Convocation
- Part II is called "An Awful Fight," just to give you a sense of how things will be going in this second chunk. (Hint: not great.)
- Burnham and the other architects meet with the Grounds and Buildings Committee to present drawings of the fair's main structures.
- The Administration Building is meant to be the most important, serving as a portal where visitors will enter a whole new world.
- The Liberal Arts Building will be the largest building, with enough steel to complete two Brooklyn Bridges.
- Other structures include the fair's Grand Court, Transportation Building, and Music Hall.
- Olmsted walks away from the meeting feeling like the vision of the fair had become too "sober and monumental" (2.1.14). He wants it to be fun and suggests ways to enliven the grounds.
- He conceives the fair's Wooden Island, a plot of land on the central lagoon that will serve as the fair's centerpiece.
- Meanwhile, beyond the fairgrounds, Chicago is swept up in its own turmoil: an impending financial crisis, threats of union uprisings, and murderous killing sprees.