Mapping the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

“If the plan of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition group of main buildings were reduced in scale to the size of a golden brooch and the courts and buildings were made of Venetian cloisonné jewelry, the brooch thus made would pass as the regular thing in jewelry without causing the suspicion that it represented a plan for a World’s Fair.”                  

--Bernard Maybeck, 1915[1]

Saturday February 20, 1915 the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) opened its gates. Spread over 635 acres, the exposition grounds extended two miles along the waterfront on land that in some parts had been 20 feet under water.[2] The PPIE celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal, turned American attention toward the Pacific and South America, and depicted San Francisco as the center of trade in the Pacific. Just as important, the PPIE showed the world how the city of San Francisco had recovered and rebuilt after the devastating earthquake and fire of 1906.

The exposition was roughly organized in three concentric bands. The innermost band was a system of eight palaces and three courts, designed around a beaux-arts central axis. Surrounding and oriented to the palaces and courts, were individual buildings and gardens. On the very outskirts were the amusements and aerial concessions, known as the “zone” or “joy zone.” During the planning for the exposition, which began as early as 1904, 150 versions of the overall plan were explored.[3] Many of the architects involved with the design of the PPIE would, 24 years later, design much of the Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE).

The landscape of the PPIE, designed by Chief of Landscape Gardening John McLaren, was as much a part of the general plan as the architecture. What had been a marshy stretch along the Pacific Ocean was transformed by 1915 with mature 65 foot tall trees weighing as much as 16 tons with acres of vast ever changing flower beds in constant bloom. The color of the plants was carefully selected to ensure that all the varieties were in keeping with the Exposition’s official color palette. This took a tremendous amount of planning and required space outside the fairgrounds to allow the flowers, trees, succulents, and shrubs to mature and bloom before being transported to the Exposition.