THE INTERNATIONAL JURY FOR In October 1931, the International Jury, THE COLUMBUS MEMORIAL LIGHTHOUSE COMPETITION CEREMONY OF AWARD OF PRIZES By ALBERT KELSEY, F. A. I. A. Technical Adviser to the Permanent Committee of the Governing Board of the Pan American Union on the Columbus Memorial Lighthouse SIT is but 40 years since the fall of the Empire of Dom Pedro II, A there there still persist in Brazil many pleasant memories of ceremonies of great solemnity and splendor, and as the ceremony of award of prizes in the Columbus Memorial Lighthouse competition was to be an international affair in which that country was to act as host in its capital, the program was therefore planned and carried out with a solemnity and dignity worthy of the traditions and ancient landmarks of a city that is still strongly Portuguese. The mere fact that a naval band of 60 pieces played while the President and other guests arrived and were being received by the Special Envoy of the Dominican Republic gives some idea of the scale and character of the occasion. It would be hard, indeed, to overpraise the arrangements that were made by the Brazilian Government; His Excellency, Hon. Edwin V. Morgan, the Ambassador of the United States of America; the Central Institute of Brazilian Architects; and Senhor José Roberto de Macedo Soares, Chief of Protocol, for the exhibition of the drawings and models and especially for the formal ceremony at which were to be announced the names of the winners in the most significant, if not the most important, architectural competition of modern times, that for a design for the Columbus Memorial Lighthouse. Of the 10 contestants in the second stage of the architectural competition 3 were from the United States, 3 from France, and 1 each from England, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Of these, in the first contest eight submitted totally different schemes, while two of the designs were more or less alike. Under the terms of the second contest all participants were permitted to make a fresh start, but most of them did not do so. Mr. J. L. Gleave, to whom the first prize was awarded, departed radically from his first conception, showing a remarkably fertile mind and a degree of imaginative power which is quite unusual, and which caused the international jury to place his design in a class by itself. HIS EXCELLENCY DR. GETULIO VARGAS, PROVISIONAL PRESIDENT OF BRAZIL, AND HIS EXCELLENCY DR. TULIO M. CESTERO, ENVOY EXTRAORDINARY OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC ON SPECIAL MISSION TO BRAZIL The ceremony took place in a hall 150 feet long adjoining the other galleries in the Palace of Fine Arts—a hall strongly resembling the famous Gallerie de la Guerre at Versailles. The decorations and seating arrangements were unique. Instead of a single rostrum for the speakers and guests of honor, the long hall was so divided in the center as to provide for a dignified open surface separating those present into four groups. The high officials sat on a long, low platform on one side and the speakers, the members of the international jury, and the local committee of architects back of a handsome table on the other. Thus the spectators were massed into two separate audiences facing each other and extending back row upon row to the ends of the long and impressive gallery. Special distinction was given the occasion by the fact that Dr. Getulio Vargas, Provisional President of the Republic, presided, calling upon each speaker with great dignity and deliberation, and closing the stately ceremony with a few brief but very appropriate remarks. To the President's right was Monsignor Leme da Silveira Cintra, the Cardinal Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, in gorgeous vestments; and on either side sat the members of the Cabinet, the Secretaries of the Army and Navy being in full uniform. Directly opposite, in an elaborately carved h-igh backed chair of jacaranda wood, was His Excellency Dr. Tulio M. Cestero, the Special Envoy of the Dominican Republic, and near by His Excellency Señor Don Alfonso Reyes, the Ambassador of Mexico and the orator of the day, Senor Don Horacio Acosta y Lara, chairman of the competition's international jury of award, and Sr. Nestor Figueiredo, president of the Central Institute of Architects of Brazil. At right angles to these two impressive groups and in the first rows of chairs right and left sat on one side the chiefs of mission of virtually every nation that maintains an embassy or legation in Rio de Janeiro and on the other a number of brightly garbed bishops and lesser clergy. Since the addresses are published in full hereinafter, it is only necessary to allude to the grace and ease of the President, the earnestness of the Dominican Envoy, and the eloquence of the Ambassador of Mexico, who in finished oratory and with Latin grace held his hearers spellbound as he reviewed the progress of western civilization since the days of Columbus, each gesture, every facial expression, adding to the interest, the clarity, and the enjoyment of his discourse. The exposition filled the entire inner girdle of galleries on the most important floor of the Palace of Fine Arts, except the entrance hall, where a bust of Columbus, in front of a great sunburst of flags formed with the colorful national standards of the 21 American Republics, greeted the guests. After the ceremony, the President formally opened the exhibition, followed as he entered by the highest dignitaries of church and state, the chiefs of mission, and the social and intellectual élite of the brilliant capital of Brazil. An hour was spent in inspecting the drawings and models, the throng following the President and the Cardinal, those nearest to them listening to their comments and observations with keen interest. It was an informal progress. Many questions were asked and answered, while the Cardinal remarked with evident pleasure, as he stood before the model of Mr. Gleave's inspired design, "Last week we dedicated the great Christ on Corcovado, that so to speak now dominates Brazil. In a few years I hope we shall dedicate this great recumbent cross at the historic halfway point between the two American continents, to dominate, as it were, the Western Hemisphere." Following the announcement of the names of the prize winners and the opening of the exhibition to the public, a few days later His Excellency Doctor Cestero, the Special Envoy of the Dominican Republic, gave a banquet at the Gloria Hotel in honor of Sr. Afranio de Mello Franco, the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs, which was attended by most of the members of the diplomatic corps, officials of the Government, the members of the International Jury, and many men prominent in the intellectual and social life of Rio de Janeiro, at which the Columbus Memorial Lighthouse project was extolled as a necessary international symbol of friendship and progress. |