to have ten feet in the clear for the stairway. As a matter of fact, on the competition drawing the dome overhung the wall below by one foot six. This could not be seen because, on account of the columns it was impossible to line up these walls, and I felt it would not count in reality, but as a matter of fact you feel it in the model. You can’t detect it visually, but somehow you feel it. “There is too much air in the colonnade” said Menconi, and I think that expresses it as well as any. The dome in the model is therefore one foot six less in diameter than in the revised elevation and it is
one foot less in height, but the proportions and the curve are the same. The building can be seen from quite a distance as it fronts Lincoln Park, and it can also be seen quite a distance down Lake View Avenue. The dome must be high enough so that it does not disappear when seen from the sidewalk and must also present a good silhouette in direct elevation. We made a number of models of it, and finally decided on the present one which is now in its normal relation, directly over the wall below.
This change of scheme greatly improved the Memorial Hall. It is now as shown in Mr. Chester Price’s charming sketch, sixty-seven feet in diameter and about ninety-four feet high, and is of marble up to the caps of the main order, except for certain panels in which will be mural paintings.
The basic marble will be a warmly tinted, slightly veined white marble while the shafts of the columns are of richly veined colored marble, lighter in tone for the small order, as these columns are seen against the white marble background, Pavonezza, Skyros, Cippolino and five or six other varieties and the upper columns are heavier and deeper in tone, Levanto, Tinos, Rorrge Jaspe, Verona, Alps Green. In the floor, which is a series of round and square panels, the same variety is followed. The coffered ceiling will be deep in tone and rich with color and gold and the deep
toned mural paintings and the bronze figures in the niches should combine to make a very powerful but subdued color effect. The room is lighted at night by a flood light from a great reflector in the eye of the dome. This reflector is roughly in section a hyperbola revolved around a center which is at one edge of the hyperbola, a hyperbola within a hyperbola, and the surface of it is covered with emblematic designs in gold, copper and silver leaf, so that in the daytime it will count merely as a piece of decoration and at night will reflect a flood of golden light from unseen, low-power searchlights down directly onto the floor, just as if there were a very brilliant flood of sunshine directly overhead coming through a golden tinted skylight. It’s an experiment, frankly. I’ve never seen it done but I think it will be successful.
Revised Plan, redrawn from Working Drawing
one foot less in height, but the proportions and the curve are the same. The building can be seen from quite a distance as it fronts Lincoln Park, and it can also be seen quite a distance down Lake View Avenue. The dome must be high enough so that it does not disappear when seen from the sidewalk and must also present a good silhouette in direct elevation. We made a number of models of it, and finally decided on the present one which is now in its normal relation, directly over the wall below.
This change of scheme greatly improved the Memorial Hall. It is now as shown in Mr. Chester Price’s charming sketch, sixty-seven feet in diameter and about ninety-four feet high, and is of marble up to the caps of the main order, except for certain panels in which will be mural paintings.
The basic marble will be a warmly tinted, slightly veined white marble while the shafts of the columns are of richly veined colored marble, lighter in tone for the small order, as these columns are seen against the white marble background, Pavonezza, Skyros, Cippolino and five or six other varieties and the upper columns are heavier and deeper in tone, Levanto, Tinos, Rorrge Jaspe, Verona, Alps Green. In the floor, which is a series of round and square panels, the same variety is followed. The coffered ceiling will be deep in tone and rich with color and gold and the deep
toned mural paintings and the bronze figures in the niches should combine to make a very powerful but subdued color effect. The room is lighted at night by a flood light from a great reflector in the eye of the dome. This reflector is roughly in section a hyperbola revolved around a center which is at one edge of the hyperbola, a hyperbola within a hyperbola, and the surface of it is covered with emblematic designs in gold, copper and silver leaf, so that in the daytime it will count merely as a piece of decoration and at night will reflect a flood of golden light from unseen, low-power searchlights down directly onto the floor, just as if there were a very brilliant flood of sunshine directly overhead coming through a golden tinted skylight. It’s an experiment, frankly. I’ve never seen it done but I think it will be successful.
Revised Plan, redrawn from Working Drawing