The artistic quality which distinguishes this Exposition above all
others in America or Europe rests on two outstanding facts: the
substantial unity of its architectural scheme, and its harmony of color,
keyed to Nature's coloring of the landscape in which it is placed. The
site furnished the clue to the plan; co-operation made possible the
great success with which it has been worked out.

"Centuries ago," said George W. Kelham, chief of Exposition
architecture, "before the modern age of advanced specialization was
dreamed of, had an architect been asked to create an exposition, he
would have been not only an architect, but painter, sculptor and
landscape engineer as well. He would have thought, planned and executed
from this fourfold angle, and I doubt if it would have even occurred to
him to think of one of the arts as detached from another." These words
express the method of the Exposition builders. The scheme adopted was a
unit, in which all of the arts were needed, and in which they all
combined to a single end. Each building, each court, every garden and
large mass of foliage, was designed as part of a balanced composition.
To make the landscape an integral part of the Exposition picture, by
fitting the Exposition to the landscape, was the common aim of
architect, colorist, sculptor and landscape engineer. The Mediterranean
setting offered by a sloping bench on the shore of the Golden Gate
suggested, as most capable of high expression of beauty, the scheme of a
city of the Far East, its great buildings walled in and sheltering its
courts. The coloring of earth, sky and sea furnished the palette from
which tints were chosen alike for palaces and gardens.