DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 113 



not have the resources to carry out the plans when secured. Inasmuch as 

 most of the leading park and recreation designers in this country are more 

 accustomed to dealing with the problems of the larger cities and counties 

 than small city, village or open country problems there is a possible need 

 of caution with respect to the cost items involved in carrying out designs 

 for small communities. In a few examples noted during the course of the 

 recent study of park systems throughout the nation, planners had made 

 designs so elaborate and expensive in execution that the small communities 

 for which they were made could not possibly carry them out without too 

 great a drain upon their financial resources. 



However, small communities need this service as well as large ones. 

 This is a problem for the landscape architects of the country to consider 

 through their national organization with a view to devising some plan 

 whereby the needs of the small communities can be met. A few states 

 through their agricultural colleges or through a planning department of the 

 state government have established such a service for small communities. 

 This invasion of the field of the professional landscape architect by publicly 

 supported institutions has sometimes met with opposition from the pro- 

 fession. It is suggested that in the long run this plan of state aid to small 

 communities will be a benefit to the profession because it is an effective 

 means of educating and opening up a large field that hitherto has been more 

 or less closed to landscape architects. 1 



TYPES OF AREAS 



The term "design" is used in this chapter in a very limited and loose 

 sense, referring primarily to an enumeration of the features that are deemed 

 necessary for the proper fulfillment of the function or functions of each 

 type of property considered. The actual arrangement of these features in 

 a harmonious whole in relation to each other, which is the proper content 

 and meaning of design, is the function of the landscape architect. 



Notes on the following types of areas will be presented in the succeed- 

 ing pages: 



1. Little Children's Playgrounds. 



2. Children's Playgrounds. 



3. Neighborhood Playfield or Neighborhood Playfield-Parks. 



4. Special Active Recreation Areas: Athletic Fields, Stadiums, 



Golf Courses, Organized Camps. 



5. Small Landscaped Areas. 



6. Intown or Neighborhood Parks. 



7. Large Parks. 



1 In 1920 over 25,500,000 people lived in incorporated communities under 25,000 population, or approxi- 

 mately one-fourth of the entire population of the nation. 



