Synopses & Reviews
MODERN HSHftfcSA f OR THE CITY MADE BEAUTIFUL BY CHARLES MULFORD ROBINSON AUTHOR OF THE IMPROVEMENT OF TOWNS AND CITIES G. P. PUTNAMS SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON Ube Ifcnicfcerbocfcer ipress 1903 COPYRIGHT, 1903 BY CHARLES MULFORD ROBINSON Published, May, 1903 f Uffl Ube tfcnfctebocJiet Dre00, flew Uorft CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER PAGE I. A NEW DAY FOR CITIES . . . . . 3 II. WHAT Civic ART Is .... . . 24 THE CITYS FOCAL POINTS III. THE WATER APPROACH . . . . . - 39 IV THE LAND - APPROACH . . 59 V. THE ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRE . . . . .81 IN THE BUSINESS DISTRICT VI. THE. STREET PLAN OF THE BUSINESS DISTRICT . . 101 VII. ARCHITECTURE IN THE BUSINESS DISTRICT . . . 123 I VIII. THE FURNISHINGS OF THE STREET . . . . 138 IX. ADORNING WITH FOUNTAINS AND SCULPTURE . . 166 IN THE RESIDENTIAL SECTIONS X. STREET PLOTTING AMONG THE HOMES . . . 187 XL ON GREAT AVENUES . . . ... 206 XII. ON MINOR RESIDENTIAL STREETS .... 228 XIII. AMONG THE TENEMENTS 245 iv Contenta THE CITY AT LARGE CHAPTER XIV. COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING XV. OPEN SPACES XVI. PARKWAYS XVIL DISTRIBUTION AND LOCATION OF PARKS . XVIIL PARK DEVELOPMENT .... XIX. TEMPORARY AND OCCASIONAL DECORATION INDEX 271 287 307 321 337 355 377 INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER I. A NEW DAY FOR CITIES. THERE is a promise in the sky of a new day. The darkness rolls away, and the buildings that had been shadows stand forth distinctly in the gray air. The tall fa9ades glow as the sun rises their windows shine as topaz their pennants of steam, tugging flutteringly from high chimneys, are changed to silvery plumes. Whatever was dingy, coarse, and ugly, is either transformed or hidden in shadow. The streets, bathed in the fresh morning light, fairly sparkle, their pavementsfrom upper windows appearing smooth and clean. There seems to be a new city for the work of the new day. There is more than even the transformation that Nero boasted he had made in Rome, for night closed here on a city of brick, stone, and steel but the morning finds it better than gold. Sleep had come to weary brains and hearts, and had closed eyes tired of dreariness and monotony the day finds faculties alert and vigorous and eyes are opening 4 flDo ern Civic art upon beauty. As when the heavens rolled away and St. John beheld the new Jerusalem, so a vision of a new London, a new Washington, Chicago, or New York breaks with the mornings sunshine upon the degradation, discomfort, and baseness of modern city life. There are born a new dream and a new hope. Within these is the impulse to civic art Cities grow in splendour. There are new stand ards of beauty and dignity for towns. The science of modern city-making is being formally laid down as its principles are discovered and its rules enun ciated. For the true ideal that spurs to useful en deavour is that alone which is based on study and facts. As the dawn transforms none but real cities, so can this new day come only when the town of familiar experience has commenced to become what it should be and might be. In one place this may be soon, in another late in one place there is already long progress toward it, in another there are only the yearnings and painful beginnings. But everywhere a desire to some extent is present, efforts are put forth to attain to the noble and beau tiful in city-making, and there is proud remembrance of such urban glory as the past can claim. Out of this irregular progress a law appears of municipalevolution. Though the development be slow and tedious, it is sure and if the course be marked, the law noted, the vision at the end described, doubtless something will have been done to hasten an advance that was never so swift as now, however H mew S a for Cities. 5 laborious to the impatient the process seems. Con sidered merely as a morning picture, the new day for cities has its ancient promise in the tower and steeple gleaming in the sunlight...
Synopsis
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