# Two palaces and three pavilion courts

September 6, 2026. These are first exterior studies, with much of the architecture still to come.

Transportation and Machinery now follow more of the building outlines and height labels on the detailed insurance plan. The French and British pavilions have open courts in place of their old solid blocks. China’s pavilion has separate ranges around its court, plus a small detached pavilion.

## What the evidence gives us

The [Sanborn map set](https://data.library.wustl.edu/record/108214?ln=en), held by Washington University Libraries and the Missouri History Museum, supplies the detailed building plans. We used sheet 11 for the two palaces and sheet 2 for the national pavilions. The [original ground plan](https://www.loc.gov/item/2007633932/) helps place them within the fair.

Transportation’s plan marks a 76-foot main perimeter, 115-foot end roof zones and 100-foot round towers. Machinery’s labels distinguish its lower hall, raised roofs and seven major towers. These measurements now guide plain volumes. They do not tell us the full shape of a roof or tower top, and a flat block is still a crude way to represent either.

The French and British plans give storey counts without clear overall heights. Their current 7.5- and 8.5-metre blocks are estimates. China’s two side ranges are labeled 18 feet and its taller hall 24 feet; the smaller sections still use estimated heights.

For the national buildings, we fitted the detailed shapes to the actual building outlines on the ground plan. The old French and British blocks covered too much surrounding space. The plans do not agree perfectly, and our local fits change their proportions by roughly 9–17%. That is a limitation to resolve through measurements and dated photographs, not survey accuracy.

## Compare the model with the archive

- [France, photographed by Frances Benjamin Johnston in 1904](https://www.loc.gov/item/2019634553/): people gathered outside decorated building ranges. The photograph helps check the open court; columns, windows and sculpture remain missing. Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsca-59735.
- [China’s pavilion in a 1904 stereograph](https://www.loc.gov/item/2023636511/): a richly decorated gateway and tiered roofs. The gateway has not been reconstructed or located confidently on the plan. William Herman Rau is credited as publisher. Library of Congress, LC-DIG-stereo-1s47748.
- [Great Britain’s pavilion design, about 1903](https://cdm17210.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/lpe/id/6673/): the court, hall, terrace and columned entrance. St. Louis Public Library, D86340. This is a proposed design, preserved in a damaged image; we still need finished-fair photographs.

These images now appear beside the relevant models. The source register preserves catalogue identifiers, publication guidance and contact routes for related or sharper material. No institution has been contacted, and none has endorsed the reconstruction.

## What the checks changed

An older approach path crossed the newly traced French wing. We shortened it before the building, leaving the wider district’s circulation for a closer map trace. The current courts were checked for open sky and walking access, and the new building shapes for collisions with existing roads and neighbors. Browser views were also inspected from above and at walking height.

The Machinery plan shows an industrial Power House nearby. Our existing Power House record is much farther away. We left that record alone: sharing a name does not establish that two map labels describe the same building.

## What AI contributed—and what still needs judgment

GPT-6 Astra worked on the source traces, geometry, checks and integration. GPT-5.6 Sol prepared a separate source packet and found the French and Chinese photographs. A second Astra review checked the national plan readings. Those reviews helped distinguish roof information, storey counts, pipe dimensions and open ground. The work still needed explicit source attribution and real image inspection.

Replacing generic facade decoration and invented central roof pavilions with these simpler plan studies reduced the scene from 792,843 to 770,254 vertices. That is a change in modeling choices, not a lossless optimization or a measured improvement in frame rate. The established scene limit remains in place.

The next work is broader district coverage and circulation, then supported roof and facade detail. We also need fuller accounts of the exhibits and people behind these national presentations. Unknown details remain visible as gaps; adding more geometry alone does not make a reconstruction more accurate.