! COMMISSION CITY OF COLUMBUe The original of this 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/cu31924024414439 Cornell HnitjersitB OF THE •/'■ dollege of arcbitccture hsK.^Z - - 10^6 NAC 6827"?C72Ar""' '■"'"'"' ^''*irBifiiiiiiliiiii'fSi,&,.l,F.?!«^^^^ 3 1924 024 414 439 ^V; G^JI^cJj^aAq^ ^ ^s^dtF^jurY^^}^^^^ GirjoA-nAAl^x^rv^ ^ 09'^<^^ ^tp4. (<|(ei. THE PLAN OF THE City of Columbus REPORT MADE TO THE Honorable Charles A. Bond, Mayor TO THE Honorable Board of Public Service AND TO THE Honorable City Council BY AUSTIN W. LORD ALBERT KELSEY CHARLES N. LOWRIE CHARLES MULFORD ROBINSON H. A. McNEIL Plan Commission FEBRUARY, 1908 M/IC Cne At. hr.-hl INTRODUCTION THE history of the movement which has resulted in the making of the follow- ing Report is interesting as a study of the development of what are called civic improvement ideas. Beginning with the dream and faith of a very few public- spirited citizens, it chronicles the contagion of their en- thusiasm to a few more ; the patient persistence that at last, by educating the public to the new vision of their city, overcame opposition ; and then the awakening of the people, in a typical industrial city, to high ambitions that finally outstripped the thought of even the original dreamers. To an encouraging degree the story is typical. The course, shorn of its local details, is that which has been taken by other communities, and that may be taken by any. This vastly enhances the pertinence, interest, and value of the story. It enlarges and brightens its promise, justifying the hope that the people will order the carrying out, by degrees, of the plans for which they have asked — the people of Columbus, and of the other cities that surely will follow their exam- ple. Thus is a local chronicle of encouraging significance to the country, as a whole. The movement began some eight years ago, in a systematic agitation by the Columbus Board of Trade for a "Better and Greater Columbus." The Board was representative of a thousand business men, including the heaviest taxpayers, and its campaign was largely instrumental in starting the much-needed public works subse- quently undertaken to provide a better water supply, improved sewerage, and sewage dis- posal. These were the unromantic practical necessities of a rapidly growing and prosperous manufacturing city. When this work was under way, there began to be consideration of parks, parkways, and playgrounds. An address before the Board of Trade in April, 1902, called attention to the humiliating position which was held by Columbus, as among other cities, in this respect. In May, through the co-operation of the City Federation of Women's Clubs and the Board of Trade, an outsider was brought to the city to lecture on how Columbus could be improved and beautified. Through the same co-operation, a similar lecture was secured the following year, by another out- side authority. Both lectures were illustrated, and between them they aroused that "divine discontent" that wearies not nor sleeps until good has come. Yet the movement was still slow. Through the influence of one of the dreamers, who had been president of the Board of Trade and was now mayor — largely because the people admired one who could dream for their city and work to make his dreams come true — the City Council passed, at the end of the following year (on December 5, 1904) , a resolution declaring that : Whereas, Columbus is greatly in need of larger parks and park systems, and Whereas, In view of the rapid growth of this city it seems wise to prepare plans for a general park system, benefiting all sections of this city, and to which plan the city shall work as finances may permit, and Whereas, Believing that enlarged park facilities will greatly benefit the people of Columbus, be it therefore Resolved, That this City Council request the Mayor to appoint a Commission to thoroughly canvass the project. But the Council, yet timid, required that no expense attach to the city for the Commission. In accordance with the resolution, Mayor Jeffrey appointed a Commission of eighteen, representa- tive of the different sections of Columbus. On December 22d, the Commission met for the first time, and George W. Lat|;imer, another dreamer who dared to work that his dreams for Columbus might be realized, was elected the Chairman. It is a notable date, for, from this time, the REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION movement for the physical improvement of Co- lumbus had official standing. The Commission secured maps of the city and county, legal information as to the municipality's power to secure land for parks and boulevards, and entered upon a considerable correspondence with the park boards of other cities and with leading civic improvement workers of the coun- try. The Board of Trade appropriated $350 for preliminary expenses, and to secure such professional advice as could be obtained with the means available. The advice was neces- sarily general, based on brief and hurried sur- vey, but — from an architect, a landscape archi- tect, and a general civic advisor, who came independently from three distant cities— it was unanimous in its conclusions and recom- mendations : that the park and improvement needs of Columbus, not from the esthetic point of view only, but for the comfort of the citizens and the betterment of living conditions, were urgent ; that the opportunities were com- mensurate with the needs ; that the topography of the country would lend itself readily to the creation of a serviceable and beautiful park system, and that the importance of Columbus as the capital city of one of the richest states, and as an educational center, especially invited and fully justified a comprehensive scheme of carefully designed improvements. These re- ports, as separately rendered, were made pub- lic, increasing, both in its extent and vigor, the popular interest. Then the Commission made, as required by the resolution under which it was appointed, a report to the City Council. This report, based on the statistics and other information that had been obtained, and on the reports of the experts, recited the city's need of parks and the argu- ments for them. It pointed out that if Colum- bus maintains only the rate of growth which it has had, by decades, since 1820, the population within twenty-five or thirty years must be from 450,000 to 500,000. It concluded : "Your Park Commission is composed of business men and taxpayers who are well aware of the burdens already assumed. For this reason they urge only such present expenditures as will secure plans that can be gradually worked out, little by little, as opportunity offers in the future for such a comprehensive park, playground and parkway system as will be demanded as the city grows, and with the least expense. Land can be secured to-day that will be beyond us ten years hence, rf he history of park and park extension in every city within our knowledge has been that, wherever they are planned, land values are so enhanced that the taxes on such lands con- siderably more than pay for the expenditure for the parks themselves in a series of years. Every argument that can be advanced or offered for the benefit of our city or her inhabitants favors parks, . parkways and playgrounds for health, beauty, growth, or financiallyj The only objec- tion that can be heard is, Columbus cannot afford it now. Can a man afford to deprive his child of health and beauty for lack of pure air ? Can a business man afford to buy stock for his busi- ness ? Can anyone afford to refuse to prepare for the future ? We earnestly urge an appro- priation of from $3,000 to $5,000, by which to employ proper experts to come to Columbus to prepare specific plans along the line suggested, and to publish in pamphlet or book form some such report as those published by a number of the cities of the United States, samples of which are in the hands of our Secretary. 'We also urge the appointment of a permanent Park Commission, the members of which are to serve without pay.'_^ Thus wasTne project for a par^ system de- finitely launched. The seeds that had been widely sown had sprouted, grown, and were bearing fruit. The public improvement com- mittee of the Board of Trade —Mr. Lattimer had now become the president of the latter body — the City Federation of Women's Clubs, the Play- ground Association, and the newspapers en- dorsed the report with its accompanying recom- mendation. The City Council called a public meeting, and then— to make sure— another one to discuss the wisdom of the suggested appropria- tion. The enthusiasm shown at these meetings — an enthusiasm no longer confined to a plan for a park system only— induced the City Council, on September 17, 1906, to pass an ordinance appro- priating the maximum sum for which the Com- mission had asked, and authorizing and directing its expenditure for the employment of experts "to make a study of the streets, alleys, parks, boulevards and public grounds of the City of Columbus, Ohio, and suggest such extensions and additions thereto as may be necessary; and to make a report thereof for the purpose of promot- ing the future welfare of said city and beautify- ing the same. ' ' The ordinance was to take effect REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION at the earliest period after its passage that was allowed by law. Meanwhile, the Park Commission, also per- ceiving how the project had grown in impor- tance and scope since the citizens, as a whole, had been aroused, concluded that a commission of five would be able to handle so many-sided a project to greater advantage than could one or two. After deliberation, the appointees named were: Austin W. Lord, architect, of New York; Charles N. Lowrie, landscape architect, of New York ; Albert Kelsey, architect, of Philadelphia ; H. A. MacNeil, sculptor, of New York, and Charles Mulford Robinson, civic advisor, of Rochester, N. Y. Three of the five were those from whom the preliminary reports had been previously secured, and the other two had been associated in designing the McKinley monument at Columbus. The appointments were accepted, and on January 29, 1907, the Columbus Plan Commis- sion, as it was to be formally known, held its first meeting in Columbus, organizing by the election of Mr. Lord as chairman, and of Mr. Robinson as secretary. For a year the Commis- sion has pursued its studies, meeting sometimes in Columbus, and sometimes in New York. The dreams were all coming true, or at least were being reduced to tangible form. It is notable in this connection that the Centennial of the estab- lishment of Columbus as the capitol of Ohio is at hand. In 1912, a hundred years will have passed since that event. Surely there could be no worthier celebration, appealing alike to State and city, than the realization of the vision of this city as the most beautiful and best ordered State capital of the Union. In Washington there has already been set the worthy example of this sort of Centennial celebration. So are things working together for the new, the greater and the worthier Columbus. The Commission has the honor to submit the following Report and Plan. PART ONE THE GENERAL SURVEY P" WATER-W/DfS WTTHIhiilHE EIGHT MM. ZONE kRELIMINAKY to the preparation of a City Plan Report, there are two questions which must be anwered. One is regarding the scope and aim of the Report ; the other is as to the problem which is offered. Concretely, they are : What sort of a city is it for whose future we have to plan, and how com- pm^ensive and how detailed shall the plan be made ? ' In scope, the present Report includes the whole city of Columbus, the contiguous territory over which the growing city is to spread, and all that adjacent area which in the coming years is directly to contribute to the pleasure and the welfare of the citizensj This is the gen- erous interpretation of the ordinance under which the Commission is employed. In aim, the Report attempts to cover the broad field as comprehensively and carefully as possible. Indeed, the great interest of the problem and the earnest wish of the Commission to help the city, has led to a much more detailed and careful study than the mere amount of the appropriation could have justified. Yet it is obvious that at the best there can only be out- lined now a tentative scheme, suggestive and inspiring, it is hoped, but needing subsequent amplification and devel- opment in various details. The study, in short, is pre- liminary. As such, it divides the subject of its discussion into three main groups : (1) Those having to do with the city as a whole — the General Survey ; (2) those having to do with a Park System ; (3) those having to do with a State or Civic Center. As to the problem, the city of Columbus represents the mingling of two distinct types of cities, with a consider- able injection of a third type. It is at once a capital city and an industrial city, and, secondarily, it is an educational center. The three types are theoretically antithetical, and even in Columbus join rather than combine; they present diverse problems— the capital city of a great State calling for spectacular effectiveness — for the magnificent and splendid in its development ; the industrial commu- nity demanding the facilitation of commerce, and the utilitarian provision of ample recreative facilities for a working population ; and the educational aspect of the city, inviting an exceedingly artistic development of restful beauty and refinement. To harmonize these conflicting needs is the interesting task which the Commissioners have set themselves. Happily, they were embarrassed by very little that had already been done. Columbus, with REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION A CROSS- ROAD TOWN The Civic Center all its prosperity and wealth, is near the bottom of the list in the matter of park provision, and no civic center has been developed. They found the various institutions of city and State still unrelated units w^aiting to be tied together in a comprehensive scheme. It is clear that a first necessity is unification of the city plan. This does not mean impracticable suggestions for a -radical remaking of the urban structure, or street system. The Report looks into a long future, indeed, for the realiza- tion of all of its suggestions, but it does not concern itself with what is likely to remain impracticable. Nor does unification mean uniformity. It means orderliness and system. In creating this, the first point to discover is the center, and in Columbus this is, geographically, politically, histori- cally, and from every point of view, the State House. It is here then that the Civic Center will naturally be placed. It is this point that the street system should emphasize ; not merely, as now, by the crossing of the main highways north and south and east and west, for Columbus has out- grown the cross-roads town of early days ; but by every device of platting that the artificer of cities knows. Con- spicuous among such is a use of arterial diagonals, and of parkways connecting with a belting system. If it is not possible to radiate these directly from the center, owing to prohibitive cost, they can be so tied to it, and so radial in their general direction from it, thanks to the water- courses which they may be made to follpw with much of beauty, convenience and economy, that they will seem to radiate from the center itself and to tie the whole park system to that as to the middle point— as to the heart of the civic organism. Thus, in single comprehensive view, we at once see the Park System and the Civic Center locating themselves, and it is perceived that through their means the whole structure of Columbus may assume an order and system which it has not before had. Very briefly, for the details of the plan are to be ex- plained in more appropriate place on later pages, the design worked out for Columbus proposes an approach to the Capitol from the river— a Mall, which shall be a dignified green, ultimately to be adorned with sculpture. The monument to McKinley will dominate it for the present ; but as he was only one of the presidents which has been given to the nation by Ohio, other statues must later take their place on this worthy and beautiful approach. On the other, or east side of the Capitol, there will be a square surrounded by public buildings, municipal' and county, here grouped partly for convenience andpartly to stand for the civic worth and pride of the; municipality. From the foot of the Mall, trunk avenues branch to the right and left, connecting with parkways, and these in turn connect with scattered parks, and extend through the city to the suburbs and beyond to distant communities. 