Painting the Golden Gate International Exposition With Light

a man-made island of 400 acres which President Roosevelt has referred to as our latest insular possession, architects, artists, and engineers have constructed a magic walled city about an architectural plan that combines the ancient designs of Burmese, Cambodian, Incan, Mayan, and other Pacific cultures into the unique and surprisingly beautiful Golden Gate International Exposition. One and a half million dollars· spent on landscaping and another million dollars worth of sculptures, murals, and decorations have made of it a "Garden of Paradise" and a comprehensive artistic architectural unit rather than a disconnected assemblage of exhibit buildings. To design the lighting for such a composition requires that the engineer approach his problem with tolerance toward the view of others. The lighting must be in harmony with the work of the architects, artists, sculptors, and horticulturists, and strictly engineering considerations subordinated in many instances to those of aesthetics. This spirit of compromise between the science and art of illumination will be noted in the effects described in this paper.