194 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



limited basis. Some of the new highways in Tokyo, for example, 

 are very difficult to see. One section of the highway is really quite 

 difficult to see because for three stories under this highway there 

 are shops and restaurants. When I went to Tokyo for the Olympic 

 Games a few months ago, I found that it was hard to realize 

 that there was a highway there. It was encased. Certain sec- 

 tions above it were open to the sky. So there was a kind of 

 integration of all these amenities of the city along with the highway. 

 In this particular case it was accomplished by private interests who 

 asked the freeway department to allow them to design and build 

 shops and restaurants under the freeway as the department de- 

 signed and constructed the freeway. 



It was private initiative in a sense on a redevelopment basis com- 

 bined with government. There are other examples of this kind of 

 thing, too. I submit to your interest the United Nations Building 

 which had in fact a freeway or highway, if you wish to call it that, 

 which was built at the same time that the new United Nations Build- 

 ing was built. This is an integrated conception with the great plaza 

 and everything also over the freeway. Because of the use of the topog- 

 raphy, the freeway was opened out to the East River and as you 

 drive along you get the wonderful qualities of the East River. This 

 has been a great amenity for the city and is precisely the kind of thing 

 I am speaking of. 



Mr. SARGENT. It seems to me that since we have this intense com- 

 petition for available land in cities we have got to look more and 

 more to constructing buildings over our highways. I don't see that 

 this need be unattractive. I think it can be done well. In the city 

 of Fall River they are going to build the city hall over the interstate 

 route. I think it is going to be a very attractive structure that will 

 complement the design and really be an asset, rather than a disfigure- 

 ment to the location. It seems to me that we may and probably 

 eventually will get into constructing buildings, perhaps high-rise 

 housing over, around, and through these highways. It seems to me 

 that this has to be looked at realistically and I can't see why it can't 

 be done in an attractive and ingenious fashion. 



Mr. RYAN. I have a question for Mr. Halprin. You mentioned 

 that you should base the design of the freeway within the hard core 

 of the city upon the absorptive capacity for the automobiles. This 

 can vary from just parking maybe 150 cars on the ground to a ten- 