10 REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION IDEAL aJNDITIONS A NEW AND FORJ THE RjAXl DEVELOPEMENT OF [AL SYSTEAV spRjEAding of population Change Street System Within the three-mile zone, a girdle parkway, which may be considered a perimeter of distribution, will circle the city. At the intersection of this by the radial streets, there are to be created oval spaces which shall be developed as neighborhood centers, that will be used for street-car transfer, for local shopping, and especially for the public and semi-public buildings of the neighborhood and for the establishment of standards to govern the character of local public improvements. The parks, supplementing the present small reserved areas in the city, will have other functions than their's to perform. They will provide athletic and truly recreative spaces, they will preserve beautiful natural scenery, and will utilize the public ownership of land at the great public works— such as the storage dam and filter beds— esteeming and catering to the legitimate popular interest already felt in these under- takings. In fact, lack of forethought in not thus develop- ing the obvious two-fold utility has already done much harm at the storage dam, where the new plan for Colum- bus calls for a development that will be one of the most attractive in the whole park system. That an uninterest- ing road might be built, many trees were ruthlessly de- stroyed ; but a charming topography, with its great lake, together with many a fine tree, yet remains, and the Commission is confident that here will be located one of the most popular parks of Columbus. But this is antici- pating Part II. The astonishing amount of good ground not in any way developed, within a very short distance of the center of the city, affords an unusual opportunity to break away from the gridiron plan. There are many reasons for changing the direction of streets besides the fact that diagonals shorten distances. Streets due east and west should be avoided, as front win- dows in houses on the south side during the greater part of the year receive no direct sunshine. The topography in a rolling country should be followed to insure easy grades, openness of outlook and graceful lines. Long streets are monotonous; and, when they lie parallel to the direction of the prevailing wind, it is well that their di- rection should be changed as frequently as possible, so that clouds of dust shall not augment too rapidly, and to form fire barriers. Open spots or street centers are formed by the inter- section of more than two streets; these are deserving of study from many points of view. The Capitol and its setting will always be the center of centers— the focal point of supreme interest— but other centers are needed. The one on Broad Street, in Bullitt Park, can be improved upon. Such centers should be oval or rectangular in proportions of one to three, and the streets leading to them should end in the shape of turbine paddles to keep traffic moving in the same direction, if there is 11 REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION Street Vistas Sites for Public Buildings A Protest Find the Station. ever likely to be danger of street congestion or much cross traffic. Turning now to street vistas, it must be apparent that the object directly ahead makes or mars the picture. If there is nothing there, there is no picture, or at least only a most incomplete and uninteresting one, while a well- placed building or monument, straight ahead, is always interesting. Therefore, a self-contained street or square is usually to be striven for. In other words, present thor- oughfares should not be extended and continued, but new ones should be added to meet local conditions and needs. Incidentally, they should lead to something and not dis- appear in the hazy distance. Uncertainty and illusiveness, on the other hand, is often desirable in the planning of rural park drives. In computing park areas it is usual to include the ground occupied by buildings as part of the park ground; however, there is a limit to this kind of calculation, as illustrated by the State House Park. Originally, this structure had a continuous green frame, but when the annex was built, the green was so far reduced as to make it a question whether the block had not become more of a setting for these buildings than a park. The Commission has attempted to offset this in its plan for the new Civic Center, and welcomes this opportunity to say a word upon the subject of building monumental struc- tures in public reservations, believing the principle to be wrong which leads those in authority to sell a city's birthright. Open spots in cities are all too infrequent; they become more and more valuable to the welfare of the community ' as the city prospers, thus making it no more than the part of prudence for every community to establish a rule that no massive buildings shall be erected in public parks. Indeed, the rule might well be carried to insist that the erection of new public buildings should be made an oppor- tunity for opening up the quarters of the city in which they are to be placed. This idea is suggested, not so much to afford an abundance of light and air and a fine setting for the buildings themselves, as to insure general openness, easy circulation and attractive streets. Demolish an entire block, if necessary, but do not allow any building to en- croach an inch upon the public domain. It is hardly necessary to add that the Commission heartily disapproves of any project that will further di- minish the verdure in Capitol Square. It approves of the attitude of the Ohio State Journal, and quotes with pleas- ure the following extracts from a recent editorial : "The present Capitol is a grand building— simple, graceful, Doric. There is such a thing as spoiling it. " And again : "Let us see if there is any necessity for covering our beautiful grass space with grim stone walls." The Com- mission feels not only that there is none, but rather that REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION Ohio's Pantheon Scale Not only has scale been carefully considered, but in addition varied scenic effects are to be brought out with different de- grees of emphasis. Here a spot is to be treated to pique curiosity, and there another is to become a definite view-point. An inviting bridle-path through underbrush by a sudden and unexpected turn becomes a wild countrj- road, and, windingon over the slopes and swells of verdurous" hills, becomes a park- way which ill turn rambles on, giving no hint of its destina- tion until it bursts out upon the great mirror of the storage dam ! Nearer to town it assumes a suburban aspect, and at last the formality of solid curbing and neat rows of trees gives it a cityfied character, and, thus grown to the importance of an avenue, it swings with dignity and grace into the Mall ! the Mall whose compelling majesty and power is to symbolize an entire State. Grade Crossings makeshift additions would not only ruin building and grounds, but would soon prove inadequate, inefficient and belittling to the dignity of the State. When the State House outgrows its present usefulness, then it should be arranged to have it stand forever un- changed, as a Pantheon, in which to enshrine the memory of those who have made Ohio great— the starting and the terminal point of the arterial system of the city. As on a diminishing scale, one passes, then, from the Mall to the parkways, from the parkways to the avenues, from the avenues to the streets, and so on down to alleys and rural footpaths ; so, on an ascending scale, the city plan may be conceived as beginning with a street-widening in front of a public building, or with a little plaza, then as providing a Civic Center, small ornamental open spaces, playgrounds and parks, athletic fields and larger parks, and at last the extensive rural reservations which a future generation will develop when Columbus has that greater population that it is destined to have. For thus does the plan in its entirety consider both design and scale, and make provision for all needs. Coming to the practical details of traffic and of street, the city's first appeal is in its industrial aspect. We very naturally find Columbus a railroad center. East, west, north and south there are railroads. Demanding easy access and promising considerable benefits, the railroads seem to have been given what they asked for, regardless of the fact that the city's growth would mean its expan- sion over a larger territory, that in so doing the streets would have to cross railroad barriers, and that, conse- quently, these should be made as restricted and as un- objectionable as possible. A striking illustration of the early subordination of civic needs to corporate requirements is offered, for instance, by the annexation ordinances of November 9, 1885, and of May 19, 1890, in which outer boundaries were placed at railroad lines, and an exempted right angle between the two railroads, near the Barracks, isolated by putting outside the city limits fine high prop- erty that was actually only a short distance from the business center. But times have changed since then. Columbus has awakened to its present importance and destiny, and it is a satisfaction to find that the grade crossing problem has lately been fearlessly attacked, with a view to separating completely the steam railroads from the electric railways on the streets. It is possible, therefore, to consider the problem of steam transportation apart from the street system. The present ordinances for grade separation require a clearance of thirteen feet by the railroad bridge over the street that is used for vehicular travel only, a clearance of fourteen feet over streets with city cars, and a clearance of sixteen feet over streets used by interurban cars. In 13 REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION fi r m "H^^^- »-^'"r " -U. -^.n*" f^^' ^ i ^^iit W — ^«=^ m m r A Commercial Museum Coartes!/ of the Ohio State Joiirna'. Fire Escapes ; But You Can't ! Order Among Railways '>».• Mk^ ^'W' c^r..M-«i. the opinion of the Commission these are minimum require- ments not giving sufficient consideration to the character of the passages thus created, that they be not needlessly dark and damp. It should be said, however, that the local Department of Public Service has made a serious effort to compel the railroad companies to show more regard for appearances when bridging a city street than they are compelled to have in bridging a country road. The draw- ings are excellent, and on many of them there is a note requiring "modern solid floors, which shall be absolutely water-tight," though, in other respects, the design may be in accordance with the specifications of the railroad build- ing it. The Commission would earnestly recommend, however, a codification of rules for the railway bridges and street depressions of Columbus, these rules to include recommendations for their design, painting, planting and ornamentation. Manifestly it would be absurd for three or four different types of railroad bridges to be built within a short distance of one another to the detriment of the city's appearance, when, with a little forethought, the railroad authorities might be induced to follow a design that they might all have had a share in creating. The ordinance of some years ago which provided for High Street a viaduct 125 feet wide, and to be lined on both sides "with neat and ornamental buildings," was an ex- ample of enlightened legislation thus wisely looking to the future. It may be suggested that, as one ^de of that viaduct has not yet been built up, presumably because stores are not demanded at this point, there might be constructed here a local commercial museum in which the products of Columbus should be on exhibition. The display, directly opposite the Union Station, would be conveniently located for arriving and departing excursionists and visitors, and of interest and value to them. Incidentally, the structure, harmonizing with the pretentious station, would further dignify this main entrance to the city, arresting attention at the point where the arches already make unusual appeal, and so would create a yet worthier vestibule. The function of a railroad is positive, not negative. Though the cause of city beauty may require that the railroad right-of-way be made as little conspicuous as pos- sible, a growing community's traffic demands ever-increas- ing facilities. To provide these without seeming further and more hopelessly to enmesh the city in a network of tracks is one of the most urgent problems which detailed plans for a new Columbus will have to face. It is clear to the Commission that there are now places where