SAN DIEGO A COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR ITS IMPROVEMENT ^ BY JOHN NOLEN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT CAMBRIDGE MASS. JtiFaea, ISitm Qorb COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE LIBRARY CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924064889771 SAN DIEGO A COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR ITS IMPROVEMENT BY JOHN NOLEN BOSTON GEO. H. ELLIS CO., PRINTERS Copyright, 1908 By John Nolen The publication of this report is one more illustration of the awakening of American cities to the imperative need for greater foresight, skill, and experience in city-making. San Diego has developed much like other places in this country. But to-day it is far ahead of most cities of its class in its recognition of the mistakes of the past and in its appreciation of the opportunities of the present. The report submitted is the result of a careful first-hand study of San Diego and its surroundings. It is fully illustrated with photographs, and its recommendations are enforced by some accompanying plans and sketches. The aim and purpose of these drawings should not be misunderstood. While their practicability in general has been tested, they are obviously not offered as final or constructive plans that can be executed without further study and revision. Nor is it expected that all these plans will be carried out at once, — some must wait for years. Primarily, they are intended to awaken and form pubUc opinion, and to present the general ideas which should regulate and control the improvement of the city, ideas which, it is be- lieved, may be safely endorsed by the Civic Improvement Com- mittee in its present public-spirited movement. To all of the members of that comimittee, and especially to Mr. Julius Wangenheim, its chairman, and to Mr. George W. Marston, my thanks are due for a wise and painstaking co-operation. They contributed an indispensable element. San Diego has the location and the physical foundation in general for an important, perhaps a great city. Its people are awake to its needs, and are resolved to meet them. It stands, therefore, upon the threshold of a truly sound and far-reaching development; for, when to superb natural advantages and human enterprise are added a sound public policy and a com- prehensive plan of action, who can doubt the outcome ? John Nolen. Cambridge, Mass., September, 1908. [iii] ♦GEORGE COOKE EDWARD GROVE A. HAINES MELVILLE KLAUBBR GEORGE W. MARSTON E. E. WHITE L. A. WRIGHT JULIUS WANGENHEIM, Chairman. * Deceased, August, 1908. PAGE I. Some Genebal Considerations 1 Some of San Diego's Resources 1 What San Diego Lacks 3 Need of Foresight 4 Time for Action 5 II. The Replanning of San Diego 7 Wasteful Methods of Past 7 Evolution of Cities and Replanning .... 13 San Diego's Opportunity 13 III. A Public Plaza and Civic Centre 15 Methods of Selecting Sites for Public Buildings 15 The Old Plaza 18 New Plaza Proposed 20 Plan for Civic Centre 24 Advantages of Proposed Plan 25 IV. The Great Bay Front 29 Water Fronts 29 Plan for San Diego's Bay Front 30 Link between Bay and Park 40 Foot of Date Street . . 45 Railroad Approach 45 v. Small Open Spaces 49 Lack of Open Spaces 49 Public Garden Recommended 50 Playgrounds for Children 52 [V] CONTENTS PAGE VI. Streets and Boulevards 57 Place and Function of the Street 57 Appropriate Street Arrangements 58 Congestion and Transportation 62 Street Trees 65 Street Names 72 VII. A System or Parks 73 A Park System Called for 75 Outdoor Glory of San Diego 87 VIII. Summary 89 Recommendations . 89 Future of San Diego 90 Cost of Proposed Improvements 91 Aupmhxx Illustrative Extracts 95 Books and Reports on Civic Improvement .... 108 [vi] Plana nnh iramtn^a PAGE Plan of Part of San Diego . . .... 6 The Heart of the City .... 11 Plan and Section of Esplanade ... 12 A Public Plaza and Civic Centre ... 22 Perspective View of Same . 23 Bird's-eye Perspective of Bay Front ... 28 Streets and Thoroughfares. . .... 60 Diagram of the Park System 74 pifotngrapijtr ilHttatrationa Hotel del Coronado, San Diego 2 Plan of Part op Paris 8 San Diego's Back Countbt 14 Court House, San Diego 16 Denver State Capitol 17 The Plaza, San Diego 18 The Plaza, Madrid 19 D Street, San Diego , • • • ^^ Government House, La Plata .... 21 Post-office, Chicago 25 Bay Front, San Diego 27 Bay Front, San Diego . 30 The Bay of Naples 31 "Water P^ont, Rio de Janeiro 32 Bay Front, San Diego 33 Italian Lakes 34 Water Front at Nice 36 Railroad Station, Sao Paulo 37 Paseo, Kansas City, Mo 38 Paseo, Kansas City, Mo 39 Date Street, San Diego 41 Paseo, Kansas City, Mo 42 [vii] PHOTOGRAPHLC ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Paseo, Kansas City, Mo 43 Railroad Station, Stockton, Cal 44 Foot of D Street, San Diego 46 Railroad Station, Hannover, Germany 47 Casino, Nice 48 Jefferson Square, San Francisco 49 Small Square, Los Angeles 50 Public Garden, Rio de Janeiro 51 Small Park, Montreal 53 Playgrounds 54 Place de la Republique, Paris 56 D Street, San Diego 58 Street Railways, Coronado and San Diego 59 Business Street, San Diego . . 61 Chicago Street 62 Paseo de Julio, Buenos Ayres 63 Street, Rio de Janeiro 64 Avenue, Sao Paulo 64 Fifth and D Streets, San Diego '. 65 San Diego's "Cut AND Fill" 66 Boulevard, Riverside, Cal 67 Flower Market, Brussels 68 The Alameda, San Jose 69 Thoroughfare, Boston 70 Street Lamps, Los Angeles 70 Magnolia Avenue, Riverside, Cal 71 Golden Gate Park, San Francisco 73 Golden Gate Park, San Francisco 73 City Park, San Diego 76 Golden Gate Park, San Francisco 77 Mission Cliff, San Diego 79 Coulter's Pine, San DieGo 80 Caves of La Jolla 82 Live Oak, San Diego 83 Point Loma, San Diego 84 San Diego Mission 85 ToRKEY Pines, San Diego 88 [ viii ] SAN DIEGO A COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR ITS IMPROVEMENT I. Botm CSfttPral fflnnHt&fratuinH " The United States has here, then, a unique corner of the earth without its like in its own vast territory and unparalleled, so far as I know, in the world. . . . Here is a region larger than New England which Tnanufactures its own weather and refuses to import any other." — Charles Dudley Wabnee's View of San Diego. San Diego is indeed unique. Even in Southern California its situation, climate, and scenery make it stand out in permanent attractiveness beyond all other communities. Its resources as a city are in many respects unmatched. The Bay on which it directly fronts is one of the safest and most beauti- ful harbors in the world, — a landlocked body of water more than a score of square miles in area, with a channel deep „ ^. 1 111 1 • -m San Diego s enough to take the largest ships. Jb rom Resources the Bay the land rises gently to the North and East, and on the slopes thus formed the city has been built. Not only the Bay, but every type of scenery, beach and promontory, mesa and canyon, unite in never-ending variety to form a city that is strikingly individual in character and of great beauty. The climate defies description. Dry, fresh, equa- ble, wholly without extremes of heat or cold, it is a factor that must constantly be taken into account in estimating the future or providing for it. Bright, balmy, invigorating weather invites one out-of- [IJ COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR SAN DIEGO doors moie hours of the day and more days in the year than in any other part of the country. Health is almost guaranteed. A disinterested visitor has remarked that, "if nervous prostration is wanted, it must be brought here, and it cannot be relied on to continue long." The scenery is varied and exquisitely beautiful. The great, broad, quiet mesas, the picturesque can- The famous Hotel del Coronado, San Diego. yons, the bold line of distant mountains, the wide hard ocean beaches, the great Bay, its beauty crowned by the islands of Coronado, the caves and coves of La Jolla, the unique Torrey Pines, the lovely Mis- sion Valley, — these are but some of the features of the landscape that should be looked upon as precious assets to be preserved and enhanced. And then the "back country" — hospitable to every sort of [2] SOME GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS tree, shrub, root, grain, and flower — is an inexhausti- ble source of commercial and aesthetic wealth. Notwithstanding its advantages of situation, cli- mate, and scenery, San Diego is to-day neither in- teresting nor beautiful. Its city plan is not thought- ful, but, on the contrary, ignorant and wasteful. It has no wide and impressive business streets, prac- tically no open spaces in the heart of the city, no worthy sculpture. Aside from the big undevel- oped City Park, it has no pleasure grounds, parkways nor boulevards, no ^ large, well-arranged playgrounds. It Lacks has no public buildings excellent in design and location. It has done little or nothing to secure for its people the benefits of any of its great natural resources, nor to provide those con- comitants without which natural resources are so often valueless. Fortunately, the public-spirited men and women of San Diego are preparing to act in time. They realize in general what the city lacks, what it needs, and the opportunity and responsibility of the present generation. The problem, therefore, resolves itself into a call for a sympathetic study of the city as it is, a reasonable estimate of its future, and a service of art and skill that will not only provide that degree of convenience and beauty that must soon be re- garded as indispensable to city life, but will also recognize in the form of its provision the peculiar opportunity for joy, for health, for prosperity, that life in Southern California, more especially in San Diego, offers to all. [3] COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR SAN DIEGO To beautify a city means to make it perfect, — perfect as a city, complete in serving a city's pur- poses. San Diego is potentially many-sided. Its harbor places it in the class with San Francisco; its climate and scenery are more attractive than Santa Barbara's; its suburbs may be easily like those of Pasadena and Riverside; its drives and walks may surpass even