cover image Building a Century of Progress: The Architecture of Chicago’s 1933–34 World’s Fair

Building a Century of Progress: The Architecture of Chicago’s 1933–34 World’s Fair

Lisa D. Schrenk, . . Univ. of Minnesota, $39.95 (357pp) ISBN 978-0-8166-4836-8

The organizers of the Century of Progress International Exposition chose as their motto “Science Finds—Industry Applies—Man Conforms.” With the Great Depression at its worst, they wanted to offer the country a vision of modernity where science and industry worked together to improve every aspect of daily life. They built three million square feet of exhibition space in pavilions that stretched along three miles of landfill on Chicago’s southern lakefront. During the exposition’s two seasons, 38 million fairgoers watched the manufacture of everything from cars to tin cans, visited model homes with all the latest conveniences (one had a small airplane hanger), and saw ethnographic displays from around the world. Schrenk, an assistant professor of architecture at Norwich University, provides a good discussion of the debates on modern architecture that surrounded the design of the fair. But as her focus shifts to the innovative materials and building methods that went into producing the exposition, chapters on gypsum board, Masonite, glass bricks and thin-shell concrete roofs can be slow going for general readers. The 170 illustrations and 26 color plates, including architects’ designs and the fair’s promotional material, provide a sense of the vision that informed the undertaking. (Aug.)