The first sight of that great mosaic, from the Fillmore-street hill, at
once creates a nerve-soothing impression most uncommon in international
expositions, and for that matter, in any architectural aggregate. One is
at once struck with the fitness of the location and of the scheme of
architecture. Personally, I am greatly impressed with the architectural
scheme and the consistency of its application to the whole. I fear that
the two men, Mr. Willis Polk and Mr. Edward Bennett, who laid the
foundation for the plan, will never receive as much credit as is really
due them. I hope this appreciation may serve that purpose in some small
way.

It was a typically big western idea, an idea that as a rule never gets
any farther than being thought of, or possibly seeing daylight as an
"esquisse" - but seldom any farther than that. The Burnham plan for San
Francisco was such an unrealized dream, but here the dream has achieved
concrete form. The buildings as a group have all the big essential
qualities that art possesses only in its noblest expression. Symmetry,
balance, and harmony work together for a wonderful expression of unity,
of oneness, that buildings devoted to profane purposes seldom show.

I do not know how many people who visit the Exposition are so
constituted as to derive an aesthetic thrill from artistic balance, but
I imagine that any person, no matter how inexperienced in matters of
art, will rejoice at the fine feeling of orderly arrangement of major
forms which runs through the entire grouping. It is simplicity itself,
and it serves an excellent practical purpose, enabling one to visit the
Exposition without being left a nervous wreck at the end.

The main entrance leads one into the physical center of the Exposition.
From there, on the first visit, one realizes the existence of an equally