PARK DESIGN IN CITY PLANNING 



city. And we read in a recent book: " To secure the best results in 

 city planning, a competent civil engineer should be placed in charge of 

 the work and be given sufficient time to make a thorough study of the 

 city and its needs from expert point of view. He should evolve plans 

 which will meet its requirements and enable it to develop along the 

 best lines." 



In the confusion of the present moment, therefore, when men of 

 all professions, including occasional nurserymen, are presenting them- 

 selves as civic experts capable of designing or redesigning entire cities, 

 the parks which are the forerunners and forecasters of city design are 

 apt to fall prey to the first man " on the job." It behooves cities, 

 therefore, to guard against incompetence in this respect, for a park 

 thus designed is worse than one not designed at all ; a design executed, 

 no matter how execrable it may be, is rarely changed. The second 

 recommendation, therefore, is that parks shall be considered as de- 

 manding attention beyond that accorded them in civic expert reports, 

 but on the other hand shall be protected against the many incom- 

 petents desiring the opportunity of " developing " them. 



PARKS ARE ORGANIC, NOT ISOLATED, UNITS 



The third recommendation is that the designing of parks shall not 

 be allowed to drift into the hands of whatever gardener, superin- 

 tendent or forester may be on the staff of the department of public 

 works. It is too generally thought that gardening knowledge of any 

 sort fits a man sufficiently for designing a park. A park is not a unit 

 in itself, and may not be developed independently of civic design; 

 therefore it must be handled by one of specific training who will under- 

 stand the relation of park areas to the civic development as a whole. 

 Gardeners and foresters merely j^lant park areas and decorate them, 

 giving them no civic function. In that sense the areas are subtracted 

 from the city as a whole and allotted to the adjoining residences as 



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