Monday, July 01, 2013

July 2013 Theme Day: Facades




Facades is this month's theme for the City Daily Photo family.  This is part of the front of the California Building in Balboa Park.  Now it houses the San Diego Museum of Man, but it was built almost 100 years ago as part of a series of temporary structures.

On December 31, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson ceremoniously pushed a button in Washington, D.C. to open the 1915 Panama-California International Exposition by turning on the power at the park. San Diego, a city of 40,000 attracted nearly 4 million visitors and succeeded in putting itself on the map as the first major port of call for ships passing through the newly opened Panama Canal.

Most of the arts organizations along Balboa Park's famous El Prado walkway exist in the Spanish-Renaissance style buildings constructed for the Exposition. This highly ornamented, extravagant architectural style was very new to the United States, one of the many innovative foundational elements of the Exposition. To learn more about the California Building, click here.



Have a look here to see more facades from around the world.

3 comments:

  1. Always great to see familiar buildings. Of course, I thinks this is absolutely super as is the whole of Balboa Park. Wonderful choice!!

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  2. Beautiful. Hard to believe it was temporary...

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