NA O Q DEVELOPMENT AND PRESENT STATUS OF CITY PLANNING IN NEW YORK CITY \ Development and Present Status of City Planning in New V(:>rk City Being the Report of the Committee on the City Plan, December .'51, 1914, together with papers presented at a meeting of the Advisory Commission on City Plan, December 17, 1914 CITi' OF NEW YORK BOARD OF ESTIMATE AND APPORTIONMENT COMMITTEE ON THE CITY PLAN 1914 Committee on the City Plan George McAneny, President, Board of Aldermen Chairman Marcus M. Marks, President, Borough of Manhattan Lewis H. Pounds, President, Borough of Brooklyn Douglas Mathewson, President, Borough of The Bronx Maurice E. Connolly, President, Borough of Queens Charles J. McCormack, President, Borough of Richmond Robert H. Written, Secretary George B. Ford, Consultant Advisory Commission on City Plan Charles D. Norton Richard M. Hurd Chairman Robert D. Kohn Frederic B. Pratt C. Grant LaFarge Vice-Chairman E. E. Looms Edward M. Bassett Milo R. Maltbie Edward W. Brown Cyrus C. Miller Arnold W. Brunner John J. Murphy Irving T. Bush E. H. Outerbridge John M. Demarest William Barclay Parsons Michael Furst , , ,. ,'VyiLpiAM Allaire Shortt Herbert F. Gun>;130n , V i ;.E. 'liEHASs Simonson J. Monroe H^:w,l,ett.- . ,•>; < DaniSl'- L. Turner Robert W. Hi&fiite' : ,■ ' '■ ' ' • ■ F-RANlf B. Williams 306147 NEW YORK AND VICINITY CONTENTS I'AGK Cliaptcr I— Work of \hv {'.nHniittcc on tlic City Plan : Report to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment by the Committee on the City Plan '7 Papers Presented at tlie ^leetin^ of the Advisory Connnission on City Plan, December 17, 1914— Chapter II — Work of Earlier Pliuuiin>.- Connnissions— Robert 11. Whittcn 13 Cli.il^ter III— Development of tlie Official City :\Iap since 1898 and tiie Work of the New York City Improvement Com- mission — Nelson P. Lewis 19 Ciiapter I\'— Work of the Hrooklyii Coniiuittee on the City Plan— Frederic H. Pratt 29 Ciia]>ter V— Development of I'ort and 'I'erminal Facilities— E. P. Goodrich 33 Chapter VI— Transit Development— D. I,. Turner 38 Chai)tcr VII— Recreation. Civic Arciiitecturc, Building Dis- tricts and General Summary of Present City Planning Needs— George R. Ford 52 Ilmsiuations New York City and \icinity 4 Plate I— Plan of Ruilt-rj. Section of New York City, 1797 15 I'late II— Map of .Manhattan Street System Laid out by Commis- sioners of 1807 opp. 1 6 Plate III— Portion of l-'inal :\Iap, Borough of Queens 21 Plate IV — General ^Ia]i SJiowing Chief Recommendations of New York City Improvement Commission opp. 22 Plate \' — General Maj) Showing Ciianges in Street System Recom- mended by E. H. Bennett, Architect for the Rrooklyn Commit- tee on City Plan oi)|). 30 Plate \l — Park and Playground System Reconnnended by E. H. Bennett, Architect for the Brooklyn Connnittee on City Plan ojip. .•}2 PAGE Plate VII — Map showing Docks and Terminals in New York City. . 35 Plate VIII — Comparing Subway and Elevated Lines for Interbor- ough Operation Under Present and New Dual System i3 Plate IX — Comparing Lines for Municipal Railway Operation Under Present and New Dual System 45 Plate X — Showing Station Zones Under Present and New Dual System 47 Plate XI — Diagram Showing Existing and New Track Capacity. . 49 Plate XII — Plan of Portion of Central Park Showing Informal Landscape Design 53 Plate XIII — Map Showing Parks and Parkways in New York City and Vicinity 55 Plate XIV — Manhattan Bridge — Proposed Manhattan Terminal and Plaza '. 61 Plate XV — New Elevated Railroad Structure in Queens 63 Plate XVI— Forest Hills Gardens, Station Plaza 65 Plate XVII — Bowne Memorial Fountain — Accepted and Rejected Designs 67 Plate XVIII— Map of Unimproved Property in The Bronx 68 Plate XIX — Map of Prevailing Land Values in Brooklyn 69 Plate XX — Use of Artificial Light in Offices on Exchange Place from Board Street to Broadway 71 Plate XXI — Map Showing Height Districting in Washington, D. C opp. 72 CllAl'TER I \\'ork of the Committee on the City Phui : lleport to the Board of ]<],stimate and Apportionment hy the Committee on the City Plan, December 31, 1914 In re-organizing its Committee system in January, 191-1, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment established a standing Committee on the City Plan. In recommending the creation of this committee, the Committee on Organization of the Board stated in its report as follows : To this Committee it is proposed to commit all larger questions of public improvements. This Committee, ropreseuting as it does all the boroughs of the City, will be in an advantageous position to work out a harmonious plan for public improvement and development. It is expected that eventually the Committee will formulate a general scheme for improvement with which all local improvements will be co-ordinateile(l from the atlases ])ub- lished for different periods. ;}. Time and fare zone transit maps are being ))repared. These maps will show the time required to travel from any part of the City to the City Hall. Taken in connection with our population charts and charts showing existing building development, they will facilitate the making of intensive studies as to the effect of specific improvements in transit facilities upon the distribution of population and will thus give a better basis for estimating the effect of the dual subway system or other proposed transit developments. Data will be prepared showing by small districts the location of factory and other workers. The planning of the housing of the com- munity will be largely determined by the probable location and extent of the industrial districts. The location of industrial districts is in turn large!