The Topographical Evolution of the City of Paris 
JEAN BOISSEAU’S MAP- 1 654 
accepted those qualities and endeavored to 
realize them to the fullest extent. 
The Greek type is a rectangle, every de¬ 
tail of which has a definite relation to the 
central axis. Symmetry is essential to the 
design. So far as the architectonic unit, the 
temple, is concerned, the classic feeling is 
completely expressed. But the Greeks them¬ 
selves never carried the principle of axial 
symmetry into the placing of their buildings. 
The location of the monuments on the Acrop¬ 
olis is entirely accidental. Their architects 
even went so far as to bunch three buildings 
together without any scheme of arrangement. 
It was left to the Romans to take the next 
step. When they built a fine temple or 
bath it was their custom to clear a space 
about it, and to build a court with the main 
building as a central attraction. The prim¬ 
itive irregular mar¬ 
ket places were 
transformed into 
the great rectangu¬ 
lar imperial fora. 
The classical ar¬ 
chitectonic scheme 
pointed toward,but 
never grasped, the 
conception of a 
street or boulevard 
as we now know it. 
The best Roman 
streets were long 
and straight. As a 
matter of course, 
the triumphal 
arches were placed 
upon them and 
they were frequent¬ 
ly lined with colon¬ 
nades which were 
in themselves fine; 
but the streets were 
narrow and the fa¬ 
cades of the houses 
were entirely with¬ 
out interest. When 
symmetrical ar¬ 
rangement was at¬ 
tempted, it was of 
the rectangular or 
gridiron type, 
which is familiar in 
the plan of Pompeii. The Renaissance in 
Italy went but little farther. Italian cities 
have been so thoroughly remodeled that it is 
often difficult to find the original arrangement. 
We can point very definitely to one street, 
however, which in its day was considered a 
splendid example. The Strada Nuova, in 
Genoa, is superbly built, so far as the palaces 
which line it are concerned, but as a street it is 
puerile. It is too narrow to show its build¬ 
ings, too narrow even for use. Compared 
with a fine Paris street or even one of the 
modern streets of Genoa, it is not a street at 
all. It is simply a passage. 
Bernini’s Piazza di San Pietro is fine, but 
that is a baroque development of the Roman 
forum and not a street. 
The street or avenue and its fully devel¬ 
oped type, the boulevard, which gives am- 
228 
