BOOK REVIEWS 55 
directly concerned with the design of its various housing projects. The general pro- 
cedure of the corporation is discussed merely in those aspects which more directly 
affected project design, and therefore, while the activities of the Architectural, Town 
Planning and Engineering Divisions are fully covered herein, mention is made of 
certain aspects only of the work of the Real Estate Division, the Transportation Divi- 
sion, the Homes Registration Division, and the Construction Division, and only 
occasional reference is made to the other divisions of the corporation, all of which are 
to be considered in detail in Volume I of the corporation’s report. 
“The main body of the present volume consists essentially of three parts: (1) A 
short general statement of how the Housing Corporation proceeded to ascertain what 
the situation was in the community to be aided, and how it determined what its appro- 
priate action for relief should be in each case; (2) a necessarily incomplete statement 
of some of the general principles governing this kind of design which the design divi- 
sions considered in their procedure or which they learned from their experience; and 
(3) a short and compact record, in plans, perspectives, tables, and text, of what the 
problem was which the corporation actually found in each of its important projects, 
and what attempt was made to solve it, as a matter of complete and reasoned 
design. 
“This volume shows by plans and other drawings as much as was possible in the 
allotted space about the more important projects; it states in tabular form, for com- 
pactness and ease of comparison, all the information as to the projects which it was 
practicable to represent by figures; and it sets down, in the text describing each pro- 
ject, only those facts which were of particular interest or which had a special and impor- 
tant influence upon the design. 
“The appendix contains reprints of most of the directions which were issued by 
the corporation as guides in design and construction, and the form of contract entered 
into by the general contractor. 
“A biblicgraphy is included covering the most important articles cn industrial 
housing published during the war to April, 1919, compiled by tke ccnsulting librarian 
primarily from the references collected for current use in the work of the corpora‘i n.”’ 
Chapters VI and VII, dealing with the general appearance cf the housing pr ject 
and scme ccnsideraticns as to costs and types of development, make no attempt at 
any completeness of technical discussion; they merely set forth some of the more 
fundamental considerations for the non-technical reader who might want to know what 
the problem was with which the Housing Corporation was concerned. 
The project descriptions in Chapter VIII are similarly non-technical. The drawings 
consist mostly of simple layout plans showing the street system, the house-locations, 
the lot-subdivisions, and in some cases the tree-planting. This simplicity enables the 
plans to be reproduced each upon one page. The architectural drawings consist of first- 
and second-floor plans, together with elevations or perspective drawings of the more 
important types of buildings in each project illustrated. These plans and drawings are 
more than ordinarily intelligible to the lay reader. It is a pity that more photographs 
could not have been used, but the work under construction was obviously for the most 
