OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS 113 



have made discoveries to which we have been blind. Those of us who live in cities having 

 crooked streets and irregular property lines, may learn from these examples how to take 

 advantage of irregularities which sometimes perplex us, and to appreciate eccentricities 

 which, in the past, we have regarded as intolerable and as evidence of bad workmanship. 



The modern German school of city-planners feel that the French "round point" is a 

 hindrance to traffic circulation; it causes hopeless tangles of vehicles. They feel that it is 

 an absurdity of the old French school which no modern city can wisely repeat except in 

 situations where the traffic conditions are very simple. This point of view is so astonishing 

 to us who have been nurtured in the "star places," as the Germans call them, that we have 

 to draw a long breath before accepting the German view as truth. The great problems of 

 handling traffic are not usually in streets, even though those streets be narrow, but rather 

 at the intersection of streets. The Germans feel that enlargements should rarely be made at 

 these intersections, and that whenever possible, only two streets should meet at the same 

 point. You will notice in Fig. 33 how the streets are brought into the square shown in the 

 middle of the picture. Contrast this with a typical French scheme at the extreme right 

 of the picture. 



Mr. ShurtlefF then showed a large number of pictures of Boston illustrating the inter- 

 esting appearance of curving streets, lop-sided squares, jogs, dead ends. The modern Germans 

 glory in this sort of thing, and they laugh to scorn those cities who fifty years ago destroyed 

 all this sort of thing to create straight-laced lineal schemes which are today regarded as 

 characterless and deadly monotonous. Mr. Shurtleff pointed out that, in estimating the 

 wisdom or unwisdom of these German ideas, one should bear in mind their very practical 

 regard for the needs of traffic. The Germans will never allow crookedness to stand in the 

 way of vehicle movements. The crookednesses of their main thoroughfares, they always 

 declare, tend to favor circulation, and the crookednesses in narrow streets are intended to 

 give charm and novelty. 



Mr. Shurtleff said, in closing, that this whole book of German ideas would have been 

 closed to him and to the majority of persons about Boston, at least, had Mr. Sylvester 

 Baxter not undertaken the translation of the text, Mr. Baxter was, unfortunately, unable 

 to attend the lecture. His absence was greatly regretted. 



Those interested in this subject should see a volume of essays called "Die Deutschen Stadte," 

 published in Leipsic by Friedrich Brandstotter in 1904, and written by Cornelius Gurirtt; the modem 

 magazine called "Der Stadtebau," which is published regularly, and from which many of these ideas have 

 been taken; also a pamphlet published by the Royal Institute of British Architects, London, in 1905, and 

 written by John W. Stimpson. 



Mr. J. C. Olmsted: The projects of the Boston Society for rearranging streets demands a revision 

 of the Constitution, allowing condemnation of more land than is actually required. No other way will do. 

 All states have gone on the principle that private property is to be taken only for defined public purposes. 

 This is the root of all difficulties, because property abutting on improved streets must be re-lotted. 



Mr. Shurtleff: At the hearings before the Commission, competent persons say this must be done 

 or, if it cannot, no report should be issued. 



Mr. F. L. Olmsted: In Massachusetts the law provides that a public body may take the whole of 

 any lot of which a part is necessary. In Maryland that property adjacent to property required may be taken 

 and sold again. The law is narrow in providing that this may be done in case of public buildings 

 and approaches but not of streets. Plans have been made for the extension of Howard Street, Baltimore, 

 to the Baltimore and Ohio station, through rectangular blocks diagonal to the main street-system, thus 

 leaving many bad alleys and corners. The plan proposed was done by two real estate men, at the instance 

 of the Art Society, for the acquisition of all lots and their rearrangement. It was at first held that it could 



