LAND SUBDIVISION 289 



thereby leaving the maximum private area behind the house, the ori- 

 entation of the streets and the consequent orientation of the lots and 

 houses become a matter of some importance.* A street running 

 north and south, then, has the disadvantage that the southern rooms 

 of each house — in a northern climate on the whole the desirable rooms 

 — face the neighboring house close at hand instead of enjoying a longer 

 view into the street or into the back property. A staggering of the 

 buildings, one forward against the restriction line, the next back, would 

 largely obviate the difficulty. An east and west street places the 

 southern rooms away from the street in lots on one side and towards 

 the street in lots on the other side. Since our modern houses can be 

 designed to be perfectly efficient with either exposure, and it is merely 

 a matter of personal preference which is the better, this is not a very 

 real difficulty. The shadow of one house upon another is a thing to 

 be studied when the houses are close together. Obviously a building 

 must be very near another to cast a shadow on it from the south at 

 noon when the sun is high, but if it lies to the southeast or the south- 

 west, even if it is a considerable distance away, it may cut off the sun- 

 light, and cut it off from rooms which would otherwise be pleasantest. 

 In general it may be said that so long as it is possible to vary the loca- 

 tion of the house upon the lot, and of the rooms within the house, it 

 is usually possible to get sufficient sunlight on a lot of any orientation, 

 provided that the lot is not so small as to be objectionable for other 

 considerations as well. 



In the larger residential subdivisions it will probably be necessary Reserved Areas 

 to provide for other uses of portions of the land than for purposes of 

 residence and access. Certain lots may be set aside for churches, for 

 schoolhouses, for small parks or open spaces, for playgrounds. The 

 presence of the churches and parks will increase the value of the neigh- 

 boring lots, and that of the whole subdivision as well. Schools and 

 playgrounds, while an asset to the subdivision as a whole, are likely 

 to exert some unfavorable effect on the value of the lots next to them. 

 This must be taken into consideration in choosing the site for any of 

 these provisions for public use. These should be located in proper 



* Cf. the discussion of orientation in Raymond Unwin's Town Planning in Practice, 

 p. 310 ff. 

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