ARCHITECTURE IN PARKS 



order not to block the carrying out of such comprehensive development 

 as niay be for the welfare of a city as a whole, the give-and-take policy 

 may be inaugurated. The idea to be maintained is that there shall be 

 no diminution of park area, and it is therefore recommended that in 

 the ratification of a new city plan there be inserted the conditional 

 clause as follows : 



" That commensurate park areas shall be acquired to offset such present 

 park areas as may be taken for building purposes in the new plan and thereby 

 become lost to the city as parks." 



Such a clause will protect the park area of a city without jeopardising 

 the best development of the city plan. 



PARK ARCHITECTURE TO BE HARMONIOUS AND RESTRAINED 



The character of architecture in parks will be determined some- 

 what by the city environment, especially when the park is of such 

 limited area as to bring it within the influence of street architecture. 

 Where, for yarious reasons, the surrounding buildings may not be 

 neutralised by planting, buildings required in the park should show a 

 certain similarity or harmony of style and material with those in the 

 adjoining street. This will be found to be a very difficult condition to 

 meet, and, like an ideal, may be attained but rarely. Instances have 

 occurred, however, when it has been possible to match the colour and 

 texture of a park building to that of the architecture immediately 

 across the street from it with nice effect, and there have been other 

 instances where the result would undeniably have been better if some 

 such effort at architectural harmonising had been made. 



As a general rule the architecture of a small park should be kept 

 as plain and inornate as possible, without becoming austere or unin- 

 teresting. The impression that any fantastic type of architecture may 

 be discreetly introduced in park design is fallacious ; and the architect 

 who conscientiously studies this problem, bearing in mind that the 



192 