inde- pendent lines can be made parallel to good advantage— a disorganized mesh brought into a single c6rd ; that there are junctions where, to the advantage of both the roads and the city, a better order can be established. This co- ordination and systematizing of railroads should be made the subject of a future report. It is enough here to point 14 REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION A Trolley Pole. Paving Subways out the need and the possibilities. The examples of Ant- werp and Hamburg, where scientific planning of this nature has brought commercial prestige and prosperity, vastly improving the aspect of the cities while economizing the transaction of warehouse business, show what might be done to great advantage in such a railroad center as is Columbus, with its eighteen lines. The railroads carry goods in and out of Columbus. There remains to be facilitated an enormous interchange in the transfer of commodities from point to point within the city itself. This interchange comprises the principal street traffic. Once the lines of the street are laid down, as to direction and grade, the most important factor affect- ing such traffic is the condition of the street surface— the paving. For this, it is not practicable to enunciate fixed requirements. The paving must be suited to the thorough- fare on which it is, and to the traffic which uses it. It may even vary in kind on a single long street, according as conditions and requirements vary. To contract for many miles of asphalt, as was done far out Broad Street, or for any other particular type of pavement where the needs are not as equally uniform, is wasteful and foolish. The pavement ceases to be appropriate; it is unappreciated, neglected, and falls into disrepair. Through the Bullitt Park region a good hard macadam, though without atten- tion, would not have looked so incongruous nor as shabby as does the present costly pavement. But the best and most wisely chosen pavement is of little account if it is liable to be torn up at frequent inter- vals. In Columbus there are fifteen wire-using companies, authorized to carry wires (high or low tension) above or below the public thoroughfares. Little by little some of the wires are getting under ground, where they belong, with the watermains, the gas pipes, and the two systems of mains for natural gas. Yet no comprehensive under- ground distributing system has been devised for Colum- bus, and the street surface is continually disturbed for the laying and repairing of pipes and wires. The situation should be frankly and intelligently faced. Under an im- portant and crowded thoroughfare of assured destiny, like High Street, it is recommended that the municipality build a wide subway, to carry all pipes and wires, without danger or conflict or further need of disrupting the street surface, destroying pavements and delaying traffic. Such a subway can be economically constructed with I-beams resting on concrete walls, on which come concrete arches, then a cushion of earth, and then the paving. The sub- way floor is of earth, in which lie the pipes, half-exposed. The financing of the construction can be managed in several ways. The matter to be here noted is that the future of Columbus is not uncertain, that the temporary and the makeshift, which is always the most costly method of procedure, should be done away with ; and 15 REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION THE SCIENCE OF CITIES TREATMENT OF A FOCAL POINT !Naconce:sted quarter ^^,;>^i0^ Public Toilet Rooms The Bath Department of the citj; of Boston, created in 1898, is in charge of numerous properties equipped with public facilities for physical exercise, which are spread over most of the closely populated districts of the city. Among them are bathing pools, bathing beaches, floating baths, recreation piers, laandries, gymnasiums and public toilet stations. It is generally admitted that the work done by this depart- ment has raised the standard of citizenship and general health of the people fully as much as her unrivaled chain of parks. In Pitlsburg the Civic Club has given its attention largely to this subject, with the result that the lirst public bath-house was erected by a lady as a memorial to her husband ; the second was a gift from a leading citizen. Thus the work was started and received public support. Baths and public gymnasiums, baths and public wash houses, and baths anu public halls often go together, but these and other possible combinations are to be determined solely by actual neighborhood wants. that, having resolved to abandon the overhead wire con- struction, which now disfigures the city as badly as any Western town, and makes it impossible on some streets to raise hook and ladder in case of fire, an underground system of arterial galleries is to be accepted as part of the new plan for the city. Such a system would have but two or three trunk galleries, and from these the distribution would be made by less expensive methods. It should be noted also that an improvement of this kind is permanent, so that if, beginning in the most congested district, only a short portion were constructed each year, a continuous policy would soon give immense relief, and with wise administration might even become a considerable source of revenue. It may be added that the admirable new water supply cannot always be used as recklessly as now proposed. Filtered water is not necessary for fire protection and street flushing. In the business districts, further, an installation of special high pressure mains would much re- duce insurance rates, and a little water used decoratively for splashing fountains would do much to beautify the city. With galleries through which to put the pipes at little cost, a supplementary system of unfiltered water could be used to advantage. Also suggested by the galleries is the matter of sewers. In Paris these carry many of the public utilities, but com- petent authorities no longer consider such, an arrangement satisfactory. The sewage system in congested districts should be divided into two distinct schemes— one to carry storm waters and one to carry house drainage. Before ascending to the surface of the streets, under- ground toilet facilities are also to be considered. In Columbus, where it is estimated that more than 3,000,000 excursionists come every year, these are needed especially, and by both sexes. The Commission approves the under- ground construction and recommends that in the complete plans for the monumental center there be included provi- sion for several of them. It was formerly thought that the American public would not use these conveniences, but in every city in which they have been tried— a list fast growing in America— they have proved a great suc- cess. The two in Washington, though they have been opened only a few months, are sometimes visited by 10,000 persons in a day. Public toilet facilities of some kind are an absolute necessity, and considering that the surfaces of the streets and parks where they are most needed are already too much cluttered, this subject may well be boldly faced, not as an additional eye-sore, but as a means of eliminating many that already exist. This, as well as privacy, suggests the adoption of the underground system. While many have approaches and are ventilated in a manner that is far from beautiful, there 16 REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION PLAN OF THE UNDERCROUMD TOLETBOOM Side"walk Obstructions is no reason why the sites they occupy should not be made beautiful as well as useful— and useful to an extent by no means suggested by their first function. As the accompanying illustrations show, the design forms a monumental electric fountain and aquatic garden, includes a drinking fountain, two bootblacking stands, a public toilet-room and pit, as well as such minor depart- ments of the public service as fire-alarm and police call- boxes, street lamps, fire-plugs, etc., and only occupies an area thirty-four feet in length. A less ambitious scheme would be simply to make a news, fruit or flower stand the unit on the surface, in and around which the most necessary fixtures could be grouped. In London, where underground toilet-rooms, without any superstructure, exist for both sexes, it has been found that the automatic penny-in-the-slot lock attached to each door earns, in some cases, an average of three shillings a day; and where these lavatories are built in two separate compartments, it is found that a halfpenny charge on the women's side yields nearly an equivalent sum per closet. Thus many become not only self-supporting, but a source of revenue. While sentimental prejudice may at first scout such a scheme, all must admit that, by the grouping of public conveniences, congestion in populous quarters may in a measure be averted, and the conveniences themselves may be consistently multiplied and improved according to really modern ideas. ' Some cities are taking up the subject of side- walk ob- structions in a most methodical manner by allowing a cer- tain number of years for the removal of those now in place, and by exercising extreme care in regard to what new construction is permitted. Glass and iron side-walk shelters, at least ten feet above the pavement, supported on brackets or suspended by chains, are generally approved, providing they have not less than 75 per cent, of glass area in their roofs, and pro- viding, further, that no advertising at right angles with the street, or more then 18 inches high on the outer edge, is displayed. Awnings are restricted in a like manner. Swinging and projecting signs of all kinds are prohibited, including inscriptions and illuminated devices in the sidewalk itself. The Commission feels that this subject is deserving of consideration along those thoroughfares that adjoin the Capitol grounds. In this connection the Commission recognizes the public-spirited impulse that resulted in mak- in;,^ High Street a bower of light by night, and recommends further experimenting along similar lines with a view to making illuminating fixtures decorative by day, believing that with more mature study a better effect both by night and day may be obtained, with a possible reduction in the amount of current now consumed. 17 REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION Overhead Construction Unsightly Suburbs The removal of unnecessary poles does much to improve the appearance of city streets. It eases circulation and makes the streets themselves look their full width. This is of no little importance along the principal arteries where the pressure doubles over and over again with every in- crease of population. Indeed, the people in the outer zones and in nearby towns constantly travel more and more through these thoroughfares, which, under present condi- tions, are not fully cleared to make way for the additional traffic. Now, if unnecessary poles and obstructions are eye-sores in the heart of a city, they certainly are no less of a dis- figurement against a clear sky in the suburbs, where their gaunt, gallows-like silhouettes blaze the way for miles in a most uninviting manner. It is suggested that city and suburbs consider ways and means of obtaining more orderly overhead construction. This carelessness in outer zones is a matter that must affect the prosperity and growth of the city seriously, if it is not taken well in hand. There is a menace not only from these connecting links and railway frontiers, like those near the barracks that bound the city, but from the outlying neighborhoods themselves, which, if permitted to back up on the city, will do it a great injury. It is of small importance whether the residents of Ar- lington or Bullitt Park contribute to taxation or not, though they gain their livelihood in Columbus and share in the benefit of all city improvements ; but it is*a matter of great importance whether any smaller community shall be al- lowed to disfigure the outskirts of the city. Happily this menace is not yet apparent, but it will come if a co- operative policy is not adopted in all matters of public improvement. Rising now to the street surface, there are to be con- sidered the shade trees, the furnishings of the street, its decoration, and maintenance. The trees should be under municipal control, in charge either of a city forester or a commission. The spacing of the trees and the kinds to be planted will receive attention in the next chapter, but it may be noted here that the trees have much to gain by the burial of the wires that are now strung over their heads or through their branches. Trolley poles, light standards, street signs, house num- bers, and trolley waiting-rooms are all subjects requiring study and systematizing, while the removal of sidewalk obstructions and the elimination of billboards and flashing or otherwise objectionable advertising signs are matters now claiming attention in all the more progressive cities of the country. The Commission urges a graduated tax on posters, a designing of public utility fixtures to suit, in scale, material and form, the location selected for them and the preparation of a set of rules on the preservation and care of such kinds of public property. Briefly, it may 18 REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION The Abandoned Canal Should be Redeemed and Transformed into a Place for Public Recreation. Street Railways Trolley Waidng-Room. be said that iron bridges, light standards, fire-plugs, fences, etc., should receive a coat of paint every spring; that sage-olive green will be found a satisfactory color, brightening thoroughfares, wearing well, and little show- ing the dust ; and that as to pavements, the only perfect system of municipal housekeeping is the "constant system." The borders of parks and all ornamental open spaces must be freed from aggressive advertising, however little in this direction may elsewhere be accomplished. The improvidence of municipal expenditure to create a beau- tiful and restful picture, which is then suffered to be framed in billboards, ought not to require argument. In some cities a law prohibits the erection of billboards within a certain distance of any park, parkway or boulevard, it being held that the public improvement bestows a benefit which compensates for the loss of such advertising oppor- tunity ; in others, cities are enabled by State legislation to take land within 200 feet of a new park, parkway, or public playground, in order to resell it with building restrictions. The Ohio Municipal Code, Sections 10 to 12, gives such authority to Columbus, "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 parkways leading thereto." Than this, the statute books contain perhaps no enactment of greater