}- determined by the location of docks and terminals. Charts being prepared will show the development from period to period of docks and terminals, and statistics of improved waterfront used in connection with statistics of amount of imports and exports will aid in an estimate of the mileage and location of improved waterfront that will be required to handle several times the present commerce of the port. Likewise, the charts showing the location, development and change of industrial dis- tricts, together with statistics as to the total amount of land area devoted to factories will give some basis for an estimate of the extent and location of factory districts when the population of the City Ikin (loulilcd .iiid the output of factories has increased two or more times. Little imagination and no research is required to justify tlie as- sumption for the future of a population several times the present within the New York Metropolitan District. It does require considerable imagi- nation assisted by the most careful research to determine the probjible distribution of the future population and the probable location and ex- 10 COMMITTEE ON THE CITY PLAN tent of business and industrial centers. Tlie probable order of develop- ment is also extremely important. It is not only important to know what areas will eventually be needed for port development or for park purposes but also the probable order in which the various available areas will be developed. The work of the Committee in correlating the entire work of carrying out the city plan involves not only the development and revision of a gen- eral plan but also a study of the administrative and legal procedure pro- vided for the carrying out of such plan with a view to the recommendation of improvements therein. Such steps as are practicable should be taken to simplify procedure and render more certain and economical the City's control over the laying out of its streets and park system. The Com- mittee has already taken up some pliases of this problem. On the recommendation of the Heights of Buildings Commission, appointed in 1913 by a committee of the Board of Estimate and Appor- tionment, the Legislature of 1914, by an amendment to the Charter, au- thorized the Board of Estimate and Apportionment to divide the City into districts and to regulate the height of buildings, the area of courts and open spaces and the location of trades and industries in each such district. The amendment provides that before establishing such districts the Board shall appoint a commission to recommend the boundaries of districts and appropriate regulations to be enforced therein. The report of the Heights of Buildings Commission having been re- ferred to this Committee, the Committee, on May 8, 1914, adopted .a re- port recommending to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment the appointment of a Commission on Building Districts and Restrictions. The report of the Committee on the City Plan states that any complete system of building control necessitates the application of different regu- lations to different parts of the City, and that the City should be divided into districts and the restrictions for each district worked out in reference to the peculiar needs and requirements of that particular district. The Committee expresses the belief that " through the consummation of this plan the City will be enabled to take a step that will place it in the fore- most rank of the cities that are taking thought for the future, and are directing the building of the City in accord with a well considered plan." In providing for the appointment of a Commission on Building Dis- tricts and Restrictions, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment di- rected that the Committee on the City Plan should co-operate actively in its work and tliat the Secretary of the Committee on the City Plan should serve also as the Secretary of the Commission on Building Dis- tricts and Restrictions. The membership of the Commission on Building Districts and Restrictions is as follows : Edward M. Bassett, Chairman ; Lawson Purdy, Vice-Chairman ; Edward C. Blum, James E. Clonin, Otto M. Eidlitz, Burt L. Fenner, Edward R. Hardy, Richard W. Lawrence, ADVISORY C:OM MISSIONS 11 Alrick 11. Man. Altr.il K. Mivrling, Gforgc T. Mortimer, J. F. Smith, Walter StabKr. Franklin S. Tomlin, George C. Wliii)ple, William G. Willcox. Tile