Sunday, February 22, 2009

San Diego 1915: Kansas State Building.....

Located west of the Alameda and Santa Clara Counties Building, on the south side of the Panama-California Exposition's Via de los Estados, was the Mission-style Kansas State Building. Designed as a rectangular-shaped exhibition building, featuring an arched entrance portal, large unadorned arched windows, and a terra-cotta tile roof, the structure was one of the most architecturally plain of the exposition's six state buildings. Apparently this overall plainness resulted in a redesign within several months of the exposition's opening, and the end result was an architecturally original Mission-style structure. An open-beamed arcade was added along the building's north and west sides, in addition to an ornamented entrance portal and a domed Mission-style tower. A wooden stairway, located within the arcade's western portion, provided access to a roof-deck which opened to the tower; an interior stairway then led to the tower's upper portion, where panoramic views of the surrounding area could be had. The building contained the small, but interesting, exhibit from the State of Kansas.

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