LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE 



23 



scheme from without are all studied, and the proportioning 

 of the three vital elements of the design, the entrance, the 

 service and the living or pleasure portions of the grounds are 

 carefully determined, usually the greater area being devoted 

 to the latter. Local topographical and climatic conditions 

 affect all these points as do also the client's personal desires. 

 From the work of these earlier designers we get inspiration 

 helping us to determine the general character of the special 

 treatment. Shall it be formal or informal and here is where 

 there should be the heartiest co-operation between the client, 

 the architect of the buildings and the landscape architect, 



A NEW ENGLAND GARDEN 



for manifestly the type of house selected should suit the site 

 as well as fit it, and the best design is that which most com-s 

 prehensively meets all these conditions. While some sites 

 much more emphatically demand rigid formality than others, 

 almost every house no matter how informal its general char- 

 acter, is composed of rigid straight lines and definite angles. 

 There is therefore almost always a Tightness in some formality 

 immediately about such a structure. This formality may 

 not go so far as to involve exact symmetry or balance and the 

 gradual cession of any sort of formality, the merging of this 

 sort of design into the free and informal natural surroundings 

 is of the utmost importance in securing that unity and har- 

 mony without which no design is successful. 