value and practical helpfulness for the creation of a beautiful and splendid city. As for the trolley waiting-rooms, the time has passed when the public street or any convenient store or doorway can properly be utilized. For the interurban trolleys there should be demanded a fine terminal building, as provided in Indianapolis. Local trolley waiting-rooms, particularly in the monumental center, should be included as part of the detailed improvement scheme ; inconspicuous, indeed, but, when seen, obviously permanent and useful parts of the urban ensemble, conveniently placed, built of glass and metal, bright and cheerful. But, aside from the matter of stations, the interurban trolley raises a series of ques- tions still new in city planning that cry aloud for correct solution. It has become a freight carrier as well as a pas- senger ; the cars have increased enormously in weight and in size ; it carries mails ; the cars attain a rate of speed that, coupled with their weight, gives to them the mo- mentum of tremendous projectiles; it demands heavier rails and a better roadbed. Shall this new system of transportation be classed with the steam roads, to be rele- gated to a private right-of-way ; or can it remain in a class with city street cars ? If the latter, there must be broad and properly built streets for it. In the suburbs its way can be made beautiful in separate tree-lined avenues, where only the gleaming rails show above the turf, and 19 REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION PUZZLE-Why Was This Gutter Dammed? Benches PUZZLE— View from the Main Entrance to Schiller Park. Find the Statue of the Man after Whom the Park Was Named ? Monuments its lines must be so planned as to do the least possible injury to beautiful natural scenery. The provision of public benches out-of-doors is a matter on which the Commission desires to put emphasis in this Report. This is one of the lessons which American cities have not yet adequately learned from the European capitals. But in the redemption at Columbus of both river banks opposite the Capitol, and in developing the park- ways, there will be provided ample opportunities for such pleasant resting-places. Well shaded and placed where the most interesting views are commanded, these benches are sure to be popular ; and in the evening those proposed along the riverside, in particular, will afford much comfort and enjoyment to the tired workers in the neighboring narrow and crowded streets. Its social work, in benefit to the masses, is one of the main objects of the opening up of Columbus. The placing of civic sculpture that it may duly con- tribute to the adornment of the city, that it may be effec- tively seen and consequently appreciated, has not been given the attention it deserves. The Schiller monument is well placed, with its background of verdure, but the park entrance is inadequate as an approach to it. A widening of the entrance and a rearrangement of the planting, however, is all that is needed to make this a model of good taste. On the other hand, the jamming of a monument into the public thoroughfare, as at the inter- section of High and Broad Streets, is olffstructive to traffic and thoroughly ignoble. It is no compliment to the sub- ject to place his statue in the gutter. On the Capitol grounds themselves the monuments have been casually strewn about without regard to their individual setting or to any general scheme. This matter is taken up further on. One of the striking sites for sculpture, of which the American city has, as yet, little availed itself, is the bridge. In fact, the bridge itself should be one of the most dis- tinctive and important civic monuments. This must be the case when, in the carrying out of the plan for the Mall, the bridges at Broad and State Streets are replaced and made wider, and the two foot-bridges of the Mall are constructed. They are all to be made an architectural part of that civic scheme which is to make Columbus a worthily beautiful and dignified State capital. But, speak- ing generally, the conspicuousness of a bridge, seen as it IS for a long distance on either shore, justifies great care- fulness of design. Permanence is the first practical re- quirement, and nothing better gives the effect of strength than a broad masonry construction. Concrete is a close second in appearance, and it is so inexpensive and requires so httle attention, as compared with steel, that the Com- mission earnestly recommends that the further bridges of Columbus be either of concrete or masonry. The familiar truss bridge, especially when the roadway is on the lower 20 REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION A Salubrious and Restful-Looking Water-Front. Bathing Establishments Schools An advantage of closely relating parks, schools and gym- nasiums to one another is that it enables classes of children during stated school hours to receive physical instruction and the exclusive use of the gymnasiums and the park areas espe- cially laid out for them. Moreover, it is a matter of no small benefit to be able to send children to and from school through parks and parkways instead of through dangerously crowded streets. HPHHm^^ '^^^NRhl '' ^dC^I ■1 i^...'-^^^^ 11 \ !> "" '"^^ a' M^^ cord, as it is so commonly, compelling those who traverse the structure to look through a spider's web of metal, becomes only a flimsy, temporary disfigurement. On the bridges that enter into the Columbus Mall scheme, the Commission contemplates one or more resting points on either side, for no outlook has more ceaseless attraction than has that from a bridge. On these bridges, as along the formal water-front, the lighting apparatus must re- ceive careful architectural consideration, that it may adequately bear its part in the composition. In Part III, the section devoted to the crowning feature of the new city plan, the Commission recommends including in one of the building groups a central bathing establishment. This is conceived on the lines of those which were so popular and prominent a feature in the cities of the Roman empire, though, as here planned, the athletic features are of small extent, as compared to what the Romans would have demanded in a city much smaller than is Columbus. Public bathing facilities should be generous and convenient in an industrial city, and espe- cially in the more densely built-up districts where the summer heat is most intense. Indeed, such establishments as Boston, Chicago and New York have provided, are no chance spots on the city plan. The experimental period has passed and to-day bathing is so immensely popular that these establishments have become institutions as necessary and as permanent as the public school, and in consequence their sites and buildings are, year by year, becoming more monumental. Out-of-door bathing, as well as indoor, is to be encouraged, and to this end it is desirable that there be co-operation between bath and park authori- ties. Each has something to gain from the good will and interest of the other. This interdependence of various sorts of public service, this need of co-operation between departments so that public works may yield their maximum of public benefit, as already referred to in the case of the storage dam, is noticeable again in the case of the schools. It does not, of course, come within the province of the Commission to consider the department of education, except in so far as the evidences of its work affect the city's plan and aspect; but when it is recalled that the most numerous kind of public building is the school building, and that school sites are the most frequent and widely distributed plats of public property, it is clear that these evidences are im- portant. As a statement of general principles, it may be said : (1) That the School Board in its selection of new sites should be on the watch for opportunities to improve the city plan. (2) That in outlying districts it is often unwise to build large primary schools, since population is liable to shift and leave for maintenance a larger building than is actually 21 REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION Needless Noise Live Wires: Dead Tops and Mutilated Foliaee. The University Mr. Lattimer and Mr. Prey i required; and that, as children attending primary schools should not be compelled to use the cars, many small schools are better for them than are a few large ones. (3) That the area of the school site should be propor- tioned to the number of pupils to be accommodated, with a care similar to that which determines the size of a class- room. Every pupil is entitled to a certain number of feet of play space. As the ultimate number of pupils cannot be accurately foreseen in outlying districts, the allotment there should be made generous while the land is still cheap, thus providing for an enlargement, if necessary, of the school building, as well as an increase in the number of pupils, without encroaching on the minimum area which each should have. (4) That no schoolhouse should be nearer than fifty feet to any boundary of its plat, and as one passes out- ward from the center of the city this limit might well be increased, zone by zone. (5) That school sites should be developed in connection with open spaces, parks and parkways, which they should adjoin when possible. (6) That the law which in some cities prohibits the opening of a saloon or a barroom within sevieral hundred feet of a public school is an excellent one. (7) That desirable sites for outlying schools would be found in those centers for the distribution of traffic on the suburban belt which have been already described. Here, as on any noisy street in front of a school, the School Board might properly ask the Board of Public Service to lay down a noiseless pavement. The Commission would emphasize these principles, for it feels that to the proper solution of the difficult problems of city growth which now confront Columbus— problems which must soon be faced, and faced from many points of view, since no park system alone can solve them — no movement would be of greater help than one that would make each school and its surroundings a clean and salu- brious center. For the schools are widely distributed ; each is a neighborhood focus. Unconsciously, they create a standard. If they be properly planned, this standard will demand a well-ordered modern city and refuse to be satisfied with less ; while in a decade the children them- selves, on whom the influence of the schools has been yet more marked, go forth to mould and express public opinion. If every little public school is deserving of civic care in planning, the State University must merit it in large measure. Further, the spacious University grounds form one of many interesting and characteristically distinctive centers. These green oases that surround the public in- stitutions—there are about three acres of such State property for every one of municipal parks— are most important units of the unrelated breathing spaces which 22 REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION Opportunity for a Magnificent Approach to the University. Co-operative Planning The ponstantly growing popularity ot oolleee athletics is responsible for the revival of the ancient Stadium. There is one at Syracuse University, another at Harvard, and a third at the University of California. Such coIosBal structures, so frequently an objective point for the general public as well as for the student body, might easily be made the connecting link between a better develop- ment of both the adjoining city and the college grounds. P ii M '■ r Mg A Swiss New!-Sland. State and Federal Government have scattered through Columbus. To give to them finer, broader, and more direct approaches, and to prevent unsightly encroachments upon them, has been the wish of the Commission. Yet to some extent the ideal has had to be tempered by the practical consideration of vested private rights and of cost. Still, the map shows how it has been possible to open to some of them new lines of communication from the suburbs. These, when girdle parkways around the city are con- structed, will be found of great utility. For instance, from the back of the University there is a fine chance of this kind. Where the bridge crosses the river, half a mile below, the plan establishes a wide circle, which is inter- sected by the existing cross-road and the future river park- way. From it, there is planned a straight avenue, 300 feet wide, ascending directly to the University, for it is believed that within a few years, unless the University itself does something better, buildings will stand in those fields which now are empty. In any event, the avenue will be a valuable city approach, and, with its four lines of trees, will connect the verdure of the University grounds with the real country lor all time to come. It would be well if such links of foliage were projected into the city from the country wherever possible. In developing the large and commanding tract which the University occupies, more than one miscalculation has already been made in estimating the demands resulting from an ever-growing enrollment. Lack of plan and fore- thought in the arrangement and disposition of the build- ings has, moreover, robbed the tract of some of its fine air of spaciousness, and has resulted in inconvenience. To develop the grounds themselves is not enough. They should be developed in their relation to the city plan, for the life of a modern University, and of the city in which it is, touch at many points. The problem, for instance, of adequately handling the great throngs of people attracted by athletic contests, or the crowds attending commence- ment exercises, is one which must be solved in part by the city and in part by the University. Each must meet the other half way. The noble approach which, with its rows of trees, is to sweep like a Champs Elysees up from the country to the University ought to have its complement in a city approach. If it be too late now for that, the circumstance only emphasizes the urgency of co-operative planning. Even in the grounds themselves, the planting, it scarcely needs be said, must be arranged in relation to such a noble approach as the Commission has in mind. There would be offered the opportunity to separate the grounds and buildings into departmental groups, to sup- plement the stately avenue with appropriately quiet walks and places for meditation, while to the whole design there would be given that unity which belongs to a single com- position, and to grounds that are under single administra- 23 REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION Planting may give an avenue rare charm. One is told to visit Japan when the