Norman Bel Geddes Database
Job 165, Water Pageant Theatre, 1930-1931
Summary:
Geddes’s never-built design provided an open-air theater for water pageants, built on a group of barges anchored in Lake Michigan, with the stage separated from the auditorium by water. The scheme provided seating for 2,000 and space for 500 spectators’ canoes between stage and auditorium. The radiating piers allowed 768 boats to dock. The stage consisted of a series of platforms connected by stairs and underground passages. Starting at eight inches above the water, these platforms built up to a height of 36 feet.
The Lakeside open air theater design was presented to the Architectural Commission of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.
A charcoal rendering ("Island View") of the Water Pageant Theatre that was previously cataloged as folder b 1 is now filed with job 145, Island Dance Restaurant.
Hunter Code: TH 41
Hunter Guide: page 200