178 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



To panelists and participants alike I would caution that we are 

 not here to waste each other's time in interdisciplinary disputes rela- 

 tive to past responsibilities for highway design. We are not here to 

 spend our time outlining mistakes of the past made by engineers, plan- 

 ners, or others unless examples of these mistakes can show us ways 

 to do our job better. Rather, we have been called here to develop 

 specific proposals for the implementation of a positive action pro- 

 gram. What then is this action program that we are to develop? 



It has been stated most adequately and eloquently by the President 

 in his message to Congress: "I hope that all levels of government, 

 our planners and builders will remember that highway beautification 

 is more than a matter of planting trees or setting aside scenic areas. 

 The roads themselves must reflect, in location and design, increased 

 respect for the natural and social integrity and unity of the landscape 

 and communities through which they pass." 



Let us, therefore, now move ahead to develop better working re- 

 lationships between all disciplines and let us develop new planning 

 and design techniques such that we may positively implement the fine 

 statement of the President. 



Mr. SARGENT. First let me emphasize, as a career conservationist 

 turned roadbuilder, that I am a most enthusiastic supporter of the 

 movement for a "Green America." We must acquire broader 

 rights-of-way to protect our scenic areas; we must remove or screen 

 junkyards and borrow pits, and plan for the harmonious use of 

 natural terrain. 



I am sure public funds are put to the best use in making motoring 

 a delight to the eye and satisfying to the soul as we build our inter- 

 state highways through the open countryside. 



But let me ask this is there not something very incongruous in 

 highway planning that calls for more beauty in the country, and then 

 creates the very antithesis of the green America concept ugly urban 

 monsters in our cities? 



Instead of highways with wide green median strips, built to seek 

 out and take advantage of scenic vistas in the open spaces, in our 

 cities we frequently build highways on steel stilts, sometimes four 

 tiers of them, so stark and ungainly that millions are offended by 

 them daily. 



None can dispute the statement that some of America's freeways 

 are hideous. Granted they are utilitarian, and undoubtedy less 



