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From a hand colored original 1915 |
Architect Willis Polk and the Palace of Fine Arts
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From a hand colored original 1915 |
Bernard Maybeck is the architect of the Palace of Fine Arts and
you may wonder why Willis Polk's name is in the title of this page. Here are
the little known facts from Todd's Story of the Exposition, Vol 1, page 304.
Polk had been assigned the Fine
Arts Palace from the Architectural Commission and in
August, 1912 appeared before the commission with a number of studies for the structure.
Pause and visualize this scene, for it holds the germ of a great
event in the art of the world. Beauty that thrilled the hearts of millions came
from the bare committee room, beauty that was as deep as the soul.
Not once in a century, never before in the history of America, has it been given men to seize upon and adopt for embodiment such a dream as this. Some of the leading architects of the country were there, as well as Directors of the Exposition, and there was put before them on the wall the suggestion of a vision comparable to the one that must have swam before the eyes of Shah Jehan when he first saw in prospect the jeweled walls, the swelling dome, the slender minarets of the Taj Mahal.
From among the sketches Polk produced were some in charcoal and subdued colors, depicting a loggia and dome rising from a lake, against a colonnade partly encircling it. Loggia and columns were reflected dimly in the water, from the edge of which trees rose here and there, giving the composition a most venerable and ancient aspect.
No one at the conference could see anything else. Polk was effusively congratulated and was asked where he got his inspiration, or the ideas involved.
Polk said the sketches were by Bernard R. Maybeck, and he would be pleased to see Maybeck work out the plans himself and in his own name.
The Architectural Commission unanimously adopted the Maybeck designs.
Today the Maybeck Foundation is working to restore the Palace.
Here is a
message from Campaign Chair Donna Ewald Huggins