those of Monterey and Del Monte; and its population and commerce may equal that of Los Angeles. The plans to improve and adorn San Diego must therefore take many things into account. They must be broad, and, considering the promise of the city, liberal and courageous. In this connection how difficult it is to bring before the people of a city a vision of what fifty years' growth, even twenty-five, will make not only possible, but necessary. How little we appear to learn from look- ing back at the growth of population, „ . , the increase of real estate values, the Foresight , • i i • changes m transportation, the enlarge" ment of the civic ideal! Yet fifty years ago the site of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, was a truck patch; the ten acres near Mulberry Bend cost more in 1900 than the eight hundred and more acres of Central Park fifty years earlier; Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, cost hardly a thousand dollars an acre, yet for three acres at its entrance recently pur- chased four hundred thousand dollars had to be paid ; lots in Los Angeles have in a short time advanced from $5,000 to $500,000; twenty-five years ago the present prosperous city of San Diego, with a population of 40,000 or more, was practically non-existent. [4] SOME GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS The application of the foregoing to a growing city is obvious. Action must be taken while it is still relatively easy, or it will certainly be costly and prob- ably inadequate. The present, therefore, is a most propitious time to consider in a frank, clear-headed, and comprehensive manner the future of San Diego. As never before, it seems now to have the oppor- tunity to lay firm hold of its heritage. The construc- tion of the San Diego & Arizona Railroad will at last place it in direct connection with all the corners of the country, and be the shortest route to the East. The water problem is well solved, and in common with other municipalities the people of the city have be- come conscious of the imperative need for large public improvements which in a few years will place San Diego not merely abreast, but beyond many other Californian cities. [6] II. ®Iyf Efjilattntttg of ^an iwgo " The advantages to he gained by the adoption of a compre- hensive scheme are several: it will give due importance to each "field of municipal improvements; it will furnish a nucleus around which public sentiment can crystallize; it will help to realize the unity of our civic life by bringing together the different sections of the city; but, more than all else, it will tend to bring civic order- liness and beauty where otherwise will continue to exist a lack of unity and an absence of dignity and harmony." — From "A City Plan for St. Lotris." There are four general principles of landscape design which are peculiarly applicable to city plan- ning. They are: (1) to conform, so far as possible, to the topography; (2) to use places for what they are naturally most fit; (3) to conserve, develop, and utilize all natural resources, aesthetic as well as commercial; (4) to aim to secure beauty by organic arrangement rather than by mere embellishment or adornment. It is too late to make a plan for San Diego based simply upon a thoughtful recognition of the topog- raphy, and a skilful consideration of the normal needs of city life and the special needs of San Diego. The street system as a system is fixed almost irrevocably, not only in the ^f^ ^ " built-up sections of the city but for ^^ ^^^ p^^^ miles beyond. Acres upon acres have been platted through the energy of real estate agents and others, and lots sold to people now scattered all over the country. No topographical map of [7] f 11C,? 1 Bit" ^^^^vM/kM/M i' gs^ w s s S 2 S m - v? '-■■^ "? f-'^ ' ''^i Mf ' ' ^ ' ciac.vio c J - f^., • ''" ■ J - .pi^ f.l 1 . 1 I f , J tWf > . I - .. .^a..!.-J e;fi3 f ■■■■'-» ^.° .i*:?.? *^'':.''^ '-'^L^ PROMENADE 1^ lIBMll 40' PROMENADS SAN DIEGO BAY PLAN -ni'>~'- 'nn^ SECTION ESPLANADE SAN DIEGO CAL. JOHK NOLEN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT CAMBBIDOE MASS. THE REPLANNING OF SAN DIEGO and more on replanning or remodeling. The beau- tiful cities of Europe, the cities that are constantly taken as illustrations of what modern cities should be, are practically without Jf? ution o .. ., ,/ , .•'^ Cities and exception the result of a picturesque, Replanning accidental growth, regulated, it is true, by considerable common sense and respect for art, but improved and again improved to fit changed conditions and new ideas. It is here that we fall short. Throughout the land there are cities with relatively easy opportunities before them to improve their water fronts, to group their public buildings, to widen their streets, to provide in twentieth century fashion for transportation, and to set aside the areas now considered indispensable for public recreation. And yet most of these cities have until recently stood listless, without the manliness and courage to begin the work that sooner or later must be done. San Diego's opportunity is so open, so apparent, and relatively so easy that it seems unnecessary to point further the application. Every phase of civic improvement is still within its reach. This is its real formative era. The ^^" ^^^? ^ ■ 11 1 PI Opportunity present city is but tlie nucleus ot the future city, and the citizens of to-day have an oppor- tunity to rise to the call of a great and fine con- structive period. [13] III. A iubltr f laza anh CUttttt (Uptttr? " The artistic value of civic centres is evident. They give opportunity for a grandeur of treatment, a harmony of varying structures, and an effective combination of all the arts, that is not afforded by one building or a large number of unrelated build- ings scattered throughout the city. The effect, one may say, increases in geometrical ratio, and arouses civic pride and patri- otism to a marked degree. It only requires a little foresight, a well-considered plan, and a determination not to be swayed by interests which rnay wish, for selfish reasons, to secure the loca- tion of buildings elsewhere than where planned. The entire scheme does not need to be com,pleted at the moment, but, as build- ings are needed and as funds are .secured, the project may be pushed; only there must be a broad, comprehensive plan to follow,-^ a goal to be reached." — "Civic Abt in Northern Europe," MiLO R. Maltbie. The present generation has also a rare oppor- tunity to secure for San Diego a beautiful and per- manent grouping of its public buildings. The City Hall is obviously temporary, the County Court House is soon to be rebuilt, and a Federal Building is non- existent, — the government housing its post-oflSce in rented rooms of a very plain character. In select- ing sites for the above-mentioned head- quarters for city, county, and nation, Methods of not to speak of other public and semi- o^^'^f" public buildings which a rapidly grow- pubiic ing city of wide and varied life must Buildings soon demand, three courses of action are open to the authorities: (1) the sites may be chosen [15] COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR SAN DIEGO one after another in this part of the town or that, as opportunity offers and influence determines; (2) a certain section of the city may be recognized as con- venient and appropriate in general for the location of public buildings, and the various edifices placed in or near it, facing the streets in the ordinary way, as buildings devoted to business or commerce do; The Court House, San Diego. Contrast the architecture and the setting with the Denver State Capitol. (3) the buildings may be grouped in some well- related, compact, and agreeable fashion around a public plaza or other open space. The first method has been all too common in the United States. On every hand there are illustra- tions of it. It is the result of thoughtlessness, or of disregard of public interest, public beauty, or even public honesty. It has no merit, no justification. The second method may result in a considerable [16] A PUBLIC PLAZA AND CIVIC CENTRE degree of convenience, and in small towns, where picturesque rather than formal effects are appropri- ate, may produce interest and charm. This method is illustrated in several of the recent proposals for the location of the new San Diego Post-office. The third method, by no means new or untried, is, how- ever, the best, and well adapted to a city like San A PLEASANT VIEW OF THE DeNVER StaTE Capitol as seen pbom Sherman Street, a WIDE street with A 12-rOOT PARKING STRIP ON EITHER SIDE. Diego. It provides adequately for the convenient despatch of public business, and at the same time contributes to the appearance of the city that dignity, impressiveness, and beauty which should be consid- ered indispensable. Directly, it gives to all, citizens and strangers, a civic centre of unfailing delight. Indirectly, it arouses civic pride and civic love, and furnishes a telling example of what true art can do to promote serviceableness and beauty in daily life, [17] COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR SAN DIEGO — an example that must inevitably influence other public and private enterprises. Unfortunately, the men who laid out San Diego did not emulate the work of Penn in Philadelphia, nor Oglethorpe in Savannah, in the matter of open spaces. In the heart of the city only a single small area, a so-called Plaza, but 80 feet by 200, was set ,'*;i?i?ps''^raF^ iMI^jHa _i ■>'»■. U/j^~~''' ^riliiiBiiiilliB^r~ ■~^'^~~'.' ■■»'- ..i ^[-■■^fm':ll^^^ The Plaza at Fourth and D Streets, San Diego. aside for public use. This is located close to the centre of the business section, south of D Street, between Third and Fourth. It is very natural to consider this little Plaza in connection with the location of the proposed city buildings, and some interesting and public-spirited plans have been of- fered for consideration. The objections, however, are serious. In the first place the Plaza is Plaza altogether inadequate. It is too small to serve as an effective foreground to the buildings which now surround it, which