APPENDIX 353 



many jobs at the same time. If he has work of importance in widely 

 scattered localities, he must have a resident superintendent on each 

 job, at least during certain periods in the construction. The landscape 

 architect is fortunate who has his work come to him in such a way that 

 this superintendence may be distributed throughout the year, or who 

 has so versatile a corps of assistants that they can turn their hand to 

 drafting or superintendence as the work may demand.* 



It is evident that the amount of detail that is expressed on plan and 

 committed to writing, and the amount of detail which is left to be deter- 

 mined by the superintendent, depends on the possibility of deciding 

 on this detail definitely beforehand, and on the capacity of the super- 

 intendent. In France and to some extent in England, a landscape 

 architect's office is likely to make fewer and less definite plans than we 

 do, and to trust more to skilled superintendence. When the growth 

 of the profession in this country has produced more contractors skilled 

 in this particular kind of work, and more men qualified to serve the 

 landscape architect as skilled superintendents, the problem of the execu- 

 tion of work may be somewhat simplified, but it will always be true 

 that if the landscape architect wishes to see his ideas fully realized in 

 execution, he must to some degree superintend this execution himself. 



Very rarely is the landscape architect's work such that it produces Superintend- 

 the effect he desires when the work of construction and planting called ^^'^'^ °J ^^i^- 

 for in the contract is finished. The growth of trees and flowers and 

 turf must still be awaited before the result is complete, and skilled 

 superintendence will still be necessary to guide this growth to the 

 desired end. It is an excellent arrangement, therefore, if it can be 

 provided that the landscape architect be retained by the client to 

 watch over the work, at least until such time as the idea of the designer 

 has so nearly reached its full expression that the client may thoroughly 

 grasp it and be perhaps trusted to see that this expression is not there- 

 after destroyed. If, as is the case in public work, there is no one owner 

 who can thus be trusted, it is vitally necessary that the esthetic ability 

 to appreciate the design and the enthusiasm to maintain it should con- 

 tinually reside in some responsible hands. 



* Cf. p. 335. 



2a 