cherry trees are in hloom, to visit a score of European cities when the boulevards are white with horse chestnut blossoms, or to go to Paris in May to drive in the fragrant Avenue des Accasia (which in plain English is only the Avenue of Locusts), and every one knows these trees (cannot compare with our magnificent catalpas. Catalpas might thrive here, or Columbus might have an avenue pink anfl fragrant with magnolias. However, where fine trees already exist, they should be preserved in preference to per- fecting street alignments and in preference to any new scheme of planting. Gifts of Land till' ^Uv'^'or'] w''"" ^" ''^"' ^'^^ ^""^ ^^^^ ^ ^™^'^^ "f income to 24 tion. Until the problem is solved with the same scholarly forethought and intelligence that has been put into the development of the new plan on which, henceforth, the University of Wisconsin is to spread and grow, and which has made comprehensive plans for the future development of the grounds of institutions of learning from New Eng- land to California, this fine tract will never realize its full possibilities. If it and the adjacent city plan were devel- oped in harmony, this quarter of the city migh^be made, the Commission believes, uniquely beautiful. " , It is, in fact, no more important that the various de- partments of the city should co-operate, than that the development of the public institutions should be in har- mony with that of the municipality, and that vested public and private interests should be considered, not as at vari- ance, but as in union for the public good— all the forces of the municipality working together for a greater and better city. In this connection it is pleasant to record and acknowledge the public spirit of the citizen who widened part of High Street, by way of improving simultaneously his own property and that of the city— though the advan- tage in having work of this kind done in accordance with a fixed plan is obvious. Again, the occasional blending of the public road lawns and trees with the verdure of private lawns and gardens is most commendable, and sets an ex- ample which ought to be widely followed. In many cities the giving of land for public use has become familiar, as it must soon become here. It is a form of philanthropy which cannot be too highly commended. While these gifts are most often in the form of suburban property for park purposes, a single lot adjoining a schoolhouse or hospital, given with the stipulation that it shall never be built upon," meets an urgent need, and may do more immediate good than could the gift of a large tract for a future reservation. The gift of strips of land for boulevard and park purposes generally repays so well the abutting property, that when the location of these drives has been authoritatively deter- mined, the city ought to secure substantially the entire mileage for nothing. This is an instance of helpful co- operation between private and public interests. The magnificent library, on its ample site at the head of State Street, might-had a plan been earlier in readiness— have contributed yet more to the city's beauty and dignity through association with other structures; and the city's great auditorium is worthy of a better site. Three years ago, the donor of half of the building fund for the Emer- son-McMillan Art Gallery said, very well: "Better keep money at interest than choose an unfavorable site." Up to the present, much good work has been scatter- ingly done in Columbus, but the aggregate benefit has not been what it ought to be, because of this failure closelv to knit all improvements into a firm civic fabric. It should be remembered that every unit has its place in the civic REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION How the Most Has Been Made of a Water Front PUZZLE What are Quarries and the Destruction of Fine Timber Doing for This Fine Water From? economy. The great thing is to find what its true place is. This is not a matter of guess-work and speculation. It is a matter of scientific knowledge, as the science and art of better city building are developed. If Columbus is to become a truly well-planned city, providing the conve- niences and commercial economies expected of the modern municipality; if it is to be made up of that happy blending of city and country which renders urban life healthful and enjoyable; and if the taxpayers are to have the maxi- mum of benefit from their expenditures, it is absolutely necessary to prepare for a gradual readjustment on co- operative lines. That this may be more fully secured, that the ideas here put forward tentatively, and incom- pletely—as necessitated by the limited fund at the Comr mission's command and its consequently superficial study of many local conditions— may be developed with the thoroughness which should give large results in a city of such opportunities and possibilities as Columbus, the Com- mission hopes that it may be authorized to continue its work, developing a detailed plan for at least the redivision of unimproved suburban property. This would inevitably heighten and supplement the effectiveness of the park scheme, which has claimed the greater part of its thought in this Report; but it would do much more than that, accelerating the growth of Columbus, and assuring to this growth beauty, harmony, economy and convenience. There is no project that is better worth the city's while. In the neighboring city of Cleveland, it will be recalled, the expert commission which was originally employed to plan the grouping of the public structures has been thus continued. To such a commission could be here referred, not only for authoritative, but for absolutely impartial, judgment many a question that will arise, in the course of the city's normal development, to perplex and harass officials and to give to selfish interests opportunity to de- fraud an unawakened public. The outside Commission, with no concern save the public good, and with its famili- arity with the best solutions of like problems in other cities, could be depended upon to decide such matters from the point of view of a greater and better Columbus. And its decision would be in accordance with the plans it has made, and which it would then be further developing, for a more beautiful capital city, for one which will surely be better to work in and to live in. ^6i^ 25 THE BIG WALNUT, NEAR THE COUNTRY CLUB An instance of the kind ot outlying country whicli could be acquired at small cost now and will be invaluable to the greater city of the future as a reservation for the use and enjoyment of the public. PART TWO PARKS, PARKWAYS AND RECREATION GROUNDS PARKS are supposed to be always orna- mental. They are so indispensable a factor in the "City Beautiful " that there is no need of saying that Columbus as a capital city and as an educational center requires them. In those capacities it has needed them so much, indeed, that the little park acreage already provided has been developed in a way which was designed to be primarily ornamental. The pres- ent parks are not, to be sure, as valuable ad- juncts to city beauty as they ought to be, but they certainly are not anything else. The capi- tal city and the educational center call, then, for something better than is now had, for something which is more essentially part of the urban structure. But in its industrial aspect, Colum- bus still actually begs— as heretofore it has begged in vain— for parks for a working popula- tion, for parks that shall be recreative centers, for parks that will build up again the physical strength so freely expended, day by day, in fac- tory and shop for the enrichment of the city. It is a cry that ought to be heeded. However dull ears may be to an esthetic appeal, this is social, humanitarian. It is even, also, economic. Study of the science of advanced city planning finds the park necessities of such a city as Columbus requiring satisfaction in various ways. There should be not only the ornamental and recreative spaces, but the latter should be sub- divided into many kinds. There should be play- grounds for little children ; there should be neighborhood parks for neighborhood and family use; there should be tracts for public athletics — the playgrounds of the young men who work in shop and office; there should be the large country parks for all day outings, for family picnics, for walks and drives; and of these latter some may lie far beyond the city limits, the land being acquired while it is cheap and held until an in- creased urban population shall give to it inten- sive park use. All of this program, elaborate as it appears, will pay for itself when carried out. For not only has it been the universal experience that parks, boulevards and parkways double and triple the value of adjacent property, creating taxable values that compensate for the expendi- tures; but these open spaces, in offering pure air and recreative opportunities, immensely in- crease the efficiency of labor, and attract to the city a better class of labor — factors than which nothing is of greater economic importance to an industrial city. Nor is the program too elaborate. Available statistics on this subject are of value only as suggestions of a tendency, for if they are to have completeness, they cannot be up-to-date, and the progress is so continuous and so rapid that the figures of two or three years ago are, for many cities, ancient history of which to-day they would be ashamed. But it so happens that the additions to the public park acreage of Col- umbus in the last three years and a half are not a subject for boasting; so that if we take the sta- tistics of the United States census report of 1904 and remember with what extraordinary swift- ness other cities have been forging ahead in respect to parks in the intervening time, we shall not find Columbus given at that time a place any lower than it would have to-day. In fact, since this Report is to be published, the city has reason to be glad that the statistics are as old as they are. In estimated population the cities nearest to Columbus in 1904 were, in order : Kansas City, Toledo, Denver, Allegheny, Colum- bus, Worcester, Los Angeles, Memphis, Omaha — taking the four next larger and the four next smaller. In general park expenditures, the order of the same cities was : Kansas City, Denver, Los Angeles, Allegheny, Memphis, Toledo, Wor- cester, Omaha, Columbus. But that does not tell the whole story. Not only was Columbus behind, but she was way behind. While the 27 PLAYGROUND FOR THE WEST SIDE Symmetrical planning economizes space, placestheadministration of a recreation ground under easy control and insures oriler Manv American cities have already provided themselves with DlaA-ffroiiTiris as complete in their arrangements as the one shown above """"" REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION other cities were annually spending from $50,000 to $100,000 on their parks— Kansas City's expen- diture in 1904 was about $112,000— that of pros- perous and rich Columbus approximated $9,000— yet half of the cities were smaller than Colum- bus, and none of them had greater need than she of park facilities. It is not worth while to pile up more statistics for further shaming. Whatever Columbus has failed to do in the past, she has awakened now and has resolved to redeem herself. Only this is to be kept in mind : The standard by which she is to determine whether her new provision is mean or generous should not be that of her past expenditures, but that of other cities ; and it may further be considered that to take, in regard to parks, the position which Columbus ought to have, it is necessary to be liberal at first. For to maintain a park system that has been already established and developed, and for which there have been generous appropriations for several years, requires a good deal less than does the creation of one. To overtake the cities of her size, Columbus has not only to strike their gait, but being behind, she must do more than they in order to get abreast of them. Yet we have to remember that, after all, this is not simply a race; not a foolish competition in statistics for which the only prize is a more hon- orable showing in the census bulletins. It is the matter of providing for the comfort, the pleas- ure and well-being of the citizens of Columbus ; the matter of putting before them in Columbus such facilities as they find in the other cities of her size ; of giving to them the privileges and opportunities which, as residents of a modern city, are clearly their right. Let us, then, apply the abstract program for park development concretely to Columbus. It was said that there should be playgrounds for little children. Such has been the need of these, and such is the appeal of childhood, that some have been already established and are do- ing a work that makes a stronger argument than anything which the Commission could say. In a city ideally developed no home would be more than half a mile from a playground, that being about the limit of their effective radius for young children. In Columbus this would mean a much greater number of playgrounds than can now be looked for with the other park needs of the city that must be satisfied, for the modern conception of a playground is not a bare crude space where children, left to their own devices, exemplify the primitive law of survival of the fittest. It is a space adapted perfectly to its use, and made beautiful, where directed play has such value educationally that the playground supplements the school. As was noted in Part I, the Com- mission proposes an extension of schoolyards and so much use of them that a full complement of municipal playgrounds need not be at once de- manded. But the playgrounds that are estab- lished should be of the best, that they may con- fer the maximum of benefit. An idea of what this development would be is given in the appended diagram showing the detail of a west-side park playground — of a play- ground, that is to say, for a west-side park. It will be observed that both boys and girls have their separate divisions, each with its open-air gymnasium, Ipckers, shelters, and space for games; that there is a large swimming pool, so encouraging that outdoor bathing, the need of which was noted in Part I; that there are tennis courts, a restaurant and a field house, and that the whole is arranged in accordance with a plan that is symmetrical and beautiful in the perspec- tives and vistas that it opens. Beyond this fully developed space are broader athletic fields. The plan, as that of a park playground, dif- fers from that which would be arranged for a small space in a crowded district. There sand courts for very little children might be a feature, the outdoor gymnasium