Ferruccio Vitale, Landscape Architect and Planner of the Century of Progress, Chicago, 1933

Conceived in the best of times, executed in the worst of times, Chicago’s Century of Progress Exposition, 1933-1934, was highly criticized, but none-the-less a phenomenal success.

First proposed in 1928 to celebrate Chicago’s centennial, the new exposition was meant to return Chicago to fair fame after a succession of dull Beaux Arts expositions in San Francisco, St. Louis, and Philadelphia. The 1933 Chicago exposition was to be financed by the continuation of the 20’s boom years of industry and stock market gains, but the national economic crash of 1929 stopped. That such an event could happen, the fact that even the idea could survive, let alone be planned, financed and built during the Great Depression, countered every national trend.

The exposition's master plan's final design can be attributed to landscape architect, Ferruccio Vitale.

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