600 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



Arts. By fine arts, I mean the nurturing of all aspects of beauty, 

 natural and manmade. 



WALLACE L. CHADWIGK. Following attendance of several of the 

 sessions of the White House Conference on Natural Beauty and 

 listening to the numerous comments offered by the panels and 

 the conferees about how better to design various structures to 

 achieve beauty of appearance, it has occurred to us that an im- 

 provement would be achieved if the engineer is brought into the 

 design before it becomes fixed either as a concept or budget. 

 Regardless of who designs a structure, or an improvement for beauty, 

 the actual structural design is accomplished by an engineer, usually 

 to design specifications and a budget directed by others, usually non- 

 engineers. Adequate conference prior to such fixing would be help- 

 ful in achieving a mutual understanding both of material, 

 construction and fiscal limitations. 



Reference was made by one speaker to the need for some new 

 system of values which would recognize beauty as a public benefit, 

 for which substantial public funds might be committed. Engineer- 

 ing for beauty would be greatly aided by such a concept if accepted 

 by the public as justifiable. 



The American Society of Civil Engineers has considered the com- 

 ments made during the conference as to the need for beauty in 

 highway location and structures, and I am urging our highway Engi- 

 neering Division of about 9,000 members to organize an early 

 specialty conference on highway beautification. Please be as- 

 sured also that that society stands ready to assist you and the Presi- 

 dent in doing whatever it reasonably can to coordinate the planning, 

 design and funding of public works seeking the optimum in balancing 

 pleasing appearance against justifiable expenditure. 



F. STUART CHAPIN, JR. As brought out in the deliberations of 

 the conference, natural beauty has meaning only in relation to man 

 and his capacity to sense it around him and to experience from it 

 renewal of the human spirit. Education was properly stressed as a 

 means of introducing new generations to these values, and action 

 programs were clearly indicated in all panel sessions as a major 

 means for bringing beauty into the everyday experiences of more 

 American people at all ages. 



But to understand the deeply seated basis of the interplay between 

 man and beauty in his surroundings, there is an urgent need for 

 research to undergird education and action programs. Very little 