are of [18] A PUBLIC PLAZA AND CIVIC CENTRE "but medium size. The larger public edifices con- templated would cramp and narrow it to such a degree that it would appear little more than a widened street. Then the property in its neighbor- hood is now too expensive for public purchase. The cost appears to be practically prohibitive. Any fine ■effect would require the ownership of an additional ^¥^1 The Plaza, Madrid, Spain. area to piece out the present Plaza and the front- ages on at least two sides. Finally, the construction of a number of large public buildings so close to Fifth and D Streets, the centre of retail interests, would be likely to limit in an undesirable way the natural extension of the business section and inter- fere with the unity and sequence that that section should possess. Although these are serious, perhaps insuperable objections to the construction of public buildings around the old Plaza, it is necessary to find for them [19] COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR SAN DIEGO a location that is central, and, if possible, on D Street. For D Street is now, and always will be, a thorough- fare of great importance. It has a width of 125 feet from the Bay to Third Street, while other busi- ness streets have but 80 feet; it is the ProDosed direct connection from the railroad station to the heart of the city; it is in other ways clearly destined for important develop- D Street, San Diego. The building marked "Santa Rosa" stands on the block pro- posed FOR A Public Plaza. ment, and with the proposed improvement of the Bay Front its functions will be greatly increased. Therefore, I definitely recommend the following: — (1) The purchase of the block, approximately 200 by 260 feet, extending from D to C Streets and from Front to First Streets, and its development as a Public Plaza. (2) The purchase of the blocks from D to E and C to B, and portions of other adjoining blocks as [20] © © © O O ©Ugi 0©e@©© 3ar i ©@gn9 ©©>e^ r£^t2¥© sagnj 'L Jl l|r'" " si^3 J K 31 ©@^€^^&© PUBLIC PLAZA AND CIVIC CENTRE FOR SAN DIEGO The proposed Plaza is in the centre, above it the City Hall, to the left the court house, to the right the post-oppice, and BELOW THE Opera House. K o ; fa ill O fa fa w o S o O fa CQ d w o g ^ * M fa fa «< OK fa U (X! fa fa S t> H O H Cm (8 fa COMPREHENSIVE PI>AN FOR SAN DIEGO indicated on the plan, the unused property to be resold later under restrictions that will insure the desired character to the surroundings and give the people of the city a share in the increased values. (3) The grouping around this Plaza, Spanish fash- ion, of the three public buildings under considera- tion, the City Hall, the Court House, the Federal Building; also the proposed Academy of Music, and perhaps the Chamber of Commerce Building. As an illustration of the opportunity that the adoption of these recommendations would afford, I submit a ground plan and a perspective sketch. These drawings, of course, are not intended for execution. But they are sufficiently definite to test the validity of the recommendations and to illustrate the ideas that prompt them. Other and different groupings of the buildings might have even greater advantages. It will be seen by the plan submitted that it is proposed to have the City Hall face the new plaza and occupy the block from Front to First Streets. This is a good site for the city build- ing. The best situation, perhaps, for _. . p the Post-office and Federal Building would be on First Street from D Street to C Street, because of its direct connection with D Street and proximity to the business section. South of the Plaza there would be created an ad- mirable site for an Academy of Music and Opera House, a needed addition to San Diego's attractions as a city of culture much visited by pleasure-seeking tourists at all seasons of the year. The Chamber of Commerce Building might be located at the corner [24] A PUBLIC PLAZA AND CIVIC CENTRE of First and D Streets, opposite the Post-office and Academy of Music, and some similar office building at First and C Streets. This plan, it must be agreed, has much in its favor. The general situation selected is appropriate. It is near the permanent centre of the city, and each building fronts either on D Street, the Plaza, ■ The Post-office, Chicago, showing crowded appearance of public buildings and congestion of streets. or both. One block is already publicly owned, and the others are at present occupied by buildings which in themselves have no value whatever. The space available for the buildings of the city, county, and national governments, is adequate, and the property remaining for sale might, ^^ ^^^^ if the project were handled with wis- pj^^^ dom, afford sufficient funds to cover the total cost of all the land retained for public use. [25] COMPREHENSIVE I»LAN FOR SAN DIEGO The ends of convenience, of harmonious grouping, and of effective beauty, are served to perfection. Easy would it be to name cities in California and in other parts of the country that would leap eagerly if such an opportunity were offered them, — cities that, unfortunately, have settled parts of this problem in such a way that even a reasonably satisfactory provision for a well -conceived Civic Centre now ap- pears impossible; [26] fe ^ B e w h) H K H Iz; >^ rn ■» o a 03 z Ei^ o >J H ■< 5 X H r/( H « Q O ^ M O « W 5! rt ?^ H f^ < 5 ffi M a O H s K-i H - H O S PS i^ Q O z o « « w H ■< K z COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR SAN DIEGO this width of 350 feet, reserve 50 feet for increase in railroad facilities, 30 feet for a street facing the Characteristjc treatment op the Italian Lakes suggestive for certain portions of the San Diego water front. railroad, 150 feet for a building block, and 120 feet for a water front esplanade (20 feet for sidewalks, 50 feet for driveway, 10 feet for parking strip, and [34] THE GREAT BAY FRONT 40 feet for promenade). The supreme importance of commercial interests should be frankly recognized, and the division between the section devoted pri- marily to business and that to pleasure would come at E Street. It would not, however, be a sharp line, and the form of development North of E Street would be so simple and so unpretentious that there would be no lack of harmony. The value of the building block would be threefold : it would effectively screen the railroads from the water front, it would furnish a firm and impressive frontage, and it would provide a considerable sum of money, perhaps enough to pay the entire cost of the Bay Front improvements. Re- liable estimates obtained some years ago under the direction of the Board of State Harbor Commission- ers placed the cost of the sea wall and thoroughfare complete at $65,000 per section of one thousand feet. Allowing liberally for the increased cost of such work to-day, it still appears that the improvements could be carried out at an expense within the means of the city, or, as in the case of Boston with the Back Bay, at a handsome profit. The Board of Harbor Commissioners has pointed out in its report that "very favorable natural conditions exist for the substantial and economical construction of a sea wall and thoroughfare of the kind contemplated. The bottom of the bay along the course of the located line is hard and comparatively level, the average rise and fall of the tide is but five feet, and there is no injury from rough seas to be guarded against." The plan looks to the development of commercial facilities, wharves, docks, and piers South of E Street, [35] ■ - [ >/ '** :■■■ "■, ' r ,■ ■;.■ , ■ ■,^. . . ■ ► ■'„,, ".'■ * i \. m 1 t^K^ 'Iki fli |S iP mMMvmiismM ric ■ --' ' ■ H ■■ 5 ^' J B^ ^f % 4> '^ o & o cfi z o I en Q ■< o « z 2; o O & E-i 2; o o H w a H la & o o o w m ■< Pd K ?'P i- '.^^^^HRJI^Hh 1 1 ■ ': '■•- ■ 'I \ . - -J ^:; .1 i" ■ _ ffl|B ... ,.^^ 1' '^f^^^Hl ; 1 t. ■ ; • ■ ■; ' 1 4. 'i^tt^^^fl ! 1 - ;' [■■■ S^ "^-V^^M^^^^^^^IHRmI^H *^': ''18 ■ ■ . - , 1 ■ 1 X i 'li'Jll ' '^ '^d , lis O o COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR SAN DIEGO extending farther and farther as business demands, and pleasure facilities of a simple order North of E Street. The foot of D Street would be emphasized by the development of a Bay Plaza 300 feet by 500 feet, but the main development of recreation and artistic interests would centre at the foot of Date and Elm Streets, nearer the residential sections and the big City Park. North of Date Street the line of the Bay front might properly be a graceful swinging curve, similar in character to that at Rio de Janeiro. The people of San Diego will do well if they recognize to-day that the two great central recreation features of the city, now and always, are the City Park of 1,400 acres, and the Bay Front, and that the value of both will be increased many-fold if a suitable connecting link, parkway, or boulevard, can be developed, bringing them into direct and pleasant relation. To realize this purpose and pro- vide a form of recreation indispen- . '" „ sable to the central part of San Diego, Dct^vccn Bsy ... ... c? ' and City Park ^^ ^* ^^ ^^ fulfil its mission as a pleasure city of the first order, I recommend the acquisition by the public authorities of the dozen small blocks between Date and Elm Streets, and stretching from the entrance to the City Park west to the Bay Front. Here, on this hillside, at com- paratively small expense, can be developed what I have called, after the custom in Spanish and Spanish- American cities, "The Paseo," a pleasant promenade, [40] THE PASEO an airing place, a formal and dignified approach to the big central park, free from grade railroad cross- ings. In itself this Paseo might possess great beauty, each block offering an opportunity for special design, and yet the whole strip brought into harmony and unity. Formal flower-beds, pergolas, terraces, would appear from block to block, and from the City Park The foot op Date Street, San Diego, the pro- posed SITE FOR Casino, Art Gallery, and Aquarium. to the Bay the cheerful and enlivening influence of water in jets, basins, and cascades would give the final touch of beauty. It is obvious that the front- ages along the Paseo on Date and Elm Streets would be of great value for handsome residences or semi-public buildings, increasing perceptibly the city's annual receipts from taxes. Recalling the recent experience of San Francisco, the value of the Paseo as a fire-break, extending from the City Park to the Bay Front, might alone justify its inclusion as an essential feature of the new city plan. [41] ■piB ■ ^^^^^^^^^BK^titA-^^B ^H^^^^l ^H ^■^ 1 ^^^JH^f -' 1 ^^^^^^^^^^Vfr ' a H^^^^^^^Ri . i /^ '"^iwPBBB {^^^■vLji^mMn^^BI^V^^B^^BAHi^^H^B^SH^H^^^MI ^^^^^^^BSf "ft V*' -■ SI M iB :W^ f^ '■'t^-Sl.