PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS FOR THE CITY 
OF NEW YORK 
W VOH 
By Louis E. Jallade 
r i has always been very characteristic of 
New York City that she should be behind¬ 
hand in matters of public improvements. 
Even now she is one of the last cities to 
officially realize the necessity of artistic 
development. 
After many years of agitation on the part 
of art societies and public-spirited citizens, 
the Board of Aldermen were induced last 
year to take up the matter of an artistic 
plan for the future development and improve¬ 
ment of the city, and a Commission was 
appointed for the purpose of preparing a 
“comprehensive plan for the development 
of New York City,” to quote from their 
official instructions. 
The Commission was appointed by Mayor 
McClellan in March, 1904, with the order 
to make a report not later than January, 
1905. In that exceedingly short time, nine 
months, it has covered a vast territory and 
presented a very interesting amount of data. 
It consisted of twenty members including 
Whitney Warren, architect; D. C. French, 
sculptor; Samuel Parsons, landscape archi¬ 
tect, and three engineers. The remainder 
of the Commission, while very representative 
of the various boroughs’ interests, is sadly 
lacking in the number of its architectural 
members, who are really the only ones com¬ 
petent to guide in such an important move¬ 
ment. However, it is a matter for felicita¬ 
tion that while there is only one architect on 
the Commission, that that member should be 
Whitney Warren, a man of marked talent, 
representing perhaps better than any one 
else the modern school of American archi¬ 
tects, and whose interest in the advancement 
of art education has placed him in a most 
prominent position. 
The conditions found in New York City 
by the Commission were very different from 
those encountered by Haussmann in Paris in 
1 853, who worked with a race of artists, 
understanding him and feeling with him. 
Here our Commission has to contend with 
a population which is so accustomed to 
political schemes for graft, that it is difficult 
for them to see clearly in any other light. 
If I might dare suggest, some New Yorkers 
do not yet see the necessity of any art improve¬ 
ment; they seem to lack imagination. 
ENTRANCE TO INTERIOR STREET FROM THE 
FIFTY-NINTH STREET PLAZA 
It is intended that this street shall bean “arcade” for pedes¬ 
trians only with the trolley system in a subway under 
leading from the Fifty-ninth Street Plaza 
to the Blackwell’s Island Bridge 
Terminal at Third Avenue 
35 
