protecting spirit hovering over you, warm and large. You have there the
point of transition from sadness to content, which comes pretty near to
the total impression that galleries have and that the Fine Arts Palace
and Lake are supposed to have."



California Building
Bell Tower and Forbidden Garden

The California Building is the result of perhaps the most interesting
combination of requirements that could be imagined--to provide a host
building for the home State of a great Exposition where welcome could
warmly and generously be extended to the millions of visitors, where the
officials could have suitable quarters and where the fifty-two counties
of the State could have their exhibits. The location set aside for the
concrete development of these requirements was most stimulating. An
edifice to terminate the vista looking north over a laguna of silent
water flanked by the wonderful Palace of Fine Arts, and just beyond, the
beautiful Bay of San Francisco with a background formed by distant
Tamalpais.

No style of architecture could be more appropriate to these needs than
that which exists in California--an architecture romantic, peaceful,
subtle and charming in its proportions. The task of adapting the Mission
architecture to the requirements was given Thomas H. F. Burditt. He
entered into the spirit of the old Padre builders with rare intuition,
and he designed a building of impressive dignity and hospitality.