278 



LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



"Low-cost" 

 and "High- 

 cost" De- 

 velopments 



ment, if the lots are large enough to admit of it. If, however, the lots 

 are small, the houses necessarily close together and dominant in the 

 scheme and close to the street so that no broad naturalistic effect is 

 possible, then the beauty to be sought must be of quite another kind, 

 a beauty of harmonious but diversified houses, of tree-shaded streets, 

 with pleasant curves or with pleasantly broken straights, a beauty consist- 

 ing largely in a general air of decency and well being. This must be pro- 

 vided for in the design, but can be maintained only by properly enforced 

 restrictions and particularly by a proper community self-respect among 

 the lot owners. 



If a land subdivision scheme be large, so that it creates its own 

 atmosphere, so to speak, and is judged by its own appearance and its 

 own worth, there can be little doubt in any one's mind that all these 

 considerations, including that of beauty, will have their recognizable 

 effect upon the selling price of the land. In smaller schemes this is 

 not always at once so obvious, since an ill-arranged or ugly scheme in a 

 good neighborhood may still be salable ; but it is really capitalizing the 

 good arrangement and the beauty of its neighbors, and from the point 

 of view of the community at large its additional profits are more than 

 offset by the damage to the surrounding property. 



It is evident that the relative importance of these various considera- 

 tions will be different to the prospective purchaser according to his 

 wealth and social status and consequent habits of life. From this 

 there has arisen in the ordinary parlance of real estate men a classifica- 

 tion of residential developments into three kinds : " low-cost," " medium- 

 cost," and " high-cost." No sharp line can be drawn between these 

 classes, although the terms low-cost and high-cost each stand for a 

 sufficiently definite central idea. A low-cost development, insisting on j 

 those characteristics which mean low purchase price and low annual ex- i 

 penditure, must reduce the facilities which it provides to the minimum 

 consistent with permanent health, efficiency, and self-respect. The 

 low-cost development has in the past had a bad name because, for the 

 sake of cheapness, these various facilities have been reduced below this , 

 minimum, most strikingly perhaps on the side of amenity and beauty. 

 There are very many cases, however, where by working out a large 

 enough scheme, beauty and amenity to a very considerable degree may 





