The 'Treatment of City Squares 
THE OLD BROAD ST. STATION 
In addition, however, to convenience to 
the traffic, and to the propriety of the plan, 
this placing of a square before the station, is 
to be strongly commended on esthetic 
grounds. First impressions are notably virile 
and lasting. The stranger must form his first 
impression of the city from the view which 
meets his eyes as he passes out of the station 
to enter the town, and obviously a square 
will be pleasanter for the room it gives. Some 
years ago the city of Genoa set itself to im¬ 
prove the space in front of the railroad station. 
There it placed, appropriately, the statue of 
Columbus, and in surrounding this with turf 
and flowers it did so “ in order,” as the Geno¬ 
vese authorities expressly declared, “ that the 
first impression of strangers coming to our 
city may be favorable.” The like course has 
been followed for a like reason, though not 
always so frankly confessed, by a great num¬ 
ber of towns and cities. Thus it is that in 
“station squares” we come upon a distinct 
and important group of open-space problems. 
It will be profitable to study a few examples. 
The interesting architectural attempt of 
the bahnhof in Hamburg is, unhappily, ill 
supplemented by the proffered solution of 
THE READINC; TERMINAL, PHILADELPHIA 
this civic problem. The illustration shows 
a space of inviting opportunity in its area. 
For the converging traffic, which may well 
demand first consideration—since it is before 
a station and hence where time is especially 
likely to be a factor of importance—there is 
more than sufficient room. This is shown 
by the treatment adopted. There are broad 
walks and a very wide expanse of pavement, 
and the roadways lead directly to the door, 
and yet large areas remain for planting. A 
good thing has been done in providing amply 
for illumination, and the electric lighting 
apparatus is frankly decorative. But the 
wide flat spaces that are given to planting are 
grass plots, enclosed by low wire fences, with 
their monotony almost unrelieved, the few 
flowers, that ought to have been shrubs, 
proving inadequate for the broad area. 
There is, indeed, an effect of spaciousness ; 
but the spaciousness of lawn that a city can 
show in front of its railroad station is not 
verv impressive to those who have just been 
traveling through the open country ; and if 
this effect be ignored, there is here nothing 
left. The space has no character; and 
Hamburg, which has elsewhere done much 
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