OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS 



97 



of Guilford Battle Ground Park near 

 Greensboro, N. C, a National park on 

 the site of which occurred the Revolu- 

 tionary battle between General Green 

 and General Cornw-allis, just preceding 

 the latter's surrender at Yorktown (since 

 Robinson's death, the plans have been 

 completed by Mr. Pitkin) ; and the 

 Eclipse Park tract at Beloit, Wis., a 

 housing development for Fairbanks- 

 Morse Company, for which the plans 

 have now been completed by Mr. Pitkin. 



In the spring of 1910, having become 

 deeply interested in problems of resi- 

 dential subdivision, he came to the Har- 

 vard School of Landscape Architecture 

 for special study and for some months of 

 quiet research in its city-planning col- 

 lections. Though regularly enrolled as 

 a student in the writer's advanced course, 

 he was, by special note of the President 

 and Fellows, made the guest of the Uni- 

 versity throughout his stay. Largely as 

 a result of his visit and study, but as a 

 result also in part of another trip to Eng- 

 land about this time to attend the Inter- 

 national Town Planning Conference in 

 London, his next important book on city 

 planning, entitled "The Width and Ar- 

 rangement of Streets" (appreciatively 

 dedicated to the Harvard University 

 School of Landscape Architecture and to 

 its Chairman), was published in 1911, 

 and was five years later rewritten, much 

 enlarged, and published under a new 

 title, "City Planning: with Special Refer- 

 ence to the Planning of Streets and 

 Lots," though still almost exclusively 

 concerned with the fundamental require- 

 ments of functional street-platting and 

 particularly in relation to residential 

 districts. 



In 1908 there had appeared in attrac- 

 tive form from the press of Paul Elder 

 & Co. his "The Call of the City," in 

 which all who love the city will find 

 much of its emotional appeal brought 

 out in Robinson's most enjoyable style. 



Something of the rare beauty of his own 

 spirit breathes through his few published 

 poems. 



His rare native gifts, his varied journ- 

 alistic experience, his naturally sanguine 

 temperament, and his particularly sane 

 and sympathetic and altogether whole- 

 some outlook on life all find expression in 

 his lucid, persuasive, and unusually pleas- 

 ing style. He always wrote interesting- 

 ly, and his written contribution, as a 

 clear, straightforward expounder and 

 pleader, is a unique one to the subject of 

 civic improvement, particularly in its 

 aesthetic aspects. 



Though city planning had already been 

 taught for many years in the Harvard 

 School of Landscape Architecture, there 

 nevertheless existed in no American uni- 

 versity a Chair of Civic Design. In 1913, 

 such a chair was established at the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois, and Robinson shortly 

 accepted a call to it ; in fact, it is under- 

 stood that this new chair was created 

 with Robinson in mind as its first holder. 

 He thus became most fittingly the first in 

 this country to be honored with the title 

 of Professor of Civic Design. Of the 

 undergraduate course in civic design 

 which Robinson forthwith developed at 

 Illinois, Prof. Frederick N. Evans, the 

 present head of the Department of Land- 

 scape Gardening there, who was most 

 closely associated with Robinson in this 

 instruction, says that it was given as a 

 required part in the curriculum of 

 the Landscape Gardening Department, 

 though open also to other members of 

 the University ; that Robinson conducted 

 the work in two terms, coming from his 

 home in Rochester to Champaign for 

 four weeks in the fall, and six weeks in 

 the spring; that each term was distinct 

 in its scope, the fall semester having to 

 do with an historical study of city plan- 

 ning, its aims and general application in- 

 cluded under the term "Repair," while 

 the spring semester looked ahead to fu- 



