The Treatment of City Squares 
THE TREATMENT OF ClW 
SOU ARES.— 11 . 
HE open spaces are, or should he, the 
ornaments of the city. That is the new 
rule of the new Science of Modern City 
Making. They are not created now for 
open-air markets ; and if they are used for 
short cuts, such use is not to be made con¬ 
spicuous. Their mode of city adornment is 
various. They may enhance the decorative¬ 
ness of the adjoining architecture, they may 
bring the welcome contrast of nature into 
city streets; but whatever they do they 
should add to the attractiveness of the 
town. 
When one passes from the congestion of 
the business district and the demands of 
traffic become less insistent, this requirement 
of decorativeness is increased. It might, in¬ 
deed, be said that as the choice and arrange¬ 
ment of the furniture differs for each room 
of the house, so in the different parts of a 
city the furnishings of the street form a prob¬ 
lem in choice and arrangement that is not 
to be solved by the rules that apply to any 
other district. Of the ornamental open 
spaces, as the most conspicuous furnishings, 
this is true especially ; and when these spaces 
grow large enough to admit of planting, a 
new set of principles is encountered. Some 
familiar examples which will serve as types 
may be observed. 
There are not many small open spaces 
in the United States that have so wide a 
reputation as Copley Square, in Boston. 
But there must be very few persons who, 
knowing it well by name, have come upon 
it for the first time without a shock of 
disappointment. For the glory of Copley 
Square is the glory, so rare with us, 
of the surrounding architecture ; and the 
space itself is composed only of flat 
triangular areas that are enclosed by low 
stone copings. But there are lessons to 
he learned from Copley Square; tor, if 
COPLEY SQUARE BOSTON 
3 00 