Committee on tiie City Flan, under the authority granted it by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, has also appointed an Advi- sory Commission on City Plan composed of 24^ citizens. This Advisory Commission is designed to report on such matters as may be specifically referred to it by tiie Committee on the City Plan and also to help in the develoimunt of a general plan for the entire city. The membership of the Commission is as follows: Charles D. Norton, Chairman; Frederic B. Pratt, \ice-Chairman; Edward M. Bassett, Edward W. Brown, Arnold W. Brunner, Irving T. Bush, John M. Demarest, Michael Furst, Herbert F. Gunnison, J. Monroe Hewlett, Robert W. Higbie, Richard M. Hurd, Robert D. Kohn, C. Grant LaFarge, E. E. Loomis, Milo R. Maltbie, Cyrus C. Miller, Joim J. Murphy, E. H. Outerbridge, William Barclay Parsons, William Allaire Shortt, F. DeHass Simonson, Daniel L. Turner, Frank B. Williams. These two advisory commissions are made up of leading professional and business men of the City, each one of whom has been appointed be- cause of special or expert knowledge in relation to some branch of the general subject of city planning. All the members serve without pay. The staff of the Committee on the City Plan serves also as the staff of the two advisory commissions. Thus duplication of work is avoided and the entire work of developing a city plan co-ordinated. The Secretary and the Consultant of the Committee on the City Plan serve in a similar capacity on the two advisory commissions. Mr. Nelson P. Lewis, Chief Engineer of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, and the consult- ing engineers and the engineers in charge of the topographical bureaus of the various boroughs meet with the Committee and form a technical consulting staff. During the year -iO matters have been referred by the Board to this Committee. Not all matters that would normally be considered by a cen- tral city planning authority at present come before the Committee on the City Plan. This is probably fortunate for the time being and until the Committee has developed a general plan. Until the Connnittee has accu- mulated the necessary fundamental data and has in mind a general plan of city development, it is not always in position to make a unique and distinctive contribution to the solution of specific problems. On the other hand when it has the data and has the elements of a general plan, it will be natural and appropriate that the Committee's correlating influence should extend to all those matters that directly affect the general j)lan. The Committee's chief work for the next few years will bl•k of the New York City Iniprovciiiciit Coiiiinission NELSOX 1'. LEWIS Tlie Greater New York charter provided that tlic plan of the former city of New York, the plan of the former city of Brooklyn and so much of the plan of the Borough of Queens as was included within the former city of Long Island City, should be incorporated into the map or plan of the City of New York. It imposed upon the president of the Board of Public Improvements, and as amended four years later, upon the president of each borough, the duty of preparing a plan for all that por- tion of the borough which had not been already mapped. This meant that the plans of the various villages such as Jamaica and Flushing in Queens, New Brighton, Stapleton, Tottenville, etc., on Staten Island, were not really a part of the plan of the City of New York unless they should be incorporated in plans submitted by presidents of these boroughs and adopted by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment. At the present time practically all of the Boroughs of Manliattan, Brooklyn and The Bronx have been finally mapped ; ;J7 per cent of the Borough of Queens lias been covered by final and .50 per cent additional by tentative maps, and in the Borough of Richmond oidy 3 per cent has been finally and 30 per cent tentatively mapped. Under the machinery provided by the Cliarter, responsibility for the laying out of street systems is primarily vested in the borougli presidents. The legalization of all such plans requires specific approval on the part of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, while changes in plan also require the independent approval of tiie Mayor. To permit of carrying out this work more than $.5,000,000 have been appropriated since January 1, 1902, for this use in the Boroughs of The Bronx, Queens and Richmond, in which boroughs the uimiapped areas of substantial magnitude are located. Under a special act of the Legislature and under an authorization of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, an ar- rangement was made between the Mayor and the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey under which the entire city area was triangidated, and a precise location was made of jirominent points conveniently located, these being intended to serve as the basis for the work of the topographical bureaus, which bureaus form the working organization for all of the