Editing Louisiana Purchase Exposition (section)

==Architects==
[[File:Louisiana Purchase Exposition Festival Hall.jpg|thumb|right|Festival Hall]]

George Kessler, who designed many urban parks in Texas and the Midwest, created the master design for the Fair.

A popular myth says that [[Frederick Law Olmsted]], who had died the year before the Fair, designed the park and fair grounds. There are several reasons for this confusion. First, Kessler in his twenties had worked briefly for Olmsted as a [[Central Park]] gardener. Second, Olmsted was involved with [[Forest Park (Queens)|Forest Park in Queens]], New York. Third, Olmsted had planned the renovations in 1897 to the [[Missouri Botanical Garden]] several blocks to the southeast of the park.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mobot.org/mobot/archives/timeline.asp |title=MBG: An Illustrated History of the Missouri Botanical Garden – Timeline |publisher=Mobot.org |access-date=January 6, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20110224033552/http://www.mobot.org/mobot/archives/timeline.asp |archive-date=February 24, 2011 }}</ref> Finally, Olmsted's sons advised [[Washington University in St. Louis|Washington University]] on integrating the campus with the park across the street.

In 1901, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Corporation selected prominent St. Louis architect [[Isaac S. Taylor]] as the Chairman of the Architectural Commission and Director of Works for the fair, supervising the overall design and construction. Taylor quickly appointed [[Emmanuel Louis Masqueray]] to be his Chief of Design. In the position for three years, Masqueray designed the following Fair buildings: Palace of Agriculture, the Cascades and Colonnades, Palace of Forestry, Fish, and Game, Palace of Horticulture and Palace of Transportation, all of which were widely emulated in civic projects across the United States as part of the [[City Beautiful movement]]. Masqueray resigned shortly after the Fair opened in 1904, having been invited by Archbishop [[John Ireland (archbishop)|John Ireland]] of [[St. Paul, Minnesota]] to design a new cathedral for the city.<ref name="noted">{{cite news |date=May 27, 1917 |title=Noted Architect Dead. E. L. Masqueray Was Chief of Design of St. Louis Exposition |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0E11F7395F1B7A93C5AB178ED85F438185F9 |accessdate=March 22, 2011 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |quote=Emmanuel Louis Mnsqueray chief of design of the St Louis ... of a number of American cathedrals died here today aged 56. Mr. Masqueray was ...}}</ref>{{Fv|date=July 2024}} The [[:File:1903 ElectricityPalace StLouis WorldsFair.png|Palace of Electricity]] was designed by Messrs, Walker & [[Thomas Rogers Kimball|Kimball]], of Omaha, Nebraska. It covered {{convert|9|acre}} and cost over $400,000 (equivalent to more than ${{formatprice|{{inflation|US|400000|1904}}}} in {{inflation/year|US}}).{{inflation/fn|US}} Crowning the great towers were heroic groups of statuary typifying the various attributes of electricity.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kurtz |first=Charles M. |title=The Saint Louis World's Fair of 1904: In Commemoration of the Acquisition of the Louisiana Territory; a Handbook of General Information, Profusely Illustrated |asin=B009PCJC1M |page=56 |publisher=Ulan Press |year=2012}}</ref>