^^^^ ill ^ ^^^Btiit Ikh Ki^'jBjp|j|r -* i K 1 S^^i^^SM .^ ' - ~ISll" - w ^P?^' '' " , ■, : ■;? ^"^Vs^'^> _ ^!'J"*; ■ i«t ' --=1 ji^- _,.. ^.; ■' ^ "^'^ : :4-:- 3 ''si ■ , . . VI. ^tvMs nnh lo«lpt»arJ»0 " The body's healthy glow comes from good circulation. So it is with the big dtyi A good circulatory apparatus is necessary to its general vitality and to its beauty. The traffic problem is to-day a surprise to people in all important centres. They can- not understand why it should be ever looming bigger than the amplest provision made for it." — Geohge E. Hooker, Sec- retary TO THE Special Street Railway Commission, Chi- cago. Our cities will remain commonplace, congested, and ugly until we understand better the place and function of the street, — where it should go, how it should be divided, what it should look like, and the need for differentiation between one street and an- other. Of the seven hundred streets of Seville it is said that there is scarcely one which has not a personal character of its „ ^'^^ .^" , _-.„. ^ , ,.„. Function of own. Ditterent streets nave as ditier- ^.^^ street ent functions as different buildings. Unless they are carefully located arid designed to fulfil these various functions, there must inevi- tably be incalculable loss and waste. We have curved streets where they should be straight, straight where they should be curved, narrow where they should be broad, occasionally broad where they should be narrow, and no street connection at all where one is imperatively needed. We have streets at too frequent intervals and streets too far apart. Illustrations could readily be given of each of these mistakes in street planning. Then, when the loca- [57] COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR SAN DIEGO tion, the grade, the width, and the distance from one another are right, the street is undeveloped, lacking those features and fixtures which are essen- tial to its proper appearance and agreeable use. i It is not possible to make hard-and-fast regula- tions as to the streets for cities in general, nor even for one city in particular. Local conditions call D Street, San Diego, looking East toward the U. S. Grant Hotel. for ever-varying local modifications, if the designer is to do his work well. Still, we may take a long step forward if we can come to understand the need and the desirability of differentiation. Therefore, I sub- mit for the consideration of the com- ppropna e j^ittg^ gyg types of street treatment. Arrangements ^^^ ^^ &xed forms for street improve- ment, but as illustrations of what seem to me after careful study would be appropriate general types for San Diego. These are: (1) The Normal Residence Street, which is now usually 80 [58] w ^ B O ^ n ^ S ^ « la ^ & PS ^ ; 5 O K o o M si « i!^ Q W i « 9 ca W o ■< H 9 S U K W o " 3 ■< ■! > W Hi & O cq « .-.Bsiswe*.^ ^^^":v ^^^^'^^iS^*^^-^^' " The Flower Market, Brussels. San Diego has an opportunity to have an OPEN-AIR FlOAVER MaRKET THE YEAR HOUND TO GIVE COLOR TO THE LIFE OF THE streets, and to use flowers with prodigality in connection with residences and business buildings. roses and poinsettias in bloom out of doors at Christmas would be unquestionable evidences of the mildness and delight of the climate. STREETS AND BOULEVARDS fares, 150 feet in width, like the one at Coronado, to meet the demands that transportation will soon place upon the city. (6) By making the more important boulevards, the routes of which were well selected by the recently appointed committee, 200 feet in width. (7) By encouraging or requiring a more intelligent The Alameda, a 100-foot street, connecting Santa Clara and San Jose. A useful illus- tration FOR outlying sections OF San Diego. subdivision of the suburban tracts which are now so rapidly being added to the city plan. In the improvement of established cities no changes are so difficult, none so important, as those in streets. They are difficult because of the expense and the great number of interests involved. But the gains are so decided that a city should face the difficulties with courage and generosity. In the unbuilt sections it would be comparatively easy to secure a more [69] An illustration of a wide Thoroughfare with cabs, the kind that should run out from San Diego in every important direction. Street Lamps, Los Angeles. STREETS AND BOULEVARDS logical street system, and the practice is already turned in that direction. As a matter of fact, the proposed arrangement would occupy but little more The so-called Magnolia Avenue, Riverside, California, WITH ITS EuCALYPTS AND PaLMS. ThIS DRIVE IS ABOUT 150 feet WIDE AND 16 MILES LONG: ITS INFLUENCE ON THE PROS- PERITY AND DEVELOPMENT OF RiVERSIDE SHOULD BE AN EX- AMPLE TO San Diego. Compare with it such an avenue AS El Cajon. ground than the present : it would simply be distrib- uted with more discrimination. Few cities in the United States have a more roman- tic history and situation than San Diego, and it is to be regretted that they have not expressed them- selves in the street names. Instead of D Street, Fifth Street, and similar colorless names, we might honor the discoverer of the Bay, the sturdy fathers [71] COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR SAN DIEGO who established the missions, the pioneers in settling the modern city, the heroines of its „ romances which have become part of Names . . ^ . our literature; or we might give some happy recognition to the topographical situation of certain streets, especially as they express themselves in the soft words, of the Spanish language. Southern California is full of color, of picturesqueness, of character, and it is a pity not to embody these quali- ties in the names that designate the public streets and avenues of the city. No method of honoring those to whom honor is due is more available, more appropriate, more enduring. [72] VII. A ^^Btm of ParkH "Even in thy desert what is like to thee ? Thy very weeds are beautiful, thy waste More rich than other climes' fertility." ym^pr;T7vmtm^^mm^>^x>m^ fe>ii<-,-„-.. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^■nt^ ^^^^i^ou I*'" Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, thirty years ago. San Diego early expressed its belief in parks by setting aside, close to the centre of the town, 1,400 acres of natural can- yon and mesa as a City Park. This great reservation for the people was secured by a simple resolution introduc- ed into the City Council, stating that Pueblo Lots, num- bers so and so, "be a park," illustrating how easy is the acquisition of park land when action is taken ear- ly enough. But until four or five years ago nothing was done to fit this property for public use. A complete plan was then pre- GoLDEN Gate Park, San Francisco, pared and adopted, To-day. and its execution [73] KEY 1 The City Park Z Th« Buy Front 3 Point Laom« 4 Beach Reservation 5 La Jolla 6 Sotedad Mountain 7 Miteion Cliff 8 Fort Stockton 9 The Torrey Pines 4^ DIAGRAM OF PARK SYSTEM A SYSTEM OF PARKS begun. It is not the purpose of this report to inquire into the justification of this park, — -the wisdom of with- drawing permanently from use so large a tract in the heart of the city, of separating so completely the business and residence sections, of blocking trans- portation for twenty-two squares each way; nor to estimate the inevitable cost for construction and maintenance in connection with such a park property, so located. These are questions, however, that the city authorities must consider. It may be advisable, also, to consider the relation of the present park boundaries to the property immediately surrounding it and the extension of the park to Fifth Street, from Date to Grape Streets, so as to give it a better frontage and approach. But in a city like San Diego, stretching for more than twenty miles up and down the coast, with an almost infinite variety of scenery, no single park is suflScient. A system of parks is unquestionably demanded. Such a system can be secured more easily than in any other city that I know of. It should include characteristic, inexpen- sive, almost ready-made parks in every part of the city, and form a unique called for series of pleasure-grounds. The at- tractions from which to select are so great that choice is embarrassing. The following have been selected as most important, and are respectfully recommended to the consideration of the Civic Improvement Committee. (1) Of course the nucleus of the new park system would be the City Park above referred to, and the [75] '^■■^ f| lfc,_ ».' »■ ,.-v ' J^^^l m [!