182 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



It would also greatly aid in keeping the highways beautiful and 

 litter-free, now that we have them all built, if each State has a 

 strong beautification and anti-litter organization modeled along the 

 lines recommended by Keep America Beautiful. 



In conclusion, I would be remiss if I did not tell this distinguished 

 assembly of the semisecret, nonengineering, but highly effective de- 

 sign principle we use so successfully in New York to build our 

 beautiful highways. I quote from a design directive issued by Dep- 

 uty Chief Engineer B. A. Lefeve. In it he said, "The highway 

 should fit into the landscape like a deer in the woods, not like a bull 

 in a china shop." 



Mr. CLARKESON. In the development of the location and design 

 of major highways, two public responsibilities must be discharged. 



The obvious one is the development of a roadway for the trans- 

 portation function, properly meshed with the needs of the area and 

 with other forms of transportation existing or planned. Little disa- 

 greement exists today to this planning premise. 



Less observed and perhaps less obvious is the social obligation to 

 maintain or create an environment that people, both the driver and 

 the pedestrian, can live in. The highway industry is a major opera- 

 tion on the rural and urban area. The highway effort for the most 

 part is almost totally lacking in creativeness as part of the living land- 

 scape. 



The interstate system, being constructed on wholly new rights- 

 of-way without the confines of serving abutting property, can lend 

 itself admirably to the development of fine examples of rural and 

 urban scene. Any highway constructed in this program has a qual- 

 ity of durability; if it is a bad influence on the landscape it is bad 

 for a long time. If it is good it will be good for a long time. Because 

 so much of it is enormous an eight-lane highway runs 125 to 200 

 feet wide and interchanges run up to 50 acres it can overwhelm, 

 in size alone, any other architectural, planning, or landscaped area 

 near it. 



Since its size is so overwhelming it should and can be planned, 

 designed, and built to complement rather than destroy all within 

 sight of it. 



The public obligation of the highway industry requires the adop- 

 tion of three needed principles : 



1. That it will not unwittingly destroy any existing architectural, 

 historic, or other desirable value. 