would be more promi- nent, the tennis courts, perhaps, omitted alto- gether, the swimming pool shrunk to a wading pond, while the field house might be proportion- ately increased, because of the great social work it could do in offering a place for neighborhood entertainment and instruction. Even in another park the playground plan might differ, according to the topography and various local conditions. This is shown in the plan for a north end park where a broad lawn is a feature. But the great lesson which the Commission would impress is that each playground would be developed to give the maximum of usefulness, and that with all their social usefulness they would have beauty. A further point which is important is one inci- dentally shown — that a neighborhood playground would be developed on park lands when such economy involves no loss of efficiency. As for the other sites, they must be determined in any sec- tion by various considerations of availability at the time when the appropriation is made. When 29 REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION practicable, each will be developed as a feature of a neighborhood civic center. The children's playground, while an indis- pensable unit of a complete park system, does not necessarily enter into the structure of that system. All the other units under ideal condi- tions would be connected, and the position and development of each would be determined by its relation to the others. As far as practicable in planning the Columbus park system, the Comis- sion has tried to plan it in that way. While it is necessary, then, to describe the separate units by themselves, it should never be forgotten that they are only parts of a complete whole, that a remissness at one point is probably re- deemed by the development at another, and that, in considering the claims of immediate neighbor- hoods, there was also need of preserving a bal- ance of parts, and of distributing the reserved areas in accordance with a comprehensive plan. What is called the neighborhood park is usu- ally a comparatively small tract. There should be several such, scattered through the residen- tial districts. Schiller Park, made gay with bright flowers, would well perform this function for the German population around it ; Goodale Park, if improved by the remodeling it needs, would serve another neighborhood; at the Uni- versity it would be desirable if an arrangement could be effected similar to that between Harvard University and the city of Boston in respect to the Arnold Arboretum. This would give to the public privileges along the river bank, if not on the rest of the grounds. For the east end, re- modeled and extended, Franklin Park would serve the neighborhood and do something more; while for the west side the Commission's larger park plans will, as at the east end, serve the neighborhood and do more besides. As far as practicable, these areas will contain playgrounds for children, an abundance of shade and grass, plenty of seats and little tables, and cheerful, well-lighted, well-heated and ample shelters for use in winter and on rainy evenings. They will also, as far as possible, be connected by boule- vards and parkways. But, of course, this will not be done at once. It will be a gradual evo- lution, of which this will be the ultimate out- come as the people come, more and more, to appreciate and enjoy the parks and to demand their larger social service. Still within the three-mile radius from the capitol — the area to which the most serious 30 attention must be immediately given, since a few years' delay will result in the subdivision for business or residential purposes of all the desirable park sites that remain— it is planned to have the four large interior parks, for which preliminary plans are shown in this Report, to link them together by a system of parkways, and to connect them with the center of the city by radiating parkways. The latter follow the streams for the most part. All this is shown on the accompanying map, in which Broad Street is included as one of the links, though in a strict sense it is not a parkway. Because Columbus has developed in the shape of a Maltese cross, a just distribution of the park areas results in their division into four groups, one for each arm of the cross. Consequently, they can be separately described if only there be constant remembrance that no one group stands, in fact, by itself, but as a part of a whole, and that it is one of each group's most important purposes to make this whole complete. Beginning with the south side group, the features are a recreation park, a long river promenade and speedway, free from street cross- ings, and two driveways that converge at the intersection of a parkway to the west. The recreation park would be located on the tract next west of the Scioto and on Soth sides of Greenlawn Avenue. This is a low, level tract, well adapted to the use which it is proposed to make of it. The dike protects it from overflow by the river, and the elevation here of the road and Greenlawn Avenue offers attractive out- looks over the interesting scenes that will be enacted below. Further, the location adjacent to a residential quarter largely occupied by Germans, who are especially fond of athletics, and in proximity to the homes and workshops of many young employees, while yet so isolated by the river that the field cannot prove a neigh- borhood nuisance, is a singularly happy one. The diagram shows the proposed plan of de- velopment. The speedway, a mile long, would start just south of the west end of the Mound Street bridge. Continuing straight away for about a quarter of a mile, it would then make a very long curve, and then would stretch straight away again, to the loop which offers the turn close to Greenlawn Avenue. For all except a short distance, where it is on the river's edge— both shores of the river, of course, are to be protected and made beautiful —there will be park on either PROPOSED TREATMENT FOR FRANKLIN PARK Franklin Park, as at present laid out, suffers from an inadequate' length of driveway, the absence of a path system, the small area of shade, the lack of water suitable for boating and skatingand of wide unobstructed lawns for out-door sports, and the inconvenient location of existing entrances. All of these and many other good points may be supplied, as suggested by this plan, without any extensive alter- ation of existing features. An additional tract to the east of Alum Creek and the depression of the railroad would go far toward the accomplishment of this result. NORTH END PARK This tract, lying along the Olentangy between First and King Avenues, with possible parkway extensions, both north and south, consists of undeveloped land easily convertible into a fine scenic and recreation park. It is well illustrated by the photograph. REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION side of it, and in this park there will be paths on the river bank and elsewhere, and seats from which the gay scenes of the Speedway may be watched, for a speedway gives pleasure to many more than those who drive. From the loop, a second entrance-drive to the Speedway will rise to Greenlawn Avenue. On the opposite side of the avenue, on a tract balancing that in which the loop is made, a formal schemeof wooded groves has been devised, and between these tracts and the river lie the ample playing fields. To the center point of the Speedway curve, at the outer end of its radius, there comes with elaborate formalism the vestibule to the parkway westward. The vestibule terminates on its other side in a circular space made at the intersection of Sandusky Street extended, and from here, at right angles with the extended Sandusky Street, stretches the parkway. To the same circular space converge park drives to Greenlawn Avenue and to Mound Street, these paralleling the Speedway for the most part. The westward leading parkway, as a trunk road — if one may use the expression in such connection — and also because it has not the support of adjacent park lands, is made much wider, and is more elabor- ately developed than are these other drives. It extends to the Harrisburg Pike, skirting on its way the north boundary of Greenlawn Cemetery. At the western edge of the cemetery it turns northwestwardly and, proceeding to Trappe Pike, cuts off a finely wooded triangle to make a little local park. Thence, by Martha Street and its extension south, it comes to the grounds of the Institution for the Feeble-Minded. These ample grounds, beautifully situated in the west arm of the Columbus cross, should be developed as the West Side Park. The Commis- sion feels that it does not need to argue for a change that would be of such manifest benefit, both to patients and to the city, as would the transfer of that institution to open country, and the transformation of its grounds into a munici- pal park — of which one function, by the way, is ' WC ' " 7" j'^, - - -.B 3POSED TREATMENT FOR, A SOVTH SIDL Iflvto PARK /.ND SPEtCVVi^^. — -» '"" THE LOW GROUND ON EACH SIDE OF GREENLAWN AVENUE -'I <:°x«a«;(^H Would make lid mirable athletic fields and shadv picnic eroves not only for the citizens of the south side, but for 'the entire citv' I'arther north a promenade and speedway is suggested alone tlie river bank, with an approach from Mound Street, and from a narkwav westward. t^^^^yya) 32 REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION prevention, to some degree, of the very misfor- tune which the institution is designed to allevi- ate, and it is no novel suggestion. To make the change, now that urban conditions have developed around the institution, would be a loyal return to the ideals of its founders, whose only error was that they could not foresee that Columbus would grow so fast and reach so far. The grounds, delightfully reached from the south and northeast by the proposed parkways, would have direct eastward connection by West Broad Street. This noble thoroughfare, put to such use, should be parked, and with the poles down there is ample width on it for good tree growth. The grounds themselves may be roughly divided into an upland and lowland region. The highland, or westward section, breezy, well shaded, and with fine outlooks, is admirably fit- ted for general park purposes. The lowland, or eastward section, which is about a third of the total area, is well suited for athletic fields, play- grounds, and water features. Much of it can be easily flooded for skating in winter, and of the playground that should be developed here, description has already been given. But it may be noted that the ideals in mind for all this tract would be rest and recreation; and that purely scenic effects, if conflicting with the usefulness of the place to the great body of working people, would be considered as secondary. A circular driveway is proposed. Of this most would be on the high land, but the east side would follow the base of the bluff, and would connect with the general parkway system. This it would do by forming a park link between the parkway southward. Broad Street eastward, and ^.»-.v,»,...|J^ ■-CaLC fUTEEr PROPOSED TREATMENT FOR A WEST SIDE PARR CaL.VMEV5 ?LKH COMW.MION THE PROPERTY OF THE INSTITUTION FOR THE FEEBLE-MINDED Woulii be especially well suited to Ihe requirements of the large industrial v^pulation whicli is rapidly surrounding it— the high ground supplying cool, shady resting )iiaces, the low ground ample jilay areas. It would also be an important Hnk in the parkway circuit. 33 THE SCIOTO, OPPOSITE FILTRATION PLANT These tree-lined shores should be preserved as a natural park together with the grounds of the filtration plant. Low dams some- what more substantially built than the one here shown would malie possible the development of good boating and skating. This feature IS also suggested tor the proposed North, East and South Side Parks. JUNCTION OF THE SCIOTO AND THE OLENTANGY A GOOD PLAYGROUND SITE REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION Grand View Avenue (extended to Broad Street) northward. Proceeding on the latter, the Scioto River would be crossed and connection would be made with the Dublin Pike, and yet further north with Fifth Avenue. Both of these roads and Grand View itself, would be important links in the boulevard and parkway system. At the Dublin Pike, if one turned toward the center of the city at that point, a short distance would bring one to the filtration plant. This is one of the greatest and most interesting of the public works of Columbus, and, since it is close to the city, it is already a Mecca on pleasant Sun- days. The Commission urges that the banks and bottom lands of the river be taken here. In fact, it desires that the banks of the river all the way to the dam — and of course above it — be reserved and beautified. Public economy, sanitary con- siderations and business sense require this, even aside from the esthetic advantage. But at the filtration plant, the park holdings should broaden out, so as to extend from the remotest side of the plant to the river and to include all the space in the bend of the river. The photo- graph gives an idea of the attractiveness of the scenery here, even in its present undeveloped state. A somewhat more permanent dam would create a fine skating pond. Continuing toward the city, there is soon reached the gore between the Scioto and Olen- tangy. It is already in considerable use as a playground and bathing place for older boys, and this usefulness may well be further developed. The location is advantageous in its isolation along PRESENT CHARACTER OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD THROUGH WHICH A WIDE APPROACH TO THE CAPITOL SHOULD BE BUILT 35 THE QUIET WATERS OF THE OLENTANGY, LOOKING SOUTH FROM THE DODRIDGE STREET BRIDGE FROM THIS REGION SOUTHWARD TO GOODALE STREET, THE RIGHT BANK IS HIGH AND WELL SUITED FOR A REMARKABLY FINE PARK DRIVEWAY NORTH OF KING AVENUE BRIDGE WHERE PARK-LIKE SCENERY ALREADY EXISTS REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION mii^m W^W '., '^^H^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H SOUTH FROM KING AVENUE BRIDGE Tn the proposed North Enri Park (see plan). The OleiitatiKy at high water— a condition which may be made permanent by means of a low dam. This would secure fine boating and skating and the permanence of the fine water effects. with a comparative proximity to important in- dustries, as the land is swept by the strong cur- rents of air from the two rivers, and in the cir- cumstance that the plat is of little other value. By continuing still along the Scioto, into the heart of the city, there would be reached the State House Mall — that strip of green, with its sculptural adornment, its