§#• Est* ^^s^^»^HH|^^| H ^^^^^^^^^^Ir^ «" r^ Views in the City Park, San Diego. A SYSTEM OF PARKS people are to be congratulated on its possession. It is a magnificent tract of typical California country, especially satisfying in canyon scenery. From its heights superb views can be had of the Bay, Coro- nado, and the Pacific Ocean to the West, the glorious mountain ranges of San Bernardino, San Jacinto, and the Cuyamacas to the East, while below lies the HI ^ The Spreckels Temple of Music, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. business section of the city, and to the North, on the heights, the picturesque groupings of bungalows and other homelike California residences. This park also contains land which is suitable in character and location for golf, tennis, and a large general playfield. As in the case of streets, already referred to in this report, it would seem that the park might receive some more distinctive name than the "City" Park. The two names suggested — "Cabrillo," the dis- coverer of the Bay of San Diego, and " Canyado," [77] COMPREHENSIVE PLAN EOR SAN DIEGO meaning little canyon — are both unusually happy. Perhaps the latter would be more significant for the City Park, the former being reserved for the Bay Front Parkway or Boulevard. (2) The improved Bay Front would virtually be a park, and it illustrates what is true of many of the proposed parks for San Diego, — ^little more is needed than a view-point, a foreground to a picture. Nature herself, will supply the picture, and maintain it without cost. The Bay Front Boulevard can with profit be extended all the way to Point Loma, and North and West of Date Street it will probably be possible to fill in a much wider strip. (3) A physical feature of value, the beauty of which it is impossible to overestimate, is Point Loma. This picturesque promontory, stretching out six on seven miles into the sea, with the Bay, Coro- nado, and the city always visible on one side, and the ocean on the other, is a feature of incalculable value for recreation purposes. The United States gov- ernment owns and occupies the end of the promon- tory, but the city should not rely entirely upon the national government's reservation. It should itself possess at least enough land on Point Loma to command at all times the marvellous view that can be enjoyed from there. "This site," writes Charles Dudley Warner in "Our Italy," "commands one of the most remarkable views in the accessible civilized world, one of the three or four really great prospects which the traveller can recall, astonishing in its immensity, interesting in its peculiar details. The general features are the great ocean, blue, flecked [78] A SPECIMEN Coulter's Pine in San Diego's "back country.' A height of 150 to 200 feet. These trees reiach A SYSTEM OF PARKS with sparkling, breaking wavelets, and the wide, curving coast line, rising into mesas, foot-hills, ranges on ranges of mountains, the faintly seen snow peaks of San Bernardino and San Jacinto to the Cuyamaca and the flat top of Table Mountain in Mexico. Directly under us on one side are the fields of kelp, where the whales come to feed in winter; and on the other is a point of sand on Coronado Beach, where a flock of pelicans have assembled after their day's fishing, in which occu- pation they are the rivals of the Portuguese. The perfect crescent of the ocean beach is seen, the singu- lar formation of North and South Coronado Beach, the entrance to the harbor along Point Loma, and the spacious inner bay, on which lie San Diego and National City, with low lands and heights out- side, sprinkled with houses, gardens, orchards, and vineyards. The near hills about this harbor are varied in form and poetic, in color, one of them, the conical San Miguel, constantly recalling Vesuvius. Indeed, the near view, in color, vegetation, and form of hills, and extent of arable land, suggests that of Naples, though on analysis it does not resemble it. If San Diego had half a million of people, it would be more like it, but the Naples view is limited, while this stretches away to the great mountains that overlook the Colorado desert. It is certainly one of the loveliest prospects in the world, and worth long travel to see." (4) It is strange that San Diego should have no Beach Reservation. With all its miles of ocean frontages, including many hard and beautifully [81] COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR SAN DIEGO curved beaches, the city owns none. If only one beach were secured, probably the sand spit south of "Pacific Beach" would be the best; but I recom- mend that the Park System include, if possible, a number of beaches. Experience in Boston and elsewhere has demonstrated their value and popu- larity beyond all question. On Sundays or holidays Caves of La Jolla — a landscape feature of the San Diego coast. Revere Beach, Boston, is sometimes visited by more than a hundred thousand pleasure-seekers. Coro- nado Island and North Island have beaches which should be considered. In fact, the whole of North Island, now quite undeveloped, although privately owned, would make a public pleasure-ground un- equalled even in San Diego. (5) La Jolla is practically a village within the [82] A SYSTEM OF PARKS city of San Diego, and it is one of the most romantic and alluring spots on the coast. "EI Nito" (the nest) it has been aptly called, because it seems to hang, like the sea-gull's nest, between the sea and the sky. The picturesque and famous caves, the witches' cauldron, the biological station, and other attrac- tions have made this already a resort within a resort. M fe ML^^g ^H ^^ -^^S^^mC^ if rvr-Bfe ^_^^^m ... J i _M:::„-^'is^' *■ ■iv^Jjrv'd'i . ■'' '': ' :-i . ^■'^- -:--p :, ,::r:^-^fp/,4;u,-...,J,. San Diego Mission, the oldest on the Pacific Coast. Fortunately, the city now controls a well-located piece of property at La Jolla. It needs but to add slightly to it, and give the park an unified treatment. (6) Soledad Mountain is practically a part of La Jolla. It is a natural site for a park, so located as to be of little value for private use, while the view from its top, easily reached, commands snow-capped mountains, valleys, plains, and sea. (7) A view of the Mission Valley — broad and rest- ful, with the foot-hills at one end and the Bay at the other — is one of the landscape features that the [85] COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR SAN DIEGO proposed Park System should unquestionably in- clude. This view is easily secured from almost any one of the cliffs that jut out on the South side, the city side, of the Valley. One of these points ought to be had at little cost. Indeed, real estate condi- tions are such in this and in other parts of San Diego that it is not unreasonable to expect that, with a sound public policy once adopted, much of the land needed for the parks and parkways would be pre- sented to the city. The beautifully situated Old Mission itself, the first established in California, is a landmark of historic interest that should be preserved at any cost. (8) In "Old Town," near and including Fort Stockton, the city owns property which simply needs completing to form another centre in this wonderful Park System. Here, again, there is joy and inspira- tion to be had in superb views, and added interest from historic and romantic associations. (9) The final feature, the Torrey Pines, would form a unique addition to the Park System, one that the city could not on any account afford to omit. An excellent description of this pine has been given by Mr. T. S. Van Dyke in his book on South- ern California.* It is probably the rarest tree our *" Torrey's Pine is Kmited to a few square miles upon the table-lands along the coast of San Diego County, some twenty miles above the Bay of San Diego, the only place in the world where it has yet been found. It is a dwarf-pine, seldom over thirty-five feet high, with bright green needles, four or five inches long, clustered in thin bunches. . . . Unlike all the other pine-nuts of California, this has a shell as hard as a filbert, with a large, full kernel as sweet as that of a pecan-nut or chestnut and entirely free from the slightest flavor of pine. These [86] A SYSTEM OP PARKS earth has ever produced, and by restoring the growth near Del Mar, in the northern part of the city, a park reservation of singular interest would be se- cured. Connect this system of parks by the boulevards and parkways already planned, develop it naturally, simply, harmoniously, and then confidently invite comparison with it of any park system in the world. It would not be expensive to acquire, to construct, to maintain: it would not be extensive in acreage; but because of the range and grandeur of the natural scenery that it embraces 1^ °°^ and commands, and because of the g^^^ Dieeo rich vegetation and the succession of fine days, month after month, that San Diego's climate guarantees, it would surpass in recreative value any provision that the people of a modern city have yet succeeded in making. It would give to the citizen health, joy, and more abundant life, and to the city itself wealth and enduring fame. trees seem to thrive best in the dry, rocky clifiFs about three or four hundred feet above the sea. A few, protected by the inaccessible natiu"e of their home, still look out upon the broad ocean." [87] The Picturesque Torrey Pines, San Diego. It is proposed to make the natural growth of THESE Pines a feature of the Park System. VIII. g»ummarg To sum up, the more important recommendations herewith embodied and illustrated are briefly as fol- lows : — (1) To purchase for a Public Plaza the block from P to C Streets and from Front to First. (2) To form a Civic Centre around this Plaza by some such grouping of public buildings as outlined. (3) To build a sea wall, fill in the Bay Front as suggested, and improve it for njen^Ttions the purposes of commerce and recreation. (4) To construct "The Paseo," a pan-handle to the City Park, and so connect the Bay and the park. (5) To establish at the foot of Date and Elm Streets a centre for the more artistic forms of pleas- ure-making. (6) To improve the railroad and .water approaches to the city., (7) To open, ventilate, and beautify the city by iiicreasing the number of small "squares" and open spaces. (8) To provide ample playgrounds for the use of children. (9) To display more differentiation in the location and treatment of streets and boulevards. (10) To es.tablish a system of parks to include the City Park, the Bay Front, Point Loma, a Beach [89] • COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR SAN DIEGO Reservation, La JoUa, Soledad Mountain, Mission Cliff, Fort Stockton, and the Torrey Pines. These recommendations may appear to present a heavy task for a city the size of San Diego ; yet, after careful consideration and a comparison with the programs and achievements of other cities, I be- lieve the proposed undertakings are all of a reason- able nature. When they are looked at from the point of view of twenty-five years hence, so far as that can be brought before the imagination, they wUl in many respects be considered inadequate. No city regrets its acquisition of parks, but many cities regret their failure to act in time. While San Diego has not yet a large population, it is steadily growing, and there isn't a citizen with- out faith in its future. That faith must now express itself in action, for it is well known that public im- provements requiring the acquisition of large prop- erty must precede population: otherwise they are - impossible. A comprehensive and San Diego practicable plan is under considera- tion. It will take months to work it out even on paper, and years to execute it. But now is the time to adopt a policy and actually begin work on a far-reaching scheme the result of which, I believe, will surpass our fondest dreams. The funds necessary for these improvements, while large, need not be excessive: they must be provided largely by bond issues, giving future generations the opportunity to share in the creation as well as the enjoyment of a more convenient, prosperous, and attractive cily. After all, the greatest benefits [90] SUMMARY will be theirs. Such expenditures are really invest- ments, and the dividends steadily in- crease. The experience of every city _°^ ° , .