The Chicago World's Fair and the the impact on urban life and cities in America - Research Paper Example

Atwood terminating the vista out to Lake Michigan” (Burnham 1989, pg. 17) In addition to these architectural structures a number of other exhibits exited that features cutting edge technology and designs that have since made an indelible impact on the American city. These influences coupled with influences in music, art, literature, and even the very leaders of the organization have all been argued by researchers to have had a considerable influence on American cities and urban life. This essay considers the impact these objects of culture and commerce that were featured at the Chicago’s World Fair have had on American cities and urban life by tracing the impact through the considerable effects of the Beaux Arts architectural style, to the various cultural influences, and finally the influences in the very fabric of consumer culture and society that were developed and have remain prominent in contemporary American culture.

In an effort to create a unifying effect among the newly designed structures that surrounded the Court of Honor, building designs followed the style of the Italian Renaissance. The exposition was regarded as an enormous success by the architects and visitors of the day and the white stucco used in the buildings stood out against the Chicago tenements, leading to the structures being referred to as the White City. These buildings also featured, “a common material, stucco (plaster), painted white; and would maintain a uniform sixty-foot-high cornice line” (Moffett and Wodehouse, 2008, pg. 232) As a result of the exposition’s critical and popular success, the ornate Beaux-Arts style was adopted by many American buildings and civic projects including trains stations, art museums, city halls, post offices, and churches.

In great part the success of the exposition overshadowed the fact that the buildings it featured weren’t notably technically advanced and