rows of trees, its frame of impressive architecture and its sumptuous perspectives. Here is to be created the visual center and crown of the whole park system, re- ceiving separate treatment in Part HI. Rather, at the playground where the rivers meet, we shall take our course northward , along the Olentangy. In referring to the park developments at the south end, it was said that the Commission pro- posed the protection and beautiflcation of the river banks. This applies not only to the Scioto, but to all the water-courses, and along the Olen- tangy north of Goodale Street the reserved strip is to broaden into one of the most important of the Columbus parks— that of the north end. The boulevard connection with this from the west end park would not be via the playground, as was here described, but, continuing out Grand View Avenue to Goodale Street, there would be taken a new boulevard, which the Commission proposes to swing by a sweeping curve, that would carry it in a generally diagonal direction around to Fifth Avenue, near the Olentangy bridge. Thence the drive will proceed north- ward, on the west bank, to Lane Avenue. This Olentangy river park is not only one of the most important of the proposed reservations, but fortunately it is perhaps the one that can be most easily and economically secured. It is, also, one that will cater to an exceptionally large population. This is partly because it borders a populous residential district, more largely be- cause, through its narrow length, it will be within easy walking distance from an extensive area, and partly, again, because it can be easily reached from any part of the city by driving. Its beauty, as the pictures indicate, is naturally of a quiet and restful character, in contrast to city conditions that are close at hand, so imparting to it a men- tal effect that is particularly desirable in a munic- ipal park. In very dry weather, to be sure, the river nearly disappears, but by constructing a series of low dams at intervals, where the water is shallow, picturesque islands will be formed, and there will be provided a romantic place for 37 VIEW FROM EAST BROAD STREET BRIDGE TYPICAL SCENERY ALONG THE PROPOSED ALUM CREEK PARKWAY REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION boating in summer and for skating in winter- to say nothing of swimming pools. The photo- graphs, taken at a time when the water was fairly high, show what the effect would be the year round, and do this more effectively than could descriptions. There would be, perhaps, no park more broadly popular than this ; and, now and again, on the level land playgrounds will be laid out. Yet, primarily and most distinctively, this would be a water park; and even where the water is not put to actual use for recreative pur- poses, its beauty will furnish the main character- istic of the scenery. To the north and to the south, parkways are planned to extend the park. These will follow the river, and in the park proper the drive on the west bank will be separ- ated from the traffic street, so as to lie wholly within the park. Keeping within the three-mile zone, we may turn east from the upper end of this park on the Olentangy, and, noting the broad grounds of the University, which, it is hoped, are to be better planned and thus made to contribute to the beauty and pleasure of Columbus as if they were almost a public park themselves, we may pass from the Lane Avenue bridge southeast by a new diagonal to widened Woodruff Avenue. Thence the circuit drive proceeds to High Street, to Sixteenth Avenue, and then, by curving to Indianola, to Fourth Street, whence it goes east, intersecting a drive to be brought north from the Ohio State Fair-Grounds. The Commission de- sires that an arrangement be effected which will give to the public some use of these grounds between exhibitions, and it should be possible, as a good thing both for Fair-Grounds and for city, to carry the girdling parkway through them, as shown on the general map. If this ar- rangement can be made, the drive will turn south, pass through the Fair-Grounds, and by an extension of Cleveland Avenue get to Fifth Avenue. If the Fair-Grounds cannot be trav- ersed, the drive will have to go around them. At the Fifth Avenue intersection, there is a site which the Commission commends for a future playground. From here, the drive lies through Fifth Avenue to Nelson, and so by a parkway along Alum Creek to Franklin Park. In beauty and general character this Alum Creek drive will be similar to that along the Olentangy, while its entrance into Broad Street, the con- venience of the connection it establishes with the northeast section of the city, and the fact that a considerable amount of building is going on across the creek will make it of an even greater useful- ness. Incidentally, the high character of the NO CITY CAN BOAST OF A MORE BEAUTIFUL BRIDLE PATH THAN THIS 39 IT IS HERE AT THE STORAGE DAM THAT THE COMMISSION PLANS FOR ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING PARK FEATURES A TYPE OF BRIDGE THAT HAS NOT ADDED TO THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF THE CITY ^Mvf'-- THE DUBLIN PIKE, NEAR ARLINGTON This is the direct way from the center of Columbus to the storage reservoir. With the picturesque sides preserved and the roadway macadamized, it would compare favorably with the famous Wissa- hickon Drive out of Philadelphia. NORTH OF FIFTH AVENUE BRIDGE In the proposed North End Park. The tower of a State Univer- sity building may be seen to the right of the picture. SOUTH-EAST FROM DODRIDGE STREET BRIDGE The line of a rough river-bank trail may be semi. This path continues for miles southward, and with little change in location could be made a most attractive park feature. A very few feet only a.re needed to preserve lo the people these shaded river banks here and elsewhere throughout the city. THE OLENTANGY, SOUTH FROM THIRD AVENUE BRIDGE Right bank in iis natural state, left bank denudeii. The latter is the usual condition from this point southward. A very narrow strip ol foliage would preserve the river scenery intact. It would require the reservation of the slope only, which has little or no com- nicrciai vaiuCa NORTH-EAST FROM FIFTH AVENUE BRIDGE In the proposed North End Park (see plan). The foreground shows the characteristie wooded bank of the river, behind which is the large playground tract. The latter is subject ti> spring flooding, which, however, is not a serious objection. It is high and dry before the open outdoor season. LOOKING SOUTH ALONG THE DUBLIN PIKE, AT THE RESERVOIR A sample of the poor country road. A sample also of flue marginal tree growth, through which an electric railroad is proposed. REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION building operations on the east side of the creek, in recognition of the natural beauty of the site, urges haste in securing for the public the stream, and a sufficient strip on its west side for a beautiful parkway, lest soon the chance be lost. Though Franklin Park is the largest park that Columbus now possesses, that is not saying much, and the Commission has not only planned for its rearrangement in a more artistic and use- ful way, but for its considerable extension. By depressing the railroad tracks and carrying the park across the creek to include the tract to the east, as shown on the map and in the more de- tailed plan, it is possible to develop a new scheme which will be consistent throughout. But the importance, for this effect, of depressing rather than elevating the railroad needs to be empha- sized. An elevated structure here would destroy the sense of unity and would interfere seriously with the accessibility of the park's east section. The landscape plan, while retaining with slight modification the existing circuit driveway, re- arranges the west end of the park to give more direct and convenient entrances and, assuming that the Norfolk and Western tracks will not continue at grade, it provides a new entrance and street oval at Nelson Avenue and Broad Street, so bringing Alum Creek Parkway into the park drive. A transverse driveway is also proposed, to provide convenient connection be- tween Woodland and Kelton Avenues, while the drive, continuing along Alum Creek, will provide a further north and south connection. Hand- some formal entrances are to be placed at these and other important points. The plantations of the old park will be largely increased. Though in the center, both here and across the creek, there will be open lawns, offering pleasant far views and inviting use in athletics, the design provides shaded paths and driveways. The greenhouses are to be moved out of the central landscape, where they are more conspicuous than beautiful, and placed in the northeast corner of the park, convenient to the Oak Street car line, screened on all sides from the park scene, and set amid appropriate formal beds of flowers. A pathway system is provided throughout the entire park, and as to Alum Creek, it is broadened into a lake within the park domain, and is made suitable for bathing and skating, with a combined boat- house and skating pavilion on its shore. The whole plan is shown in the diagram. If now the parkway continue south along 44 Alum Creek, a sufficient reservation on either side insuring the beauty of the banks, Livingston Avenue will be intercepted. Proceeding west by that, and passing the Driving Park, the cir- cuit drive will turn south again at broad Wilson Avenue, and at the intersection of Deshler Avenue (extended to it) will touch another play- ground site. Thence it will go west by Deshler Avenue and through Schiller Park to High Street, whence a few feet brings it to Greenlawn Avenue, and over the bridge to the big playgrounds in the south park, which was the point of begin- ning. So there is completed the great circuit of the girdle of boulevards and parkways, which joins all the parks in one connected drive, giv- ing to every section of the city its boulevard or parkway from a hundred to three hundred feet in width, and which offer a beautiful way of going, not only from park to park, but from one quarter of the city to another. There remain only to be noted in the three-mile zone the ra- dials that tie the ring to the center at the State House Mall, and that thus complete the organiz- ing of widely scattered park areas into a well- knit urban system. The map shows these at a glance. To the east. Broad Street is used, for in the built-up portions of the city it is necessary to make use of ex- isting streets, if these be direct and broad enough and not otherwise unfitted, rather than to at- tempt to cut new parkways at incalculable ex- pense. And Broad Street makes an excellent link between the Mall and Franklin Park. Also, generally eastward, is Leonard Avenue, a diag- onal from Galloway Street to the northeast, which touches the girdling boulevard at Fifth Avenue. It is neither boulevard nor parkway, but it makes from them a radial connection toward the center. So, too. Harbor Road, which it is proposed to carry down to Goodale Street. Westward ex- tends West Broad Street, as available as the eastern link; to the southwest there is the Har- risburg Pike, and to the southeast and to the northwest it is proposed that, while the country is still open, there be plotted great diagonals, converging on the city of Columbus, and with those mentioned above serving well the broad surrounding area stretching far beyond the three-mile zone, whose business centers here. Directly south, a portion of High Street will be used. All of these intercept the circling park- ways and boulevards, and in future years they may have an outer girdle of their own. REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION But more important as park radials are the drives that follow the water-courses, north along the Olentangy, west and south by the Scioto or the abandoned canal, and in the eastern section, north and south by Alum Creek. These offer naturally beautiful park-like drives fbrthe greater portion of their distance, and when within the sphere of that degradation which comes where stream and city meet without direction, there is no work which will give better results than will the beautifying of the shores. For here there will be not only the creation of beauty, but the redemption of what now is ugly; not only a gain in looks, but in sanitation ; not only the making of attractive drives, but of convenient ones. And Columbus, in doing this work, will be setting an example for cities all over the United States to follow, in the saving of the beauty of the water-courses. At the beginning of this chapter it was said that a complete park plan for Columbus must include large outlying reservations or country parks which the growing city will approach in time, but which will meanwhile serve as lovely spots for all-day outings, as objective points for drives and rides, and which, while the land is still inexpensive, will preserve forever to the public the most beautiful of the sur- rounding scenery. And there is around Colum- bus scenery more beautiful than, perhaps, most of the citizens realize. Partly for this reason, therefore, the radials are not to stop at the gird- ling parkway. They are to reach far beyond it — east to the Big Walnut, with its rugged. ONE OF SEVERAL EXTENSIVE VIEWS ALONG THE BIG WALNUT From this point tlie beautifully wooded stream and rich farminR country spreading out for miles beyond Is framed by two native oaks clinging to the brink of a high plateau. This is a superior species of tree for avenues. 