American Master

Walk through the grounds of the Palace of Fine Arts and notice how vistas change before your eyes. As vegetation frames and softens the lines of the architecture, the architecture in turn becomes a picture frame, highlighting views of the lush landscape. It should be no surprise that this building, a masterpiece designed by Bernard Maybeck, was the most beloved of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition.

"Bernard Maybeck, the Berkeley architect, had long been telling California that architecture here, to be beautiful, needed only to be an effective background for landscape. His theory is that as trees and plants grow so easily and so quickly here, Californians are wasting their finest source of beauty if they do not combine landscape with building."-Ben Macomber, The Jewel City, 1915.

This blending of architecture and landscape was part of the unconventional style Maybeck developed during his rigorous training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Maybeck was also known for combining an eclectic blend of classical motifs and freely interpreting classical proportions in his designs. He used this signature style to embellish the Palace of Fine Arts, home to 11,403 works of art on exhibit during the PPIE.

Maybeck also believed that architectural elements should come together like notes
in a musical score, eliciting specific emotional responses from the viewer. He designed the Palace of Fine Arts to evoke the sadness and beauty of looking at a Roman ruin. If your visited the Palace repeatedly, you will notice that the mood is rarely the same; weather and time of day conspire to change the play of light and shadow over its surface.

The Palace of Fine Arts is one of the most widely recognized masterpieces that Maybeck produced in a prolific career spanning decades. In recognition of his achievements the American Institude of Architects awarded Maybeck its prestigious Gold Medaal of Honor in 1951. Along with his student Julia Morgan, he remains one of California's most revered architects.

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