„ 1 1 p 1 • •/ » Proposed illustrates the truth oi this statement, imnrovements Private philanthropy can also be con- fidently counted upon to make its contribution. But the success of the proposed work will depend not so much upon money as upon forethought, system, wise planning, and public-spirited enterprise. Finally, let me say that with suitable approaches by land and water, a broad Esplanade on the Bay Front, a fine Plaza in the heart of the city, a dignified yet simple treatment of D Street, a liberal and impressive grouping of public buildings in ample grounds, a series of carefully designed playgrounds, a great sys- tem of parks well connected by boulevards, — all this with its God-given scenery and climate, — San Diego will be able to point with pride to its priceless public possessions, and feel sure that by timely action it has secured to its citizens forever a glorious heritage and advantages of inestimable worth. [91] APPENDIX ILLUSTRATIVE EXTRACTS 1. SAN DIEGO " This individuality of the town is an important factor. It is the most precious thing the city has, and there must be no destruction of that in the replanning. Rather, in so far as the expression of the city is worthy, the new plans should empha- size it. The first thing which is looked for by him who ade- quately approaches the problem of city planning is, then, that intangible something which the city says, which is the secret of its own peculiar charm among cities. And when he has found this, it tempers his whole recasting of the city; subtly, unconsciously, it affects his every scheme." — City-planning number of " Charities," Charles Mulford Robinson. "Here is our Mediterranean. Here is our Italy. It is a Mediterranean without marshes and without malaria, and it does not at all resemble the Mexican Gulf, which we have sometimes tried to fancy was like the classic sea that laves Africa and Europe. Nor is this region Italian in appearance, though now and then some bay with its purple hills running to the blue sea, its surrounding mesas and canons blooming in semi-tropical " luxuriance, some conjunction of shore and mountain, some golden color, some white light and sharply defined shadows, some refinement of lines, some poetic tints in violet and ashy ranges, some ultramarine in the sea, or deli- cate blue in the sky, will remind the traveller of more than one place of beauty in Southern Italy and Sicily. It is a Medi- terranean with a more equable climate, warmer winters and cooler summers, than the North Mediterranean shore can offer; it is an Italy whose mountains and valleys give almost every variety of elevation and temperature. [95] COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR SAN DIEGO " But it is our commercial Mediterranean. The time is not distant when this corner of the United States will produce in abundance, and year after year without failure, all the fruits and nuts which for a thousand years the civilized world of Europe has looked to the Mediterranean to supply. We shall not need any more to send over the Atlantic for raisins, Enghsh walnuts, almonds, figs, olives, prunes, oranges, lemons, limes, and a variety of other things which we know commercially as Mediterranean products. We have all this luxury and wealth at our doors, within our limits. The orange and the lemon we shall still bring from many places; the date and the pine- apple and the banana will never grow here except as illustra- tions of the climate, but it is difficult to name any fruit of the temperate and semi-tropic zones that Southern California can- not be relied on to produce, from the guava to the peach. . . . "The climate is most agreeable the year through. There are no unpleasant months, and few unpleasant days. The eucalyptus grows so fast that the trimmings from the trees of a small grove or highway avenue will in four or five years fur- nish a family with its firewood. The strong, fattening alfalfa gives three, four, five, and even six harvests a year. Nature needs little rest, and, with the encouragement of water and fertilizers, apparently none. But all this prodigaUty and easi- • ness of life detracts a little from ambition. The lesson has been slowly learned, but it is now pretty well conned, that hard work is as necessary here as elsewhere to thrift and indepen- dence. The difference between this and many other parts of our land is that nature seems to work with a man, and not against him." — "Our Italy," Charles Dudley Warner. "The climate of San Diego is an important factor in its replanning. It is a dry, marine climate with few fogs and no heavy winds. The temperature has exceeded 90 degrees but twenty-two times in thirty-five years. Five times in the history of the city has the temperature touched 32 degrees, but has never fallen lower. The average daily range is 14 degrees with a mean variability of only 2 degrees. The difference between [96] ILLUSTRATIVE EXTRACTS the summer average and the winter average is 13 degrees. The photographic sunshine recorder which has been installed seventeen years, shows an average of but three days each year without sunshine." — From Secretary, Chamber of Commerce. Record of the building permits issued in San Diego during the last six years. An indication of the growth of the city and the need to anticipate the future by providing for public parks, etc., in advance of settlement. 1901 $123,285 1902 438,140 1903 710,123 1904 914,967 1905 .... 1,188,720 1906 2,761,285 — From the " San Diego Union." "Competition between cities is becoming keener all the time as transportation facilities increase. If one city makes itself more inviting than its neighbor it is bound to attract more people. A city, after all, is a great business establishment in which thousands of stockholders are interested. Its street plan must be convenient and attractive, its buildings must be architecturally beautiful, and it must furnish its residents and visitors the same comforts and conveniences which its neighbors can supply, if it expects to hold its rank among progressive urban centres." — From "A City Plan for St. Louis." 2. CITY PLANNING " It is the plain duty of those who for the moment are respon- sible, to make inventory of the natural resources which have been handed down to us, to forecast as well as we may the needs of the future, and so to handle the great sources of our prosperity as not to destroy in advance all hope for the pros- perity of our descendants." — President Roosevelt. [97] COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR SAN DIEGO "In their methods of growth cities conform always to bio- logical laws, all growth being either central or axial. In some cities central growth occurs first and in others axial growth, but all cities illustrate both forms of growth and in air cases central growth includes some axial growth, and axial growth some central growth. Central growth consists of the clustering of utilities around any point of attraction and is based on prox- imity, while axial growth is the result of transportation facilities and is based on accessibility. A continual contest exists be- tween axial growth pushing out from the centre along trans- portation lines and central growth, constantly following and obliterating it, while new projections are being made further out the various axes. The normal result of axial and central growth is a star-shaped city, growth extending first along the main thoroughfares radiating from the centre, and later filling in the parts lying between. The modifications of the shape of cities come chiefly from topography, the lesser influences being an uneven development of some one factor of growth or individual ownership of land." — "Principles of City Land Values," R. M. Hurd. "The existence of sanitary, economic and aesthetic laws which should govern the arrangement of cities, is abundantly proved by the penalties which have so often been paid for their transgression. We cannot plead ignorance in excuse for their violation, and upon us more than any pre-existing nation devolves the duty of their further development and applica- tion. . . . " These few hints as to the appUcation of general principles will serve, I trust, to illustrate my meaning and to prove that the element of beauty in a town as in a private place, must be integral to itself, — the result of architectural arrangement, and the development thereby of whatever attractive features its site may possess or command, and that it is only by the exercise of timely forethought in the preparation of a design that these results can be secured. Subsequent decoration by fine build- ings and works of art wiU of course serve to increase and pro- [98] ILLUSTRATIVE EXTRACTS mote the general effect of magnificence, but such decoration can never render a place beautiful which is not intrinsically so, any more than costly jewelry and elaborate dressing can confer beauty upon an awkward, plain and ungainly person." — "Landscape Architecture," H. W. S. Cleveland. "Modern