Anonymous
American Architect and Building News 75 (March 29, 1902):98
So far as can be judged from the daily papers, there seems to be a little doubt whether the St. Louis Exposition will really be held next year. The disastrous financial failure of the Buffalo Exposition, followed by the disappointments of that at Charleston, have discouraged some, at least, of the St. Louis people, and it is argued, not without reason, that a postponement for a year would not only make it possible to organize the affair more carefully, but would give the public a chance to recover a little of its appetite for international shows, which now seems to be suffering from surfeit. Whenever the Exposition is finally opened, the Municipal Art Exhibit is likely to be one of the most interesting things in it to architects and engineers; and we may as well remark here that it is to be hoped that architects and engineers who want to see it will be enabled in some way to find it. As our readers remember, a splendid display of American municipal engineering work was made by the city of Boston at the Paris Exposition of 1900, but perhaps because it did not fit accurately into any one of the official divisions of the exhibition, it was almost impossible to find it. As municipal art is neither a fine-art, like painting and sculpture, nor a branch of engineering, like sewers and tramways, nor a form of education or of public charity, it has no definite place in the usual scheme of exposition classification, and must be made conspicuous in its own way.
As laid out by Mr. Albert kelsey, who is, apparently, entitled to the honor of having first prepared the definite plan, the Municipal Art Exhibit is to occupy a circular space, surrounded by a boulevard, planted with trees in the most approved manner. On a square adjoining the boulevard is the railway station, and from this a paved street extends in a straight line to the "plaza," which occupies the centre of the model town. Around the plaza are arranged the court-house, town-hall and post-office. From the plaza radiate other streets, and special districts are set apart for 'amusement" and "educational" centres, furnished with model theatres, school-houses and libraries. Possibly a model tenement-house may be shown; and it is likely that some of the accessory services of the Exposition, such as a hospital and fire-station, will form a part of the model city. In the way of detail, it is proposed to show different street sections, systems of sewerage, lighting and the other municipal services on the perfection of which the comfort of dwellers in cities so greatly depends; while as much as possible will be done to bring together beautiful suggestions in design, grouping and arrangement, not only of buildings but of fountains, monuments, bridges, park planting, lamps and so on. It is hoped that a Congress of Public Art, like those of Brussels and Paris, and the one to be held this spring at Turin, may be called at St. Louis, and, if this is done, the Model City will form the most interesting exhibit yet shown on such an occasion.
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