street planning work under the jurisdiction of the borough presidents. This work was carried out under tlie iiinncdi.itc (lir»cHi)n of the chief en- 20 LEWIS giiieer of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment between 1903 and 1908. The procedure observed in mapping new territory consists of a pre- cise survey of the area, including the location of existing highways and buildings, and the determination of surface elevations. When the infor- mation thus obtained has been plotted it is made to s.erve as the basis for a study of the street plan to be laid out. After such a plan has been outlined by the topogi-aphical bureau to the extent of approximately lo- cating the streets and parks deemed requisite for the needs of tlie territory, and the widths and grades of the former have been determined, it is sub- mitted by the borough president, after first receiving his approval, to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment for consideration. The plan is automatically referred to the chief engineer of the Board for a critical examination, and when his report has been prepared, the project is made tlie subject of an informal hearing by the Board in order that the views aiul criticisms of the property owners may be obtained. The engineer's criticisms are primarily directed to the relation of the streets proposed to each other and to those which are actually in use, to the building dam- age which will be involved in making the plan effective, to the provision of arteries for the connection of existing and probable centers, to the play- ground spaces, to the relation of the highways to the railroads and water- ways, and to the practicability of the gi-ades. Approval by the Board is then usually conditioned upon the revision of tlie treatment in such particulars as this review and discussion may jiave shown to be essi-ntial, and the borough president then proceeds with the )ir(|)aratioii of the finislied plan. The latter is generally known as the final map and differs from the former by giving all block dimensions and angles, as well as grades and street widths, and by definitely fixing the position of the street lines, usually with reference to a system of monu- ments, but in each instance tied in with the triangulation system. The working out of tlie details required for the latter plans in order to obtain the required precision is tedious and costly and the advantage of economy both in time and money in first securing the approval of outline maps of tentative character, and at the same time of obtaining the benefit of both technical criticism and that of property owners before such details are attempted, is too evident to warrant discussion. It does not follow, how- ever, that all such final maps are approved by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment in the form originally presented, as such adoption is also prefaced by another review on the part of the chief engineer of the Board, and by another public hearing. Occasionally it has been found necessary for the chief engineer to point out desirable modifications which were not disclosed by the information available at the time when the tentative maps were originally presented, and more frequently belated property owners or new interests interpose serious and some times substantial objection. Plate III— I'OKTION OK FIN'Ar, MAP. RdROlGH OF QIKKN'S 22 LEWIS The procedure observed for changing the map after it has once been adopted is identical witli that observed in the original instance, the re- view by the chief engineer being required by the Board, and a public hearing being required by the Charter. Since January 1, 1902, and in conformity with the steps jierein out- lined, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment has adopted final maps for the Boroughs of The Bronx, Queens and Richmond aggregating ap- proximately 33,536 acres, while a total of approximately 45,438 addi- tional acres in these boroughs has been tentatively mapped and is await- ing conversion into final maps. Only about 40 per cent of the City area was mapped on January 1, 1898, and these figures show that during the interval between that date and today the final and tentative mapping relates to an additional 40 per cent of the total area. It would, therefore, apjjcar tliat only about 20 per cent of the City is yet lacking a street plan. Work of New Yoek City Improvejient Commission Various schemes have been put forward for modifying the plans of those portions of the City already mapped, but none of them have had the official character of those proposed by the New York City Improvement Commission, created by ordinance of the Board of Aldermen in December, 1903, in a report which was submitted in January, 1907. This report was accompanied by a number of plans, most of which were commendable, but some of them were ambitious and extravagant beyond possibility of realization, while some of them also ignored conditions which then ex- isted or improvements then under way which would have rendered