PARKS 



THEIR DESIGN, EQUIPMENT AND USE 



CHAPTER I 



PARK DESIGX IX CITY PLAXXIXG 



CITY i)lanning represents a scientific forward movement in the 

 (leveloj^ment of American cities. It stands for guided and 

 directed development ratlier than haphazard growth; it stands for 

 intelligent progress. In tliat sense its value is potentially inestimable. 

 The advent of city planning within the last few years, however, is 

 l)eing hailed as a deliverance rather than a revival, acclaimed as the 

 first rather than the second coming. As a matter of fact, the planning 

 of cities has been a well-studied and applied science for centuries ; and 

 even in America casual research reveals traces of the lost art in the 

 early record and existent lines of many of our cities. In that respect 

 city planning appears to be a sporadic science ; and the increasing birth- 

 rate of city planning commissions and j^lanning legislation, all destined 

 to accomplish a great work in the betterment of American cities, repre- 

 sents a renaissance and a recoming. 



SUCCESS OF A CITY PLAN DEPENDENT UPON ITS PARKS 



Park building, on the other hand, is omnipresent. It has l)een the 

 constant accompaniment of civic gro^^-th and development in our cities 

 since their incipiency; but quite as the efforts of tlie hardworking and 

 faithful pastor are outshone by the fervor of the transient revivalist, 

 years of park radiance are lost sight of in the meteoric transcendence 

 of the new movement. The unappreciative citizen fails to recognise 

 that park development has almost always preceded city planning, in- 

 variably accompanies it, and is ordained in every case to succeed it. 



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