A big day in
Chicago on this date, December 12, back in 1890, when directors were named and
a plan formulated for choosing the architects for the World’s Columbian
Exposition that would open just 30 months later. The fact that committees were just being
formed and architects named at this late date is a reminder of just how quickly
this monumental event came together.
A board of four men
– Daniel Burnham, John Root, Frederick Law Olmsted and Abraham Gottlieb
recommended four plans for choosing the designers for the fair’s grand
buildings. The first three names are
legendary, but it took a lot of searching even to find Gottlieb’s first
name. It turns out that he served as the Chief Engineer of
the American Bridge Company and the director of the American Society of Civil
Engineers form 1872 until his death in 1894.
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| Abraham Gottlieb |
As an aside,
Gottlieb died in a way that an architect or engineer could not have scripted
any more fittingly. On February 9, 1894
at the age of 57 he attended a meeting at the office of the Illinois Steel
Company in the Rookery on LaSalle Street.
After the meeting he took the elevator to the ground floor, where he
“fell unconscious and died before medical aid could reach him.” [Journal of the Association of Engineering
Societies, Vol. XIII, May 1894]
Interesting . . .
that out of the four men who met this day in 1890, two of them, Gottlieb and
John Root, would not live to see the completion of the fair. John Root had only another month to live after
this December meeting, dying of pneumonia on January 15, 1891.
In any event, the men recommended four possibilities for the selection of architects for the
fair. They were:
(1) The selection of one man to whom designing
of the entire work should be entrusted.
(2) Competition made free to the whole
architectural profession.
(3) Competition among a select few.
(4) Direct selection.
The first option
was ruled out even though it would allow a coherent and uniform design of the
many buildings that would be at the heart of the fair. The conclusion was inescapable, though, that
no one man could design what was needed in the time that remained before the
fair was to open.
The question of time
also ruled out for the second alternative.
Setting up a competition, naming judges, allowing time for the
preparation of proposals and plans, and the actual judging would consume far
too much time. Moreover, it was uncertain that any architect of merit would enter a competition in a project that many viewed as preposterous, if not impossible.
Even a limited
competition – the third proposal, basically, ran into the same set of time
constraints.
Almost by default,
the fourth proposal was recommended and accepted and a process was begun almost
immediately “to select a certain number of architects, choosing each man for
such work as would be nearly parallel with his best achievements . . . The
honor conferred upon those selected would create in their minds a disposition
to place the artistic quality of their work in advance of the mere question of
emolument; while the emulation begotten in a rivalry so dignified and friendly
could not fail to be productive of a result which would stand before the world
as the best fruit of American civilization.”
{Chicago Tribune, December 13, 1890]
With $987,560 in
the bank the process of building what would become the greatest fair in the
history of the world in Chicago began in earnest on this date. Dedication Day, October 21, 1892, the date marking discovery of Columbus was less than two years away.
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| Dedication Day parade, October 21, 1892 |
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