It’s Open! The Buildings of the PPIE

 

 

 

More than 100 buildings were erected on the exposition grounds over the course of two years. The materials and methods used in building construction reflected the impermanence of the fair. Since timber was abundant and inexpensive on the West Coast, structures were primarily framed with wood without concrete foundations. Steel frames were used only in three of the twelve main exposition buildings: the Tower of Jewels, the gallery portion of the Palace of Fine Arts, and the dome of the Palace of Horticulture.

To give the buildings a finished uniform look, they were coated or treated with “hardwall;” specially formulated to mimic real limestone or travertine and described as being a pale pinkish-gray-buff. A version or formula of the hardwall was also used by the sculpture department, and was capable of being molded into intricate architectural ornaments and statuary. To achieve uniform color the pigment was mixed at the source; gypsum was mixed with asbestos fiber, wood pulp, and silicate of alumina. The color regularity of the hardwall allowed the color pallet to be applied consistently, which was designed by Jules Guérin, Director of Color for the PPIE.

The color pallet chosen for the exposition was meant to evoke “a Persian rug of soft melting tones” and consisted of 12 color variations. [1] All designers, mural artists, and decorators had to comply. This pallet was captured in part by the Exposition’s Department of Exploitation that documented the fair with Autochromes, a type of color photograph that involved a three-color filter process. Prints of these photographs were created and sold. Often grainy, these images captured the ethereal quality of what Guérin was trying to accomplish.