I chose the site as the engineered place of my choice from the world fair. The site was the most important part in my opinion because it was monumental in the experience of the fair as a whole. The site is engineered because it was found because it was perfect for the fair and was the best meeting place for all of the buildings and rides to be able to fit. They chose Chicago in order to help make it a more important city and to bring it up as a global city. In The Book of the Fair, the site was extremely well thought out because it needed to be on a shore or lake, also there was a need for a flat area for the rides that were to be built. There would only be success if they would be able to build all of the rides and buildings sturdily so as there would not be any safety worries.
I like how the site is described in The Book of the Fair best because it focuses on the necessary aspects of the physical necessities for the fair to be a success, whereas the Devil in the White City focuses on the universal city for the site instead of the layout of the area, it is more concerned with the actual city it was chosen for. This was very important because Chicago was a highly populated city, which would help with popularity of the fair and the ability of people to be able to reach the fair, but I prefer the description of the physical land. In The Book of the Fair, it describes the site as “easy of access by land and water, and yet not intersected by streets or railroads; it must afford space, without crowding, for a group of edifices much larger in size and number than those of any former international exhibition, and it must contain as few improvements as possible, or better no improvements in the shape of buildings, so as to present no difficulty in the way of securing and preparing it for the purposes of the Fair.” These are the necessities for the success of the fair according to that book, and it is much more detailed than the other book. I also think it is much more persuasive because it gives reasons for all of the geographical features, so that it is obvious why it is necessary.
In an article about the site, World’s Fair Remnants, it is noted how there was a beautifully flat area in which there was the ability to build buildings and domes that were necessary for the fair as meeting places.
I think that the authors explained the site differently because it was important for the book author to state why they chose the particular site, when there could have been a better choice on the east coast, with the popularity of the coast, but instead Chicago was chosen. So I think that he was trying to justify the choice in location, instead of education on the geography of the site.
The geography was important in the second book because it was describing the means of success to the location of a fair, not just the city that it is chosen, but the geography of the surrounding area. Because that is really how the success of the fair is found, in whether there is an ability to build the rides and buildings necessary for success.