PARK DESIGN IN CITY PLANNING 



yards. Many park areas are merely elaborated and adorned, express- 

 ing nothing in plan. A park area should not be considered an isolated 

 unit, but in its design should be made to express a firm relation to the 

 park system as a whole. It is recommended that park plans be 

 entrusted only to men familiar with laws and principles of park and 

 civic design. 



ORNAMENTATION SHOULD NEVER PRECEDE CONSTRUCTION 



The fourth recommendation is that after special park designs have 

 been prepared and approved, they shall be as rigidly adhered to in the 

 main lines as may be the accepted design of city layout. These plans 

 should be placed on file, and as fast as appropriations become avail- 

 able for park improvement, should be worked out in almost automatic 

 fashion. By such means artistic enrichment, which more often signifies 

 senseless bedecking, will be impossible, at least until the general design 

 has been accomplished. Until a park plan has been firmly laid out 

 and " nailed on the ground," as they say, all attempts at decoration 

 should be discouraged. In other words, ornamentation should follow 

 construction, and the initial expenditure should always be devoted to 

 accomplishing the park framework. There have been many cases in 

 the past where parks have been elaborated by planting even before a 

 definite walk system or other design had been prepared, with the usual 

 result from getting the cart before the horse. 



BUILDING OPERATIONS AFFECTED BY PARK PLANS 



The fifth recommendation is that accepted park plans be con- 

 sidered public property, open to the perusal of all or any that may be 

 interested. Intelligently prepared park design, assured of exact 

 execution independently of political shift, will influence the character 

 of building operations encircling each park and in a measure lead the 

 development along lines prescribed by the civic designer in his selection 



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