their execution impossible. No attempt will be made to describe or even to enumerate all the different projects suggested in this report. Some of them have already been carried out or are under way. Among these, the following may be noted : The widening of the roadway of Fifth Avenue by setting back the curb and the removal of encroachments beyond the building line. Not only has Fifth Avenue been treated in this way, but a great number of other streets in the Borough of Manhattan. The southerly extension of Seventh Avenue and the widening of Varick Street in order to furnish a much needed continuous thoroughfare on the west side of Manhattan: This project was under consideration by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment before the commission sub- mitted its report, and a special report had been made by the chief engineer of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment dealing not only with the Seventh Avenue and Varick Street improvement, but with a number of other changes relating to this part of Manhattan. The extension of Grand Street and the widening of Roebling Street I I ill tliu IJorouM-l, „f Hiooklyn: Tliese improvements have been entirely Ciinicci out ami luul bcun iiicoii)()i!ited in tlie plan of tlie City before the commission made its report. Their purpose was to furnish a system of adwiuate approaclies to the Brooklyn end of tlie Williamsburg Bridge. The widening of Thompson Avenue in the Borough of Queens : This improvoment is now under way on a more compreiiensive scale than was suggested in tiie report of tiie commission. The street is two hundred feet in width instead of one hundred sixty feet as suggested in the reijort, and extends all the way to Jamaica. The creation of a civic center in the Borough of Manhattan : Wiiile the commission made no very specific recommendation on this subject, the selection of a site for the new court house of sucii projjortions as to permit the grouping about it of other buildings and connecting it with the City Hall Park, is ])robably a more ambitious project than tiic commission had in mind. Certain otlur i)rojects suggested by the commission have been at various times discussed by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, and some of tiiem have gone as far as the preparation and consideration of specific plans, but no action has been taken. Among these are the fol- lowing: The separation of grades at Fifth Avenue and Forty-second Street: Plans were made for carrying the surface railway tracks and the heavy traffic on Forty-second Street under Fifth Avenue in a subway. Public hearings were given, but there was so much opposition on the part of the M-operty owners in tiie immediate vicinity that the project was abandoned. Approach to the Queensboro Bridge: The commission favored the acquisition of tlie block between Fifty-ninth and Sixtieth Streets all the way from Fifth Avenue to Second Avenue, but expressed the belief that this would be too costly and advised the widening of Sixtieth Street by taking half the block to the south and the construction of a diagonal connection between Fifty-seventh Street and tiie end of the bridge. The Board of Estimate and Apportionment lias actually laid out on the city plan the entire block between Fifty-ninth and Sixtieth Streets and between Second and Tliird Avenues as an open space and has provided for the widening of Second Avenue for several blocks eitiier side of the bridge, but no action has been taken toward the acquisition of the property, pending a final determination as to tiie arrangement of tracks on the Queensboro Bridge and tiie connections between these tracks and existing and proposed transit lines. The southerly extension of Irving Place from Fourteenth Street to Fourth Avenue: Tiiis was also considered by tlie Board of Estimate and Apportionment and the extension was laid out upon the city map in order to provide a route for what was called the Tri-Borongh Subway. When the transit plans were changed, this extension was abandoned. WOKK Ol- Xi;\V YORK lllY nil' K()\ l.M KNT CO M .M ISSIOK 23 in tlie Boroiigli of Brooklyn: These improvements have been entirely carried out and had been incorporated in tlie plan of tlie City before the commission made its report. Tiicir ]mrposc was to furnisli a system of adequate approaches to the Brooklyn end of the Williamsburg Bridge. The widening of Thompson Avenue in tiie Borough of Queens : This improvement is now under way on a more comprehensive scale than was suggested in the report of the commission. The street is two hundred feet in width instead of one hundred sixty feet as suggested in the report, anil extends all the way to Jamaica. The creation of a civic center in the Borough of Manhattan : While the commission made no very specific recommendation on this subject, the selection of a site for the new court house of such proportions as to permit the grouping about it of other buildings and connecting it with the City Hall Park, is ])robably a more ambitious project