258 LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



cannot be decided except in the individual case. The architectural 

 lines of the house come down unbroken to the surface of the terrace. 

 The terrace may serve in the design, as we have said, purely as an 

 architectural base for the house, and it may be desirable that the 

 strong lines of the terrace come down similarly to the ground at its 

 base. But it is often the case that the outer line of the house terrace 

 makes a less sharp contrast than this with the surrounding grounds. 

 Its retaining wall or bank may be masked by planting, and its form 

 thus blended into the surrounding landscape forms, making a tran- 

 sition between the house and its setting without unduly screening the 

 architectural facade of the house itself. 



The Forecourt The walled forecourt carries out the architectural lines of the 

 house in a lower and broader mass into the surrounding design. It 

 definitely conceals and segregates the turn of the front entrance drive 

 before the front door, and often serves an important function in the 

 scheme by presenting in its entrance gate an object to which the road 

 may approach with an effect of definite design, without the road 

 necessarily being related in its direction to the facade of the house 

 or to the front door. Like the house terrace, the forecourt may in 

 part be included between two projecting wings of the house, the end 

 facades of the wings facing on the forecourt or outside of it according 

 to its relative size. The possibilities in this regard will be limited by 

 the minimum size of the forecourt, which must be at least sixty feet 

 in diameter if large automobiles are to turn in it conveniently. A 

 walled forecourt, being a self-contained unit, is commonly not well 

 placed when between the house and a good view or an open lawn. 

 The forecourt seems more reasonable and effective when heavy woods 

 enframe it, or when its wall opposite the house is a retaining wall, 

 dominated by a higher level of ground. The forecourt should be so 

 connected by road with the garage and stable that the vehicles for 

 the use of the owner can get to it readily, but it should be so ar- 

 ranged that service traffic does not go through it on the way to the 

 service portion of the house. Its function is that of a traffic en- 

 trance in any case, and therefore it should usually not be treated as 

 a garden, nor primarily as a place of rest or leisure. Its decoration, 

 in architecture and planting, should be rather such as can be readily 



