Architecture at the World’s Fair
“The influence of the Exposition on architecture will be to inspire a reversion toward the pure ideal of the ancient,” Daniel Burnham claimed, despite objections from more modernist Chicago architects like Louis Sullivan. Burnham used Greek and Roman influenced Beaux Arts as a unifying architectural style for the Fair. This style was heavily influenced by architects studying at the École de Beaux Arts school in Paris, but it was a showcase for the style. A traditional Beaux Arts building is symmetrical, with classical Greek and Roman elements. These ancient elements include large columns with Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian capitals, arches that dominated the façade, sometimes two stories tall, statue, relief, and friezes that add texture and dimension.