OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS 



123 



in fact nothing more than a revamped art 

 commission, ill-prepared, through training or 

 experience to pass intelligently upon such 

 plans as are submitted. There have been some 

 extremely disheartening examples of blundering 

 ahead with ill-prepared plans and in the case 

 of Ypres and Termonde for example, of doing 

 the short-sighted thing in the face of excellent 

 plans prepared under the direction of the 

 Union des Villes et Communes Beiges. But 

 it is possible there has been too great optimism 

 and too little realization of the gross darkness, 

 not to say ignorance, of masses of the Belgian 

 people, particularly perhaps, in regard to this 

 great subject of town planning. For it is to be 

 remembered that with all their industry, thrift, 

 and other admirable characteristics, a great 

 many of them, unfortunately, can neither read 

 nor write. To have secured the sort of re- 

 sults desired, the leaders in the town-planning 

 movement in Belgium must needs have been 

 born 25 years earlier and to have been con- 

 ducting a propaganda campaign on the subject 

 all these years. 



The little that has been done in the way of 

 good town-planning is the recent work of the 

 able leaders in this profession in Belgium: 

 what we would call new subdivisions of areas 

 on the outskirts of the destroyed and other 

 towns; plans prepared either under the direc- 

 tion of the O. R. D. or the S. H. A. B. M. 

 Some of the best of these are at or near Rou- 

 lers, Ypres, Dixmude, Ghent and Antwerp. 

 The leaders in the town-planning movement 

 while somewhat heartened by these signs of 

 progress are really very much discouraged 

 about the conditions in the central portions of 

 the older towns where, as has been said, the 

 story of London and San Francisco after their 

 devastating fires, is most unhappily repeating 

 itself. Much is to be expected, however, from 

 the enthusiasm and activities of the Societe des 

 Urbanistes Beiges of which the eminent Bel- 

 gian Architect Victor Horta is President and 

 our good friend Mr. Louis Van Der Swaelmen, 

 Secretary. 



Through the courtesy of Senator Vinck, the 

 Director of the Union Internationale des Villes 

 and also the President of the S. H. A. B. M., 

 it was arranged that the technical division of 

 this latter organization, as well as that of the 

 O. R. D., would call upon your Chairman for 

 suggestions in regard to any problems having 

 special reference to town-planning. It hap- 

 pened, however, that in the case of the first 

 of these, a large part of their structures are 

 erected on streets already built or laid out and 



accepted, and that therefore there is very little 

 town-planning design and that as to the O. R. 

 D. most of their town-planning plans had 

 been prepared. Furthermore, the topography 

 is in most instances quite level and their prob- 

 lems are relatively simple. Nevertheless your 

 representative was privileged to inspect all the 

 plans of these organizations and to accom- 

 pany representatives of their technical divi- 

 sions on trips of investigation and inspection, 

 during the course of which he was able to give 

 a few suggestions from an American point of 

 view, which it is hoped may have been help- 

 ful. The by-product to your representative in 

 interesting data and information acquired has 

 been most important. Apropos of all this, 

 your Chairman has many photographs and 

 plans of both these S. H. A. B. M. houses and 

 of those erected by the O. R. D., also of their 

 street layout plans which he would be very 

 glad to show to interested members. 



"Union Internationale des Villes" and its 

 Centre of Civic Documentation — an Interna- 

 tional Clearing House of Civic Information: — 

 Your representative was present in 1920 at the 

 intensely interesting meetings during which 

 this organization was, so to speak, re-born, 

 for it really took shape first in the Interna- 

 tional Congress of Cities held in Ghent in 

 1913. Its name, however, as given above, 

 does not fully express its function for it is the 

 main purpose of this organization to collect 

 and study contemporaneous documentary in- 

 formation of all kinds relating to civic affairs, 

 to supplement this research work by the pre- 

 paration of briefs or short reviews and to dis- 

 tribute promptly these results throughout the 

 world. This work therefore is of very evident 

 social interest for social progress elaborates 

 itself and becomes realized in large part 

 through the influence of cities. 



As befits an association that is rapidly be- 

 coming world-wide in its scope, the details of 

 the organization are varied to suit the peculiar 

 conditions of the different nations interested. 

 In France and Belgium, for example, there 

 have been formed subsidiary National Unions 

 of Cities, and the municipalities of each Na- 

 tion join the movement officially by subscrib- 

 ing to their National Union a fee depending 

 upon the population of the town, agreeing 

 also to contribute to their National Union all 

 important data and published documentation 

 in regard to their own local conditions. The 

 National Union by its agreements with the 

 International Union, not only turns over a 

 fixed proportion of its fees toward the sup- 



