Electric." Among the national pavilions the press noted pavilions of France, Italy, Great Britain, Belgium, Finland (arch. Alvar Aalto), Brazil (arch. Oscar Niemeyer) and the USSR. For the first time at the World Exhibition appeared pavilion of Jewish Palestine, where it introduced to the world the concept of the modern Jewish state, which ten years later become a sovereign state of Israel. Japanese pavilion resembled a traditional temple in the national style.
Undoubted interest was to the USSR pavilion, designed by architects B. M. Iofan and K. S. Alabyan. The Soviet pavilion represented a monumental two-storey building, built by various species of marble with a total area of 12 thousand sq. m. The building had a horseshoe shape with an open space of the amphitheater of the antique type in the center for 700 spectators. A visitor passing demonstration rooms, found himself in the amphitheater, where he could relax, watch documentaries about the Soviet country, and listen to music. In front of him was erected an obelisk 55 meters high, topped by a statue of the worker at a height of 17 m with a ruby star in his upraised hand (sculptor V. A. Andreev). At the entrance pylons were hanging bas-reliefs of Stalin and Lenin of pink granite. Unlike the previous exhibition in Paris in 1937, which became the unrivaled example of a true synthesis of architecture and sculpture, here in New York sculpture had an independent value, which led to less fortunate solution of the problem of synthesis of arts. Introduction to the architecture of the pavilion of stylized antique motifs was a reflection of retrospective neoclassical trend in Soviet architecture, which emerged in the mid-30s after the competition for the design of the Palace of Soviets in Moscow on the site of destroyed temple of Christ the Savior. (Richard Wurts 3-24)
Pavilion of the USSR, as noted by the American press, had pronounced propagandistic nature, "where each exhibit, ranging from political portraits to the porcelain" served to ideological purpose. The newspaper "New York Post" wrote at the time: "The huge popularity of the Soviet pavilion is explained due to two reasons: great interest to the Soviet Union, to its political and economic systems and the fact that the pavilion is a masterpiece of the exhibition premises." The exposition of pavilions was created by a large group of artists, who contributed greatly to the development of Soviet expositional art. Eight exhibition halls disclosed the following topics: social structure, the economy and the socialist labor, transportation, culture and recreation, urban planning, art, printing, etc. One of the main features of design of USSR pavilion at the exhibition in 1939 in New York was the inclusion in the exhibition of a large number of dioramas. They have become the leading means of expression, as no other methods of image create the impression of reality, the similarities with reality. After the end of the exhibition pavilion of the USSR was dismantled and moved to Moscow. It was supposed to recreate it on the territory of Gorky Park. The war prevented the realization of this idea.
Significant event of the New York exhibition was laying of the capsule with a message for the future. Designed for opening after five thousand years, it contained the most characteristic evidence of the era. The message consisted of three microfilms with the description of technical and humanitarian achievements of the era on millions of pages of text. In the container together with the works of Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann were also placed seed samples, various tissue samples, minerals and precious metals, an album of contemporary fashion, copies of the magazine «Life», several consumer goods symbolizing the spirit of the age: a toothbrush, shaving razor Gillette, cigarettes Camel, Mickey Mouse watches, cosmetics, chewing gum, playing cards, and others.
World's Fair in New York was closed in October 31, 1940. Like most of the world exhibitions, it was unprofitable. The total deficit amounted 18 million dollars. Despite this, the exhibition has significantly strengthened the international prestige of the United States. After the exhibition closed almost all structures were dismantled and in its place is organized Public Park that exists today. (Andrew F. Wood 9-30)

Works Cited

Norm Bolotin, Christine Laing. The World's Columbian Exposition: The Chicago World's Fair of 1893. 1992. Print.
David F. Burg. Chicago's White City of 1893. 1976. Print.
Edward Benoit. Chicago’s Evolution of Progress: Representations of the Past, Present and Future at the 1893Columbian Exposition and the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition. 1989. Print.
Cheryl R. Ganz. The 1933 Chicago World's Fair: A Century of Progress. 2008. Print.
Bill Cotter. The 1939-1940 New York World's Fair. 2009. Print.
Richard Wurts. The New York World's Fair, 1939/1940 in 155 Photographs. 1977. Print.
Andrew F. Wood. New York's 1939-1940 World's Fair. 2004. Print.