city planning distinguishes itself from the older practice through the prominence given the artistic motive. That is to say : Just as an artist is able to create the plan of a church or palace that is perfectly adapted to its purposes; just as, in such cases, it is his task to work with a conscientious regard for all demands imposed by necessity, and directly to give his work a worthy development — so artistic city planning is to be understood as that which does not work according to systems, but according to the specific conditions of the case in hand. Not artistry, but the appropriate development of all the advantages that may be, with due regard to the specific problem, is the aim. The artistically creative city planner should seek out all peculiarities of the site, and emphasize them according to their individuality; thereby, whenever possible, reconciling every contradiction between his planning and the aspects of nature. — " German City Planning," Cornelius Ckirlitt. "The wisdom of adopting a general scheme which may be modified in detail as occasion requires, but which will be planned in its general features in advance of urban growth, executed as rapidly as possible and in harmony with which parks will be constructed, monuments erected, public buildings located, and other structures provided, is evidenced by foreign experience. There is continuity and harmony in the various improvements, and the work accomplished by each generation does not need to be undone by a succeeding generation. Instead of conflict, each additional improvement adds far more than indicated by its cost, and the improvements already carried out give tone and character to the new work, which would be lacking if there were no interdependence and if they had been carried out in a haphazard way. Few European cities were [99] COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR SAN DIEGO so fortunate in their early history as to have a well-thought-out plan, and whatever of systematic arrangement has been since introduced is of recent date. . . . "The lesson from all these facts for every American city is the need and wisdom of comprehensive planning upon broad Unes and for decades to come. A Uttle foresight now will yield large dividends in art and economy in the years to come. When Central Park was purchased, for a sum which seemed extravagant at that time, but picayune now, there were plenty of people to condemn the act. The city will never grow to reach this suburban park, they said. That was half a century ago, and now the city pays vastly more for one block upon the East Side for a small park or playground. New York is profiting by this experience. Must other cities follow in her footsteps, or will they see her mistakes and act in time ? " — MUo R. Maiibie. 3. CIVIC CENTRES "The advantages to be derived from a grouping of public and quasi-public buildings are several: First, it furnishes an opportunity for harmoriious treatment and architectural effects which can be secured only by grouping the buildings about,a common court or square. Each building in the group contrib- utes its share to the dignity, beauty, and attractiveness of every other. Unrelated buildings, however imposing they may be in themselves, lose much of their effectiveness by standing alone. Second, the grouping of public buildings will greatly facihtate public business, which means economy to the entire people. Third, they will serve as a splendid example of the advantages to be gained by the proper arrangements of build- ings about an open park space, which will have its influence on all subsequent private as well as public building operations in the city."— "A City Plan for St. Louis." "In one very important respect European cities are far in advance, viz., the combination of small parks and open spaces with sites for public buildings. We are apt to stow away [100] ILLUSTRATIVE EXTRACTS our public buildings among private structures, upon narrow streets and in out-of-the-way places. European cities, upon the other hand, commonly locate their public buildings so as to front upon parks or open places. The attractiveness of the park is thus increased, owing to the presence of beautiful buildings, and its use as a park is not interfered with, but in- stead facilitated and encouraged. The park in turn adds to the beauty of the buildings, as the open area permits it to be viewed from the proper distance and with the proper perspec- tive, which is impossible in a narrow street. . . . "Our smaller American cities, . . . with their future yet unmortgaged, have a free field in a large measure. By work- ing out a scheme large enough for future needs, capable of extension with their growth, and by following it out consistently, r^ardless of the herrings dragged across the trail, they may achieve wonderful results at slight expense. But a well-devised plan for symmetrical grouping is absolutely necessary. No matter how small the city, it must have a few public buildings, and their proper arrangement is as necessary to its highest development as in a metropolitan centre. Indeed, it is even more important, for a metropolis has other charms by which to retain its prestige, but the small city has few to fall back upon, and these must certainly not be neglected if it is to keep its place and not decline. The most attractive city draws the best class of citizens. . . . "The great moral to be drawn from the story of Vienna is that all plans for the development of a city should be prepared far in advance of its needs and steadfastly carried out with such minor changes as new conditions may make necessary. It would cost Vienna an enormous sum, infinitely more than it has, to secure at this moment an area equivalent to that occupied by the Ringstrasse, the adjoining parks, and public buildings. It was doubly fortunate in having such a vast area at its disposal a half-century ago. But the wonder is that such far-seeing men were in oflScial positions and that plans were laid for improvements, the utility of which was not then evi- dent. This moral is applicable to every city, large or small. [101] COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR SAN DIEGO Urban centres grow so rapidly and real estate values increase so enormously that, unless a plan of improvement is early adopted, it soon becomes so expensive that the cost scares many. Nowhere else does a little foresight yield so large returns in public well-being and financial saving." — Milo R. Maltbie. 4. WATER FRONTS " In the long successful future of Detroit the possible differ- ence to the city between a wise and an unwise treatment of the Front will be measurable in millions of dollars, and the present investment of a few thousands in a sufficiently thorough study to set matters moving on the right path is in the nature of an insurance premium at a rate so low that no business corpora- tion would hesitate for an instant to pay it out. Are the people of Detroit so fixed in the short-sighted, hand-to-mouth methods of business, which frontier conditions once forced upon the whole American people, that they cannot learn the lesson which the Trusts are teaching on every hand, — that great and continued success in any big enterprise comes from thorough and unstinted investigation, comprehensive plans, and then steady, unhurried, but firm and undeviating pursuit of the adopted plan or policy?" — "Detroit Report," Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. "Such are the rivalries of trade, and so keen is the struggle for existence, if not for pre-eminence, that the seaports of Bel- gium, Holland, Germany, and England, and, in a lesser way, of France, have been driven to vast outlays for the perfecting of their ports and of their transportation faciUties. Holland built the North Sea Canal and the Rotterdam waterway and the vast docks to hold the commerce of her two ports, and she has been so iibundantly rewarded that still greater docks are planned. The series of docks at Antwerp shows Belgian com- mercial life in great activity, and vast additions to these accom- modations are in contemplation. The marvellous and sudden growth of the German ports and merchant fleets, the building [102] ILLUSTRATIVE EXTRACTS by Germany of the Kiel Canal, the recent great extension of German inland waterways, — all are the expression of the vig- orous life of that country. Indeed, a visit to the Hamburg docks is a sight never to be forgotten. London is a larger port, but its business is scattered and its apparatus seems to a casual observer old-fashioned; but at Hamburg the docks are so continuous, so systematic, so well ordered, so com- pletely fitted with machinery and so filled with vessels from every clime, that it would be difficult to name any place that gives one a more vivid impression of the powers of humanity. In these maritime cities commerce is naturally the foundation of prosperity; but hardly less interesting than the facilities afforded commerce is the way in which care and system and forethought have also been applied to the extension and beauti- fying of these same cities as they become prosperous." — " Cities and Ports," Robert S. Peabody. 