45 REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION heavily wooded banks, its deep, mysterious ra- vines and rocky boldness, where the Commission recommends that one of the country parks be located between the lines of Broad Street and Livingston Avenue (extended) ; southwest where, some five or six miles out, there should be an- other reservation, in the rolling-, gentle, well- wooded country along the Scioto Big Run; north- ward, on the banks of the romantic Olentangy as far as Worthington, with reservations at cer- tain intervals; northeastward, in the direction of Minerva Park, and northwestward, on the marginal lands of the great new reservoir, and thence northward, past meadows and quiet pools, to the vicinity of Dublin. The photographs sug- gest the charm of this country— though they cannot give the colors of the sunset, the softness of the mosses, the music of the running water, the songs of birds, the scent of flowers, the glory of autumnal painting, the allurement of paths beneath the swaying vines, the fascination to the childish heart, however old the breast it beats in, of the study of nature's wonders. They cannot contrast all this, as will the individ- ual, with the rush and roar of High Street, which really has a metropolitan character seldom equaled in so small a city. But no one who loves Columbus, and believes in it, can for a moment doubt, if, knowing these tracts, the economic policy of the public in securing and holding them while they are still unspoiled and inexpensive. And as for the land around the storage dam, there are special argu- ments for that. These rest on the fact that the municipality already has large holdings there, that sanitary considerations make absolutely neces- sary the safeguarding of the shores of the lake, and that so large a sheet of water in mid-Ohio has the extra charm of the unusual— of the unique— to add to a placid beauty that could not lose its charm, even were it common. The water, in its setting of slowly rising hills that are green and lovely, makes a picture that would have been worth making, apart from the matter of water supply. If these shores be treated in an irregular park-like way, with the art that con- ceals itself to safeguard nature, and there be made a driveway around the lake, now near the margin and now on the hill crest for a wide outlook, the people of Columbus will have large returns for the money they invest— and not only that, but they will vastly increase the dividends of pleasure and profit that they will get from the sum which has already been invested. There remains a word to be said in regard to tree planting on streets and parkways. In ad- dition to the elms and maples, now largely in use, the Commission recommends some planting of the native hardwood trees which once abounded in this region, such as red, white and pin oaks, the ash, and even the sycamore, that there may be greater variety and interest than is possible where only two or three kinds of trees are used. But on separate streets there should, of course, be uniformity; and to this end the recommenda- tion was made in Part I that the trees on the city streets be placed in charge of a city forester or of a tree commission. On the real parkways they would be in charge of the Park Commission, since the parkways would be under the latter's control. For the Carolina poplar and silver maple, now considerably used as street trees, there should be slight esteem. They are soon past their prime and, with their brittle wood, become straggling and rotten. It is hardly worth while to close this chapter with an argument for the execution of the park plans. The Commission believes that the plans themselves, that a knowledge of what other cities have been doing in this respect, that love of Columbus, appreciation of its certain future, and the self-interest of the citizens in a grow- ing city where the unit of lot sub-division invites congestion by its narrowness, unite to make a stronger and more insistent argument than any- thing that could be written here. The members believe, and proudly believe, that Columbus was convinced before they were commissioned that the city has passed the stage of schooling; that it awoke, before their retention, to realization of the pressing need, and that resolution was born of realization. The only uncertainty must have been as to the possibility of creating from exis- tent conditions a practicable, a broadly useful, and attractive park system. To that doubt, if it was felt, the plan submitted is an answer. But there may be added one word of caution. The thing which will count is not how much is done at first, but how well it shall be done. There is the necessity of establishing a stand- ard. Wherever the start is made, see that the work is done well there. Thence, let there be the progress, step by step, toward the organic whole, until in the years to come the complete system shall be realized. 46 THE OHIO STATE CAPITOL, AS ORIGINALLY DESIGNED PART THREE THE CIVIC CENTER IN the preceding pages, attempt has been made to show the advantages that can be gained by the comprehensive development of the city's natural resources. To these benefits, clearly demonstrable as they are, there can be added the testimony of other cities in which a similar work has been under- taken. We have now to consider the heart of the city, that center of the life blood, in a civic and traffic sense, of the community. This is the Capitol park. To it, as we have seen, streets and parkways focus ; and around it as centers are to be arranged the parks, as if in that small area in the business center of Columbus grew the roots of the spreading tree of civic verdure, which is to spread with a luxuriance that will make beautiful all the city. The Capitol building, one of the best monu- ments in the country, resting on a superb site, should, in the opinion of the Commission, if retained at all as the seat of government, be restored to the original lines indicated in the design submitted in 1850. The present site, possessing all the advantages of a central city park, needs but little in the way of amend- ment to give to it the monumental character necessary to make it conform to the dignity of the building and to give it due relation to the 47 a: w H 2 U o o > o w X H li O 2 O P o w (/) Q 2 < 2 < Mas a ssSg-s u9 bo > 0,9 ■-" o I'.Sta S C tj £ , S«w « o 5) sg o S c & oo t^ ^H Jh o b O cu 034S AC; ALTERNATIVE PLAN FOR CIVIC CENTER ARMORY GROVP MVNICIPAL CROVP SCALE , men = 52 TEET TYPES or BVILDINGS colvmbvs plan commission i-S*] ^>.->/ -jf^'-,^- „ ..),--;■• ■. jgl^w !' ■•'■yy^jgjs-: -'~jt^?.'^^ SUGGESTIONS FOR TWO GROUPS OF BUILDINGS TO CLOSE THE VIEW EAST AND WEST OF THE CAPITOL PLACE DE LA CONCORDE In Rome, Buda-Pest, Florence; and in many other cities, the symmetry o£ certain public places is maintained'by controlling the facades of adjoining buildings, as shown in this Parisian square, where two great structures, used by many tenants for miscellaneous purposes, are controlled bj; law and are maintained unchanged to balance one another as civic embellishments. SECTION AND ELEVATION VIEW OF ONE SIDE OF THE PROPOSED MALL Such buildings on either side of the Mall would worthily frame in thcapproach to the State House. They might be used for elthei- public or private purposes, so long as symmetry is maintained LOOKING OUT OF A CIVIC CENTER AND INTO A CIVIC CENTER DESIGNED BY MICHAEL ANGELO REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION area's proposed extension. To the west, this will be across the Scioto River, which it is pro- posed to straighten, so obtaining extra length and dignity for the resulting Mall and simplify- ing its development ; and to the east it will include the four blocks immediately adjacent. Should a new Capitol be built, it should stand at the eastern end of the strip to be thus acquired, and the subsidiary Civic Center would be trans- ferred from east of the present State House to south of it. With these additions, there will be offered three important elements for an impressive cen- ter, namely: the State Capitol and its immediate grounds, an enlarged business center fronting on a fine parkway or Mall leading to the Scioto, and a national and municipal administrative center to the east, where would be grouped a City Hall, a future Government Building, possibly other State Buildings, an Art Gallery and a Music Hall. For obvious reasons it is desirable that a Gover- nor's Mansion be also an integral part of this latter center. It should be at its eastern end, in a residential neighborhood. The site which the Commission recommends is on the main axis, immediately east, therefore, of the space reserved for the City Hall, and fronting on Fourth Street. If that site cannot be secured, the alternative choice would be on Broad Street, as near Fourth, or the easterly end of the Civic Center, as is possible. The mansion should be placed in ample grounds, with public and service entrances; should be classic in type, to conform with the other structures; should be built of marble, and should be a little "White House," in that it should contain not only the private apartments of the Governor, but apartments for State functions. It has not been the aim in presenting this scheme for the Civic Center to dictate the exact design of the actual structures that may be built in the future. It is rather to suggest a type of building, classic in outline and of great simplicity in composition, with a view to keeping the entire scheme in harmony with the classic spirit of the present Capitol, if it is to be retained, and, in any event, to induce the future builders of Columbus to create here a monumental center which shall be a fitting expression of its greatness. The Commission desires, therefore, to call serious attention to the very imposing and simple char- acter of the present State House, and to empha- THE PROPOSED MALL WILL WIPE OUT THIS SQUALID NEIGHBORHOOD, AND IN ITS PLACE PROVIDE A PARK AND SOME OF THE BEST BUILDING SITES IN THE CITY 52 A BADLY PLACED MONUMENT, ENCROACHING ON THE ROADWAY AND OVERSHADOWED BY UNSIGHTLY POLES A WELL-PLACED MONUMENT; HERE FOUR CORNERS HAVE ALSO BEEN TREATED SYMMET- RICALLY, TO COMPLETE THE PICTURE CONFRONTING THOSE ENTERING ROME THE PROPOSED CIVIC CENTER REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION THIS AGGLOMERATION SHOULD BE TRANSFORMED, REDEEMED AND MADE A WHOLESOME PLACE FOR PUBLIC RECREATION size the importance of insisting in the future that this character be maintained throughout the entire system of building which will frame the Civic Center or be adjacent to it. In this way only there may be given to it the character of the great architectural centers of interest in cities like Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and in many of the cities of ancient times, particularly Rome. On the other hand, realizing the utility of the lofty buildings already to the northward on Broad Street and to the southward on State Street, and expecting the increasing prosperity of the city to manifest itself with more high buildings in this section, and because there is recognized the fact that Columbus is largely a commercial city, the plans include two office buildings. And these, in the scheme for a complete and symmet- rical monumental center, are to face the Capitol itself. They would form great corner pylons at the corners of Broad and High, and State and High Streets, and since part of one is already built, and is good enough architecturally to play this important part in the very heart of the new civic scheme, there should be little difficulty in inducing private capital to duplicate it on the corner opposite. The other buildings facing the Mall that stretches from the Capitol to the river could either be used for public or private purposes. They would make ideal hotels, with their fine outlook and quiet surroundings ; but they should be kept low and uniform. It is intended that the Mall shall become a quiet green approach to the Capitol, with all heavy traffic confined, as at present, to Broad and High Streets, the new structures walling it off from those streets, as shown in the illustration above. The recent passage of an admirable bill which enables Columbus and other cities in Ohio to acquire property on either side of a park or park- way, with power to resell with restrictions, ma- terially simplifies the problem of developing this great center. By the exercise of this power, land for the Mall and Civic Court, and for the surrounding structures, can be acquired. More- over, the buildings to face the Mall can be de- signed in advance. Then, when the sites are resold for building purposes, the new owners can be required to build their facades on the Mall, according to these designs. Thus it will be screened and walled in, unified and beautified, at private expense. These resales, also, would 55 REPORT OF THE COLUMBUS PLAN COMMISSION partially repay the expense of opening up the Mall itself. Indeed, it is not too much to expect that the financial burden of many of the other improvements recommended by the Commission will be greatly lessened by this law which, if new in the United States, is similar to those which have enabled the authorities in scores of European and South American communities to make their cities over again into modern and beautiful places of habitation. Across the river, in order to terminate this great vista with precision and to confine the Mall view, the great roof of a vast drill-shed and the more dignified facade of the Armory itself closes the view. On either side are build- ings : one for a great central public bathing establishment in precisely the hottest and most densely populated portion of the city, and, hence, where it is most wanted ; and the other a gym- nasium, high school, or exhibition hall. In conclusion, the Commission fully realizes that an undertaking of this kind is not to be en- tirely achieved in one generation or, perhaps, in several. But in a city like Columbus, where the values are continually increasing and where the wealth of the municipality, and even of the State, can be made available under proper con- ditions, the time has arrived when some definite scheme should be devised looking to the organic development of the city along practical and artistic lines. And this must result in increas- ing its wealth not only by improving the natural conditions, but by attracting legitimate invest- ment, and, above all, by making Columbus a better and a pleasanter place in which to live. It is, then, the Commission's suggestion, if it may not itself be continued until more detailed plans for the city's development can be worked out, that there be created a non-partisan self- perpetuating local commission to see that the plans are closely adhered to. This should be composed of citizens of the highest intelligence and greatest public spirit, who shall serve with- out pay, but who shall be authorized to employ experts to study and report upon all public and semi-public improvements that affect the plan of the city. This local commission should then report to the Board of Public Service, with whom would rest the acceptance or rejection of the projects as well as the work of actual execution. That this work may be carried rapidly forward by one means or the other is, for the good of Columbus, the earnest wish of the Commission. Respectfully submitted, Austin W. Lord, Chairman. Albert Kelsey, • Charles N. Lowrie, H. A. MacNeil, Charles Mulford Robinson, Sec'y. //jeTyrj^/zri, EXPLANATORY Natioiml, State, County and Other Semi-Public Orounds sliown tlnis . J'ii>iu«eil ParicB and Parl^wayB shown tlins h.vtsting Streets and Parkways sliown thus THE GENERAL PLAN FOR A SYSTEM OF PARKS, PARK- WAYS AND CIVIC CENTER FOR THE CITY OF COLUMBUS SUBMI#En B\ THK COIHMMiS IBW <<)MMlSSION COLUMBUS PLAN COMMIbSlu: I-.. I -\/ '^'^' v-^ r ,^ ^\ T^ XT ^^^.C^-