REPORT 



LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS 



To the Brooklyn Park Commissioners. 



^Gentlemen : 



It has been our custom annually to review the various opera- 

 tions in progress under the control of your department, with the 

 purpose of explaining and justifying the principles of art they are 

 intended to embody, and especially in regard to those on Prospect 

 Park, of showing their relations to its general design. In the 

 present report, for 1872, there seems to be no occasion for a 

 special analysis of their character, as the labors of the past year 

 have been wholly directed to the completion of works previously 

 undertaken, and which have, therefore, been fully described and 

 •discussed. A detailed and statistical account of these will be 

 found appended in the report of the Chief" Engineer. The most 

 important development of the plan that has been effected during 

 the year, is that of the grading of the southerly portion of the 

 Long Meadow district, and its partial finish and planting. With 

 the growth of the trees, the result will be the broadest, most 

 tranquil, and, in our judgment, most essentially valuable element 

 of the whole property. Even in its present condition, no one can 

 fail, we think, to recognize how important to the general success of 

 the undertaking has been the persistence with which your Commis- 

 sion, in successive years, urged the Legislature to authorize the 

 enlargement of the boundaries of the park in this direction. The 

 result of the contract with the Coignet Company for the erection 

 of the Cleft-ridge Span, has been in the main satisfactory. It was 

 expected that the material would offer great advantages in regard 

 to the introduction of positive color ; but this anticipation has not 