5. STREETS "In order properly to accommodate the traffic in business districts of cities of considerable size, a street should have a width of 100 to 140 feet, the whole of it being used for roadway and sidewalks; while residence streets in a city of considerable size, where the houses are set out to the property line and stand close together, should have a width of 60 to 80 feet. Although it is advantageous to have a wide street, it is not necessary, nor even desirable, that the whole width be paved; the central portion may be paved, a strip on either side being reserved for grass plats. The width of the pavement should be adjusted to the amount of traffic, which varies greatly accordingly as the street is a business street, a thoroughfare, or an unfre- quented residence street. " The width of the streets in different cities varies greatly. In the older places in New England and the Central States, many of the streets are only 30 to 40 feet wide ; but in the West a street is seldom less than 60 to 66 feet wide. In both regions the principal streets are often 80 to 100 feet wide, and in many of [103] COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR SAN DIEGO the larger cities the boulevards and great avenues are 150 to 180 feet. The main avenues in Washington are 160 feet wide, in New York 135, and in Boston 180 feet. " At present the regulations governing the width and the arrangement of additions and subdivisions of Washington, a city which has the best street plan of any in America, are: ' No new street can be located less than 90 feet in width, and the leading avenues must be at least 130 feet wide. Intermediate streets 60 feet wide, called places, are allowed within blocks; but full-width streets must be located not more than 600 feet apart.'" — "Roads and Pavements," I. O. Baker. "The most profitable method of subdividing a given piece of land for a given purpose is a matter of judgment upon which different experts will not always agree, and it is only just that the judgment and wishes of the individual land-owners should be given a very large measure of control in such local matters (with the benefit of such expert advice as the city may choose to offer) because any mistake in judgment will seriously affect only the use of the land in question, provided an adequate system of main thoroughfares is first provided for. In the laying out of the latter, however, individual preferences of land-owners and even obvious economies in respect to mere questions of land subdivision and local streets ought to be thrust absolutely aside and the lines laid out with a sole view to directness, con- venience, and economy of transportation during the long future of their usefulness. . . . "Public streets, to take another example, ordinarily serve a multitude of purposes, and so long as they are ad'equate to accommodate most of these ends without serious conflict there is no great need to consider what the controlling purposes should be; but when a comparatively narrow street comes to be occu- pied by car tracks, to be used as a main artery for heavy team- ing, as well as an important connection for carriage driving between a park and a residence district, when the sidewalks come to be thronged with shoppers and at the same time ob- structed with telephone, electric-light, and trolley poles, and [104] ILLUSTRATIVE EXTRACTS with old trees planted to shade a village street of long ago, when the roadway is dug up and obstructed every now and then for pipe-laying or some other underground work, while at the same time the gutters are kept broad and deep to carry a large volume of surface drainage which might be put in pipes, when the sidewalks are boarded in here and there and used as private yards where buildings are in course of erection, and when push-cart men stop beside the curb to sell their goods to the passing crowd, — when such a condition arrives, if not before, some of the uses of the street must come to be regarded as more important than the rest and the street must be altered and regulated to provide reasonably for such dominant ends. If through travel is the important item, then local convenience must not be permitted seriously to hamper it; if, on the other hand, the local business is of great importance, some means must be discovered of handling the through travel so as not to interfere with it; if quick transportation by car and carriage is the dominant consideration, the heavy teaming ought to be required to take another and longer route; and, since people cannot walk in conduits or be conveyed over the roofs like wires, the poles ought to be removed from the sidewalks." — "Balti- more Report," Olmsted Brothers. " In regard to the streets considered as the arteries of a city, there is more agreenient, for all schools believe that it is well to have certain main arteries radiate from civic centres, and others, forming concentric rings, connect these radial lines. In European cities the destruction of ancient ramparts gave great opportunity to form these ring boulevards, and what had previously confined and crowded the city proved its means of gaining space. Few such happy opportunities occur in our cities. After the radial arteries and rings are established, all substantially agree that there should be certain diagonal roads cutting across the polygons and leading to outlets on the outer ring. When this arterial system is finished, the blocks may be cut up as the market demands. The newer school also teaches that main roads may be interesting which curve or wind, and [105] COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR SAN DIEGO that hence it is well not to have the main arteries all straight. They should also reach, at somewhat frequent intervals, ob- jects of interest, such as squares or plazas, and these should each have an individual character." — " Cities and Ports," Robert S. Peabody. 6. PARKS " In scarcely anything to be determined by local public opin- ion acting influentially upon local legislation and administration, is a city likely to be so much made or marred for all its future as in proceedings in prosecution of a park project. . . . "For every thousand dollars judiciously invested in a park the dividends to the second generation of the citizens possessing it will be much larger than to the first, the dividends to the third generation much larger than to the second. . . . " That those in charge of a park work may proceed economi- cally and with profit ; they must be able to proceed with confi- dence, method, and system, steadily, step after step, to carry to completion a well-matured design." — "Franklin Park Re- port," Frederick Law Olmsted. The legislature of Ohio, in 1904, at the solicitation of the City of Cleveland, amended its laws relative to the appropria- tion or condemnation of property by providing that all munici- pal corporations shall have the power to appropriate, enter upon, and hold real estate within their corporate limit, "for establishing esplanades, boulevards, parkways, park grounds and public reservations in, around, and leading to public build- ings and for the purpose of re-selling such lands with reserva- tions in the deeds of such re-sale as to the future use of such lands so as to protect public buildings and their environs, and to preserve the view, appearance, light, air and usefulness of public grounds occupied by public buildings and esplanades and the parkways leading thereto." " The amount collected (in taxes) in twenty -five years on the property of the three wards (the wards contiguous to Central [106] ILLUSTRATIVE EXTRACTS Park), over and above the ordinary increase in the tax value of the real estate in the rest of the city, was $65,000,000, or about $21,000,000 more than the aggregate expense attending and following the establishment of the park up to the present year. Regarding the whole transaction in the light of a real estate speculation alone, the city has $21,000,000 in cash over and above the outlay; and acquired iii addition thereto land valued at $200,000,000."— Report, New York Park Association, 1882. "It is hardly necessary to add, after citing instance upon instance of civic art, that the movement has taken a firm foot- hold in European cities. There is no discussion of its merits; these are .taken for granted; the question was long ago settled, if it ever was mooted. Everything now centres about the question. What are the most effective methods of beautifying cities ? That, too, is coming to be the situation in the United States, and rapid progress has been made within the last few years. In one direction particularly do we have the advan- tage. In Europe the attitude of the citizen toward the city is that of dependence. The attitude of the city toward the citizen is that of independence. But in American cities the attitude of each toward the other is that of interdependence. The highest results can only be attained by mutual co-operation, city offi- cials with citizens and citizens with city officials. This is generally lacking in Europe. It is a most promising sign in America." — Milo R. Maltbie. [107] SHORT LIST OF BOOKS AND REPORTS RELATING TO CIVIC IMPROVEMENT Public Parks: Frederick Law Olmsted. A Decade of Civic Development: Charles Zueblin. American Municipal Progress: Charles Zueblin. Der Stadte-Bau: Camillo Sitte. German City Planning: Cornelius Gurlitt. Cities and Ports: Robert Swain Peabody. Principles of City Land Values: Richard M. Hurd. Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect: Charles W. Eliot. The Improvement of Towns and Cities: Charles Mulford Robinson. Modern Civic Art: Charles Mulford Robinson. The Coming City: Richard T. Ely. City Development: A Study of Parks, Gardens, and Culture Institutes. Patrick Geddes. Art and Life, or the Building and Decoration of Cities : Cobden Sanderson and others. Municipal Engineering and Sanitation: M. N. Baker. Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy: Joseph Lee. Civic Art in Northern Europe: Milo R. Maltbie. French and Other Continental Systems of Taking Land for Public Purposes: House Report No. 288, Common- wealth of Massachusetts. American Park Systems: Report of the Philadelphia Allied Organizations. The Development of Park Systems in American Cities: Andrew Wright Crawford. The Awakening of Harrisburg: J. Horace McFarland. Proposed Municipal Improvements for Harrisburg: Manning, Fuertes, and Sherrerd. [108] LIST OF BOOKS AND REPORTS Special Numbers or "Charities" on "Parks," "Play," AND " City Planning," dated July 7, 1906, Aug. 3, 1907, Feb. 1, 1908. Report on the Improvement of Washington, D.C. Report on a Plan for San Francisco: Daniel H. Burnhain. Development of Public Grounds for Greater Baltimore : Olmsted Brothers, landscq,pe architects. A Plan of Civic Improvement for Oakland, Cal. : Charles Mulford Robinson. The Beautifying of Honolulu: Charles Mulford Robinson. Plan for Columbus, Ohio. Remodeling Roanoke : John Nolen, landscape architect. Report of Committee on Municipal Improvements: Boston Society of Architects. The Improvement of Columbia, S.C. : Kelsey and Guild, landscape architects. A City Plan for St. Louis. [109] '•i