The Block Plan
At the first meeting President Moore explained that, at the St. Louis Exposition, according to wide-expressed opinions, the buildings had been too far apart. He favored maximum of space with minimum of distance. The architects first considered the conditions they had to meet, climate and physical surroundings. They were mainly influenced by wind, cold and rain.
The result was that for the Protection of visitors, they agreed to follow what was later to be generally known, as the block plan, the buildings arranged in, four blocks, joined by covered corridors and surrounded by a wall, with three central courts and two half-courts in the south wall. It had been developed in many talks among the architects. Valuable suggestions came from Willis Polk and from E. H. Bennett, of Chicago, active in the earlier consultations. The plan finally accepted was the joint work of the entire commission.
Twelve buildings were put under contract, each designed to illustrate an epoch of architecture, ranging from the severity of the early classic to the ornate French renaissance of to-day.