Note 1 — Chapter I · ORIGIN OF THE PLAN OF CHICAGO: THE WORLD’S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION OF 1893 AND ITS RESULTS: THE SPIRIT OF CHICAGO

A significant illustration of the spirit in which the World’s Fair work was conceived is found in one incident. On the appointed day the architects assembled to submit to the general committee sketches for their several buildings. There had been a luncheon, prolonged by animated discussion. The scheme as a whole had begun to take hold of the men. The short winter afternoon was approaching an end, when Richard M. Hunt (then the dean of the architectural profession), suffering from the severe pains of rheumatism, slowly arose to speak of the Administration Building, a sketch of which he fastened to the wall. The New York architect who followed Mr. Hunt had on his building a dome four hundred and fifty feet high. Instantly a murmur ran around the group. The designer turned from the sketch. “I think,” he said, with deliberation, “I shall not advocate that dome; and probably I shall modify the building.” There was a breath of satisfaction. The next architect had a portico extending out over the terrace. Without waiting for criticism, he said he should draw the portico back to the face of the building. As one by one each man fastened his sketch to the wall, it was as still as death in the room; and those present could feel the great work drawing them as by a magnet; and each was willing to sacrifice his personal ideas to secure the unity of the whole composition. Finally the last drawing was shown; the last explanation had been made. Mr. Saint-Gaudens, who had sat in a corner all day listening, but never speaking and scarcely moving, went over to Mr. Burnham, and taking both his hands exclaimed: “Do you realize that this is the greatest meeting of artists since the fifteenth century?”