755 
PARK AND CEM ETERY. 
CONCRETE SCULPTURED FOUNTAIN FOR A PARK 
The concrete fountain illustrated herewith was erected in the early fall 
in West Side Park, N. J., and was designed and completed for its location 
by Mr. Pierre J. Cheron, sculptor, of New York City. It is said to be the 
largest decorative concrete monument so far constructed in this country, 
containing some 365 tons of material, and having a height of 53 feet. The 
sub-contract was awarded to the Erkins Studios; the architectural forms 
were made at the park and the concrete was cast directly in place. The 
sculptural features were cast in moulds made from the sculptor’s models, 
and the whole work was reinforced throughout with iron rods. The main 
base of the fountain is 14 feet high. The three shelves on the curve of the 
base each measure eight feet across while the dolphins are six feet long. 
The main bowl is sixteen feet in diameter, from the center of which runs 
the main shaft, of monolithic construction. About the base of this shaft 
are three Tritons, with shells for water spouts. The shaft is fluted, and 
measures twenty and a half feet high and is in turn surmounted by an 
upper basin. The latter measures eight and a half feet in diameter and 
on top of it is another column seven feet and four inches in height. The 
eagle on the very top is two and a half feet high, making a total height of 
fifty-three feet. The fountain has twenty-seven water spouts and is to be 
equipped with 150 electric lamps. There are also twenty-four large con- 
crete vases an equal distance apart on the basin wall. 
This is a good illustration of what elaborate work can be done, in con- 
crete for the adornment of parks, and shows that both ornamental and 
utilitarian objects for the parks can be made from concrete. 
Such refined work in concrete as is shown in this fountain has not 
tempted park officials to a very great extent up to the present, although ex- 
amples of some quite elaborate bridges of moderate dimensions may be, 
found in a number of parks throughout the country. One has only to visit 
a concrete exhibition, of which three are promised this spring, to realize to 
how many uses in decorative construction concrete may be adapted, and 
the facilities for its preparation and manipulation are being so rapidly 
standardized that its use is sure to increase. 
CONCRETE PARK FOUNTAIN. 
P. J. Cheron, Sc. 
RELATION OF TECHNICAL MEN TO CITY PLANNING 
That engineers have not contributed 
their proper share, as citizens, to civic 
betterment movements, has been more 
than once asserted. The special quali- 
fications of technical men for such 
work, however, was presented with some 
emphasis in a recent address before 
the Electric Club of Chicago, by Wm. 
B. Jackson, of the firm of D. C. and 
Wm. B. Jackson, Chicago and Boston. 
Mr. Jackson calls attention to the fact 
that the engineer, by the demands of 
his profession, is continually called up- 
on to exercise just those qualities of 
foresight and attention to both technical, 
sanitary and moral factors in business 
that are so much needed in all effective 
city planning. 
In manufacturing establishments, says 
Mr. Jackson, much attention is given 
to perfecting the most efficient arrange- 
ment of avenues of intercommunication 
and for the progress of material in the 
process of manufacture, and careful at- 
tention is given to obtain processes that 
will fit in with the requirements of the 
future as well as fulfill the needs of 
the present. An electric power plant 
built to fulfill the requirements of to- 
day, without careful consideration of its 
ability to appropriately expand to fulfill 
the requirements of the future, is un- 
hesitatingly classed as a blunder; yet we 
must admit that just this situation ex- 
ists in our cities, and that on the whole 
our engineers and other technical men 
have not taken an active part in correct- 
ing the error. 
When we leave the consideration of 
manufacturing establishments, we are 
prone to forget the lesson that has 
been learned there as the result of much 
experience, and we fail to apply the 
lesson to the wider problems of the 
cities. We are inclined to rest content 
with our cities as they may happen to 
grow, with very little thought of any 
general plan whereby the avenues for 
traffic will be arranged to give effective 
intercommunication between ' all parts 
of the city itself and between the parts 
of the city and the outside regions; 
whereby the public utilities will be ar- 
ranged to give the most economical and 
suitable service ; whereby plenty of light, 
air and cleanliness will be made an es- 
sential part of the city; and whereby 
an attractive city will be assured. 
Properly laid out highways are as 
necessary to the efficient operations of 
a city as are properly planned and ex- 
ecuted avenues for the progress of ma- 
terials which are being worked up in a 
manufacturing establishment. 
We recognize the necessity of having 
good air and light with cleanly condi- 
tions if we expect to obtain the most ef- 
fective work from employees in a man- 
ufacturing establishment, but how much 
do we on the whole recognize this prin- 
ciple when we consider the general busi- 
ness community and the homes of the 
masses in our cities? In my opinion 
there would be obtained a relatively 
greater increase in the usefulness of the 
people of a great city by providing the 
masses with plenty of light and fresh 
air to grow up with and live in, than 
by providing plenty of light and fresh 
air during work periods alone. 
We have a tendency to pass by the 
matter of an attractive city, of the “city 
beautiful” as something for the consid- 
eration of architects, landscape garden- 
ers and artists alone, but this is a mis- 
take. We are all working for better 
and more efficient men and women. 
Our points of view may be different, 
but we should all be striving for a com- 
mon end. 
Taking into consideration the ten- 
dency of the time, it does not seem to 
me to be quixotic to believe that the day 
is not very remote when an ugly spot 
in a city will be considered as a pub- 
lic nuisance in much the same way as an 
