D. H. Burnham as chief of construction, and on December 8, 1890, the consulting

architects, the consulting landscape architects and the consulting engineer formed
a consulting board under the chairmanship of the chief of construction. Late in
November, 1890, the consulting board, under its instructions, entered upon the duty
of devising a general plan for the Exposition, taking as a basis for the study of the
problem the classified list of exhibits which had been prepared by a committee
charged with that duty. The list, together with such advice received directly from
the committee, dictated the number and the size of the buildings which would be
required to meet the intention of the Act of Congress. The larger part of the site
to be dealt with was a swampy, sandy flat, liable at times to be submerged by
the lake. Other parts were low ridges, which had originally been sand bars
thrown up by the lake. Upon some of these ridges there were trees, most of them
oaks, of stunted habit because of the sterile and water-soaked soil in which they
had grown, and the extreme exposure to frigid winds from the lake, to which they
had been subject to a late period every spring. The idea was that there should be
a system of navigable water-ways, to be made by dredging-boats working inward
from the lake through the lowest parts of the site, the earth lifted by the boats to
be so deposited as to add to the area, and increase the elevation of the higher parts,
which would thus become better adapted to pleasure-ground purposes, and to be
used as the sites for the buildings of the Exposition.

The plat contemplated the following as leading features of design: That
there should be a great architectural court with a body of water therein; that this
court should serve as a suitably dignified and impressive entrance hall to the Ex-
position, and that visitors arriving by train or by boat should all pass through it;
that there should be a formal canal leading northward from this court to a series
of broader waters of a lagoon character, by which nearly the entire site would be
penetrated, so that the principal Exposition buildings would each have a water, as
well as a land frontage, and would be approachable by boats; that near the middle
of this lagoon system there should be an island, about fifteen acres in area, in which
there would be abounding clusters of the largest trees growing upon the site; that
this island should be free from conspicuous buildings and that it should have a
generally secluded, natural, sylvan aspect, the existing clusters of trees serving as
centers for such broad and simple larger masses of foliage as it would be practicable
to establish in a year's time by plantations of young trees and bushes. Because the
water in the lagoons would be subject to considerable fluctuations, it was proposed
that its shores should be occupied by a selection of such aquatic plants as would en-
dure occasional submergence and yet survive an occasional withdrawal of water
from their roots.

Time pressing, the plat, with a brief written specification, was submitted to
the corporation, and, after due consideration, on the ist of December, 1890, was
adopted as the plan of the Exposition. Shortly afterwards this action was ap-