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THE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING - This structure nobly sustained the
expectations of the public,
and held a sovereign position among all the wonders of the Fair. It
was designed by Richard M. Hunt,
of New York, and, besides serving as headquarters for the chief
officers of the Exposition, its spacious
rotunda offered a favorite meeting place for friends, and was
thronged early and late by admirers of the
beautiful and impressive in architecture. Four square edifices
(called pavilions) of the general height of
the principal facades of the Exposition, were placed at the corners
of a quadrangular square of two
hundered and fifty feet, and from the inner corners of the roofs of
these edifices rose the beautiful
French octagonal dome, which, in addition to its gilding, bore a
conspicuous outer ornamentation in
relief. Between each pavilion was a space about ninety feet square,
making the entrances to the
rotunda - that is, the main entrances - about that far from the outer
lines of the building. The whole
design was in three stages: the first was the four pavilions, and
carried the height sixty-five feet, to a
level with the facades of the Court of
Honor
; the next
stage was a central one, forty feet
high; the third stage was the dome itself. The first stage was
Doric, the second Ionic, with a colonnade
of great dignity, as viewed from its loggia; the third was the ribbed
dome, with its sculptural panels, and
reached a height of two hundred and sixty feet from the floor below.
The rotunda was ornamented with
panels that bore the names of nations and celebrated men, with
didactic inscriptions; and in the upper
part of the vault were Dodge's allegorical paintings. At night the
dome was lighted with incandescent
bulbs so as to define its panels, and a corona shone on its crest,
making a memorable illumination - the
chief beauty of the Fair. The total cost was $650,000.
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