STRUCTURES IN LANDSCAPE 201 



From the point of view of appearance, the big general mass relations 

 of the scheme will have the preponderant influence, but an important 

 minor consideration is the parallelism between the surface of the bank 

 and any flight of steps which may lie upon it. This would give the 

 bank a slope of about one on two. The turf terrace bank has perhaps 

 its best use where different levels are to be individually defined, but still 

 very definitely recognized as parts of one larger open area. Planting at 

 the top of such slopes may be desirable and can be effective ; even 

 architectural balustrading at such a place is occasionally good. Plant- 

 ing directly at the bottom of these slopes is, however, extremely hard 

 to manage : the slope itself, as we have seen, cannot readily be planted, 

 and if it be kept in turf, it makes an open space behind planting at its 

 foot which is likely to make this planting appear as if it had insufficient 

 background. 



Steps leading from one level to another in a landscape design are, Sups 

 like gateways, objects which have or seem to have an economic use, 

 and so a certain feeling of inevitableness in the scheme, but which are 

 also extremely desirable objects in the esthetic design. They diversify 

 and enrich the walls or banks of terraces ; they lie naturally as terminal 

 objects and vista points to walk towards, and centers of pictorial com- 

 positions to look at. From the necessary relation of the riser and 

 tread of their steps* and the relation of the height of their balus- 

 trades to the height of a man, they introduce an element of human 

 scale into the composition and a pleasant suggestion of human use. 



Flights of steps are often more effective when supported by larger Sups in 

 objects. They may run down by the side of a projecting building or * orma l 

 retaining wall, agreeably filling in and softening what might be other- 

 wise a harsh angle. They may, however, themselves assume dominant 

 importance in a view, forming architectural objects of almost any 

 degree of interest and complication. When steps are treated as 

 important objects in this way, two interrelated considerations are 

 likely to be paramount : their architectural form and the directions 

 of traffic and views to and from them. Where the line of traffic and 

 view is continued unchanged beyond the steps in each direction, or 



* See article by F. L. Olmsted, Jr., Notes upon the Sizes of Steps required for Com- 

 fort, with diagram, in Landscape Architecture, Jan. 1911, and further Jan. 1928. 



