[1][2] In 1909, San Diego's Chamber of Commerce president and local businessman Gilbert Aubrey Davidson proposed an exposition to commemorate the completion of the Panama Canal.

"[11] The exposition's leadership changed again in early March 1914, when Collier encountered personal financial issues and resigned.

Funding for the California State Building was provided through appropriation bills totaling $450,000 ($14,715,000 today) signed by Governor Hiram Johnson in 1911 and 1913.

With Howard unavailable, on January 27, 1911, they chose New York architect Bertram Goodhue and appointed Irving Gill to assist him.

The original landscape architects, the Olmsted Brothers, likewise left the project, and were replaced by fair official Frank P. Allen Jr.[10] The exposition was held in Balboa Park, which spanned 1,400 acres (570 ha).

During construction of the exposition facilities in 1910, a contest was held that renamed the park after Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the first European to cross Central America and see the Pacific Ocean.

Contrasting with bare walls, rich Mexican and Spanish Churrigueresque decoration would be used, with influences from the Islamic and Persian styles in Moorish Revival architecture.

[18] Goodhue had already experimented with Spanish Baroque in Havana, at the 1905 La Santisima Trinidad pro-cathedral, and the Hotel Colon in Panama.

[citation needed] After the Exposition, Goodhue moved on to other national projects, while Winslow stayed on in southern California, continuing to produce his own variations of the style at the Bishop's School in La Jolla and the 1926 Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles.

Winslow was also instrumental in persuading the city of Santa Barbara to adopt Spanish Colonial Revival as the officially mandated civic style after its 1925 earthquake.

[25] To make room for the exposition planned layout, several city buildings, machine shops, and a gunpowder magazine were moved offsite.

[29] The East Gateway was approached by drive and San Diego Electric Railway trolley cars winding up from the city through the southern portion of the park.

The archway was flanked by engaged Doric orders supporting an entablature, with figures symbolizing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans joining waters together, in commemoration of the opening of the Panama Canal.

The spandrels over the arch were filled with glazed colored tile commemorating the 1769 arrival of Spain and the 1846 State Constitutional Convention at Monterey.

The Santa Fe Railway-sponsored 'Painted Desert' (called "Indian Village" by guests), a 5-acre (2.0 ha), 300-person exhibit populated by seven Native American tribes including the Apache, Navajo, and Tewa.

[30][31][32] The 'Painted Desert', which design and construction was supervised by the Southwestern archeologist Jesse L. Nusbaum, had the appearance of a rock structure but was actually wire frames covered in cement.

The Botanical Building would protect heat-loving plants, while the Spreckels Organ Pavilion would assist open-air concerts in its auditorium.

[35] The Cabrillo Bridge was built to span the canyon, and its long horizontal stretch ending in a great upright pile of fantasy buildings would be the crux of the whole composition.

This contrasted with the front facade of the California State Building, 'wild' with Churrigueresque complex lines of mouldings and dense ornamentation.

[38][39] To service the large number of people that were to attend the exposition, streetcars were built that could handle the traffic of the event as well as the growing population of San Diego.

[41] Constructed by the Los Angeles Exposition Motor Chair Company, these slow-speed transports held two to three people and were used for traveling throughout the majority of the exhibition.

[44] The exposition did not initially feature any buildings representing foreign countries,[7] though a handful of U.S states held exhibits: Kansas, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Washington, and Utah.

[citation needed] The United States Marines, Army, and Navy were featured at the expo, with exhibits, onsite tent cities, parades, band concerts, and live mock battles.

[46][47] At midnight on December 31, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson ceremoniously pushed a telegraph button in Washington, D.C. to open the expo by turning on the power and lights at the park.

[50] Guns at the nearby Fort Rosecrans and on Navy ships in San Diego Bay also were fired to signal the opening.

[59][61][62] On March 18, 1916, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels pushed a button in Washington, D.C. that sounded a gong in the Plaza de Panama to commemorate "Exposition Dedication Day".

[66] In November 1916, Gilbert Davidson asked the Park Board for an additional three-month extension into 1917,[67] but the expo was concluded on January 1, 1917.

[70] The exposition also led to the eventual establishment of the San Diego Zoo in the park, which grew out of abandoned exotic animal exhibitions from the Isthmus portion of the expo.