PARKS 



THEIR DESIGN, EQUIPMENT AND USE 



CHAPTER I 



PARK DESIGN IN CITY PLANNING 



CITY planning rej)re.sents a scientific forward movement in the 

 development of American cities. It stands for guided and 

 directed development rather than haphazard growth; it stands for 

 intelligent progress. In that sense its value is potentiallj'- inestimable. 

 The advent of city planning within the last few years, however, is 

 being hailed as a deliverance rather than a revival, acclaimed as the 

 first rather than the second coming. As a matter of fact, the 2:)lanning 

 of cities has been a well-studied and aj^plied science for centuries ; and 

 even in America casual research reveals traces of the lost art in the 

 earl}^ record and existent lines of many of our cities. In that respect 

 city planning appears to be a sporadic science ; and the increasing birth- 

 rate of city jilanning commissions and planning legislation, all destined 

 to accomplish a great work in the betterment of American cities, repre- 

 sents a renaissance and a recoming. 



SUCCESS OF A CrrY PLAN DEPENDENT UPON ITS PARKS 



Park building, on the other hand, is omnipresent. It has been the 

 constant accompaniment of civic growi;h and development in our cities 

 since their incipiency ; but quite as the efforts of the hardworking and 

 faithful pastor are outshone bj^ the fervor of tlie transient revivalist, 

 years of park radiance are lost sight of in the meteoric transcendence 

 of the new movement. The unajjpreciative citizen fails to recognise 

 that park development has almost always preceded city planning, in- 

 variably accompanies it, and is ordained in every case to succeed it. 



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