OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS m 



Frederick Law Olmsted was superintendent under Viele at the time he and Calvert 

 Vaux prepared the winning plan for Central Park, which was distinguished by the trans- 

 verse roads. 



The reservoirs in the park were building before Messrs. Olmsted and Vaux prepared 

 their plan. Both reservoirs will be given up when the Jerome Park reservoir is completed 

 and in use. 



MUNICIPAL IMPROVEMENTS IN BOSTON 

 AND GERMANY 



By A. A. SHURTLEFF 

 (Mcetinc of March 10. IMS) 



Mr. Shurtleff's remarks were essentially as follows, in which the notes refer to lantern- 

 slides reproduced herewith. 



Fig. 1. The modern German city-planners feel that this new street in Dresden, the 

 Konig Johann Strasse, is a mistake because it cuts in straight lines through the city which 

 is essentially irregular in plan. They feel that it represents a gash. Their feeling is that an 

 extension and widening more like that shown .below in Fig. 2 is much more harmonious and 

 practical. 



Fig. 2. (Darmstadt.) This extension and widening is said to be more practical, because 

 it takes property already abutting on street lines with a minimum injury to the old lines. 

 The spirit of the improvement is also in harmony with the crookednesses of the old city 

 streets. 



Fig. 3. The modern German planners regard these improvements in Halle as exceed- 

 ingly good. They maintain the spirit of the old city irregularities while providing every 

 convenience for traffic circulation. 



Fig. 4- This plan shows a detail of the Halle improvements. 



Fig. 5. (Berlin.) This plan receives great condemnation because it produces monotonous 

 straight streets, acute angular junctions with old streets, and makes no recognition of 

 property lines. 



Fig. 6. (Stralsund.) This shows how the little booths and small stores, together with 

 yeomen's dwellings about the ancient Nikolai-Kirche, were all torn down in order to give 

 a better view of the church. A park was laid out around the church where the building 

 formerly stood. This costly work has brought about mortifying results. The church has 

 lost all its former charm, amd appears uninteresting and diminutive among the greater 

 buildings now adjacent to it. Artists who formerly flocked to the town to make sketches 

 of this building have wholly abandoned it in their tours. 



Figs. 7, 8, and 9. (Darmstadt.) These show in plan and elevation the treatment of a 

 small square intended to give seclusion behind the church, out of the way of traffic. 



Figs. 10 to 16. (Nuremberg.) It was customary in German improvements fifty years 

 ago, to tear down old city gates. It is now the practice carefully to preserve them while 

 increasing their capacity for traffic by other adjacent openings. The older cities are now 

 regretting their haste in destroying the most notable features upon their outskirts. 



Fig. 17. (Chemnitz.) A system of street subdivision which attempts to adjust itself 

 to existing property lines, sucessful in some quarters and not in others, as shown. 



