ARCHITECTURE IN PARKS 



tenance of any park system, should be availed of for park interest, 

 rather than be considered merely as a part of the working equipment 

 of the park. The possibilities of greenhouse construction may be seen 

 in the accomplishment along this line by private estates throughout 

 the country, and there is no logical reason that artistic greenhouse 

 design should be restricted to private work. There are ample examples 

 of large display greenhouses in connection with parks and botanical 

 gardens, both in this country and abroad, but the practical greenhouses, 

 a necessary part of the regular propagation work in park maintenance, 

 are rarely made the most of in themselves as a feature of park interest. 

 Too often it becomes necessary to keep the greenhouses for park 

 systems sub rosa to protect them from politicians who would make 

 personal demands upon them ; or, because they have already lost their 

 function to the extent of becoming cut-flower conservatories in place 

 of propagating houses, it is considered imprudent to reveal to the 

 general public just what sort of material is being grown in the park 

 greenhouses, or to what purpose it is being put. 



DESIGN IS NOT TRANSFERABLE 



In the design of park architecture it should be urged that existing 

 examples of park building, however satisfactory they may appear in 

 parks of other cities, should never be adopted except as a parent type ; 

 in one instance the original designers were required to prepare a sort 

 of stock pattern of building which, with slight modification, could be 

 made to fit several sites, thereby precluding the possibility of the best 

 individual design. Transplanted architecture often leads to incon- 

 gruity of style ; also mistakes in plan frequently reveal themselves after 

 a building is in use, and a close copying of the design by other cities 

 will result in a repetition of these same difficulties. Such examples as 

 may appear eminently satisfactory should be accepted merely as a 



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