# Fine Arts and Horticulture: reading the plans more carefully

September 7, 2026

The Fine Arts group now has closer outlines for its main museum and two temporary wings, alongside the sculpture annex added in the previous update. Horticulture has a first study of its cross-shaped hall, raised roof sections and paired entrance towers. These are still plain building shapes; the windows, porticos and finished roof profiles will come later.

## Four buildings, several different numbers

The official guide describes a permanent museum, two temporary wings and a separate sculpture pavilion. The insurance plan helps us distinguish their outlines and roof sections. Each building is fitted to its own corners on the ground plan; forcing all three through one fit displaced the ends of the wings. Our resulting areas differ from the insurance plan's figures by about 2–3%, so we are keeping the fit approximate. [B015, official guide, page 64](https://archive.org/details/ajq5466.0001.001.umich.edu), [M006, Sanborn atlas, sheet 18](https://data.library.wustl.edu/record/108214?ln=en), [M001, ground plan](https://www.loc.gov/item/2007633932/).

The main museum carries a 60-foot label. Each wing has a 32-foot frontage and a raised roof section reaching 49 feet. The nearby 35-foot note describes a gap between buildings. The guide's separate reference to 60 feet above the grounds describes the hill. Those numbers cannot be used interchangeably. The main museum's lower side roofs and the wings' rear roof heights still need checking; our plain model spells out where we have continued an estimated height. [M006, sheet 18](https://data.library.wustl.edu/record/108214?ln=en), [B015, page 64](https://archive.org/details/ajq5466.0001.001.umich.edu).

## Turning Horticulture around

A closer reading corrected the two tower labels from 100 to **110 feet**. A nearby **282-foot** note gives a distance toward Agriculture, not a building height. It also helps orient the drawing: the detailed plan is turned around relative to the ground plan. We reversed that local fit so the entrance towers face Agriculture. [M006, sheet 21](https://data.library.wustl.edu/record/108214?ln=en), [M001](https://www.loc.gov/item/2007633932/).

The side ranges are labeled 42 feet. The central base roof is less clear, so continuing that height through the center is a provisional choice. Six small roof sections rise another 10 feet; their current flat shapes are placeholders. Long raised strips, glass roofs, steps and planted displays remain unfinished. One nearby path turn moved by about a metre to clear the corrected building corner. [M006, sheet 21](https://data.library.wustl.edu/record/108214?ln=en).

The newly added [Horticulture photograph, P042](https://www.loc.gov/item/2013649893/), makes the remaining work easy to see: long windows, a deep entrance and open tower stages are all missing from the rough model. The photograph is shown beside the model, but the two cameras are not yet matched. A new [Varied Industries photograph, P043](https://www.loc.gov/item/2013649186/), is available too; that building's next geometry study is still in progress.

## What AI helped with, and what review caught

Astra traced the Fine Arts group and checked the individual map fits. Sol's earlier Horticulture study provided a starting point. The coordinating agent built the Horticulture geometry, and Astra and Luna helped check the original labels, entrance orientation and photo records. Review caught incorrect numbers, a reversed entrance and a tower position that needed adjustment. The useful result comes from inspecting and correcting the work, not assuming the first answer is reliable.

Replacing generic architectural shapes with these simpler traced forms also reduced the whole scene from about 759,000 to 748,000 vertices. That is a geometry count, not a claim about frame rate. Automated checks cover roof levels, open approaches and nearby path clearance; saved browser views provide a separate visual check. Neither establishes historical accuracy on its own.

Next come better roof profiles and facades as the evidence allows. We are continuing the broader fair layout before filling every building with ornament. The full-resolution ground plan remains a research reference and is not loaded by the explorer.