THE THEORY OF CITY DESIGN. 79 



and a clear recognition of the possibilities of every practicable 

 variation of the general design. Since the localisation of occupa- 

 tion involves localisation of the general characteristics of the 

 traffic, and therefore of the particular type of street required, a 

 methodical analysis of each possible variation of the design, in 

 respect to its ultimate effect upon the health and appearance of 

 the city, is essential in any attempt to guard against injury through 

 the limitations of first or early occupation. 



An important city is not mature even in a century ; and the 

 designer, if he is to leave a monument of the perfection of his 

 work, in a general disposition which shall secure the possibility 

 of it presenting permanently attractive features, must, while 

 regarding everything from the standpoint of the remote future, 

 regard it also in the light of present necessity , and only if his 

 genius is equal to the task of harmonizing the two, will the result 

 be satisfactory. During the first few decades it may be absolutely 

 necessary, so as to suitably concentrate population, to allow 

 development to proceed upon lines foreign to the ultimate inten- 

 tion, and to permit narrow streets to be substituted for wide ones. 

 The design in such a case must contain an outline of such temporary 

 modifications as cannot be avoided, in addition to the permanent 

 features to which everything is finally to conform ; and if settle- 

 ment, on the lines of the temporary modification, be permitted 

 only under clearly-defined and rigidly enforced conditions, ensur- 

 ing return after a definite period to the original, no injury but 

 on the contrary rather benefit will result, and one will not, as is 

 so frequently the case, have to deplore the spoiling of the aesthetic 

 possibilities of the site. 



The interdependence of the types of occupation and of street, 

 of settlement and of traffic, and the tendency of each to perpetuate 

 itself without regard to the welfare of the city as a whole, 

 involves, as we see, more than ordinary care in the arrangements 

 of any city that is intended to be ideally beautiful, and no effort 

 is wasted which has for its object the conservation of the higher 



