User:Jimbomorrison/Thomas H F Burditt

Thomas H F Burditt

Thomas Henry Fotherby Burditt was an architect and engineer born ??

1915 World Expo - California Building
Extract:

The California Building, Thomas H. Burditt of San Francisco, architect, by far the largest state building ever erected at any exposition, is an exceedingly happy treatment of the Mission style. (See p. 179.) Its commanding tower is better than anything ever done by the padres in California. From its facade, Fray Junipero Serra looks out over a charming garden, which, more than anything else, invests this building with the real spirit of California. It is a reproduction, even to the fountain, the pepper trees, and the old fashioned flowers, of the private garden of the Santa Barbara Mission, a spot where no woman treads. From this garden, enclosed by walls of clipped Monterey cypress, one looks at the tower and is at once translated to Southern California.

This building covers five acres, and is worthy to be ranked with the Exposition palaces. Under the tower is a fine vaulted loge and a reception room, both opening into a splendid balconied ballroom behind, all finished in the Exposition travertine. The walls of the reception room are hung with magnificent tapestries, loaned by Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst. The west wing contains the administrative offices of the Exposition and the Woman's Board, and the directors' club rooms. The large eastern wing is entirely filled with the displays of the fifty-eight California counties. (p. 182.) These together form one of the most noteworthy exhibits in the entire Exposition. They demonstrate the fact that a multitude of other resources besides her gold entitle California to be called "the Golden State."

Extract Source

Works

 * California Building - Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco 1915