GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 25 



of shifting attendance should not be used to affect the minimum acreage 

 space requirements, although it might affect slightly the acreage require- 

 ments above the minimum. Suppose in a given neighborhood there are 

 eight hundred children up to fourteen years of age inclusive and in the 

 calculations for providing play space for them two hundred square feet 

 per child is used, the total free space requirements would be approximately 

 three and six-tenths acres, which is about the lowest practical minimum 

 for a playground of this type even though there were only two hundred 

 children. If in the calculations it is estimated that only one-fourth of the 

 children will attend at one time and the acreage is reduced accordingly, 

 the size of the playground would be about nine-tenths of an acre, or if one- 

 third attended the area would be about one and two-tenths acres, or if 

 one-half attended the area would be about one and eight-tenths acres. 

 In all these cases the acreage would be too small for practical use. 



It would be far preferable to consider the area need from the view- 

 point of the peak-load use rather than from the minimum-load use. Noth- 

 ing would be more likely to discourage the children from coming to a play- 

 ground than to find, when they did come in large numbers, that the area 

 was so crowded there could be no real fun in attempting to play there. 



In schools certain administrative devices, such as the work-study-play 

 plan, the platoon system and the class system, enable the effective use of 

 smaller areas for certain kinds of play activities requiring more limited 

 space than would accommodate all or a large part of the children at one 

 time. It is interesting to note, however, that in the city where the work- 

 study-play plan originated the school grounds are all of extraordinarily 

 large size. 



II. NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYFIELD-PARK AREAS 



The primary function of this type of area is to provide opportunity 

 for the older boys and girls, young men and young women and all other 

 actively inclined adults, to engage in all manner of outdoor games and 

 sports, especially such games as volley ball, tennis, basket ball, playground 

 baseball, baseball, football, soccer, hockey and others, and such sports as 

 swimming and all the different activities of track and field. 



If the area is large enough another primary purpose might be served, 

 i.e., a landscaped area ministering to the aesthetic needs of the people and 

 providing opportunity for recreations of a passive kind. Such an area 

 may also include a space for a little children's playground, thus func- 

 tioning in two other primary capacities. 



The secondary functions of neighborhood playfield-park areas are: to 

 provide fairly large spaces for the admission of sunlight and the free circu- 