than the commission had in mind. Certain other projects suggested by the commission have been at various times discussed by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, and some of them have gone as far as the preparation and consideration of specific plans, but no action has been taken. Among these are the fol- lowing: The separation of grades at Fifth Avenue and Forty-second Street : Plans were made for carrying the surface railway tracks and the heavy traffic on Forty-second Street under Fifth Avenue in a subway. Public hearings were given, but there was so much opposition on the part of the property owners in the immediate vicinity that the project was abandoned. Approach to the Queensboro Bridge: The commission favored the acquisition of the block between Fifty-ninth and Sixtieth ^5treets all the way from Fifth Avenue to Second Avenue, but expressed the belief that this would be too costly and advised the widening of Sixtieth Street by taking half the block to the south and the construction of a diagonal connection between Fifty-seventh Street and the end of the bridge. The Board of Estimate and Apportionment has actually laid out on the city plan the entire block between Fifty-ninth and Sixtieth Streets and between Second and Third Avenues as an open space and has provided for the widening of Second Avenue for severjil blocks either side of the bridge, but no action has been taken toward the acquisition of the property, pending a final determination as to the arrangement of tracks on the Queensboro Bridge and the connections between tliese tracks and existing and proposed transit lines. The southerly extension of Irving Place from Fourteenth Street to Fourth Avenue: This was also considered by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment and the extension was laid out upon the city map in order to provide a route for what was called the Tri-Borough Subway. When the transit plans were changed, this extension was abandoned. 24 LEWIS The extension of the Shore Road ai-ound Fort Hamilton to connect with Dyker Beach Park in the Borough of Brooklyn: This project ap- pears likely to be realized through negotiations with the War Department permitting the re-estabhshment of a road which was closed at the time of the Spanish War. The extension of Flatbush Avenue southwardly across Jamaica Bay to Barren Island : This street has been laid out and it is likely that it will be acquired in the near future. The laying out of Bedford Avenue from the deflection at Heyward Street to the Williamsburg Bridge Plaza: This street was laid out on the city plan and proceedings to acquire title to it were authorized. Its strategic importance was at once recognized and a rapid transit line was planned to follow it. Owing, however, to the insistent objections of some of the property owners in the territory which would be traversed by the street, on the ground that it would change the entire character of the neighborhood, the project was abandoned. It should be noted, however, that the change in the character of the neighborhood, so much dreaded, has taken place and many of those who opposed the extension have al- ready found homes elsewhere. Park system for the Borouglis of Brooklyn and Queens : A compre- hensive plan for such a system of parks was submitted by the commission, and in the subsequent development of the plan of the Borough of Queens, some of the parks proposed have been laid out upon the city map, but they have not yet been acquired. The inadequacy of the park systems of some of the boroughs is clearly indicated by the fact that park reserva- tions which have been laid out represent the following percentages of the total area of the several boroughs: Manhattan 10.39!'5 Brooklyn 2.7%, The Bronx l5'/c. Queens 1.4%, Richmond O.S^c. A parkway from a point north of Jamaica near Hillside Avenue to a point near Douglaston to connect with a park proposed near Little Neck Bay: Such a boulevard has been laid out on the tentative plans of the Borough of Queens, connecting with Queens Boulevard at Union Turn- pike and following approximately the crest of the ridge to the easterly boundary of the City. The park referred to has also been shown upon tliis tentative plan. While the plans first submitted for this part of the Borough of Queens ignored the existence of a wide strip of city owned land, in which is located the Brooklyn aqueduct, these plans have been modified by recog- nizing these conduit lands and making them the controlling feature of the plan for the territory traversed by them. This strip varies in width from two hundred feet to more than five hundred feet in some places, and it is possible to create along it not only a great boulevard but a series of small parks. The grouping of public buildings in tlic Borougli of Brooklyn: The YOUK fllV coininissioii siiggcstcil tlie plaza at lli. main .utiancc to Prospect Park as an adniirabk' location for a Brooklyn civic center. Present plans con- template, however, retaining this center at the Horough Hall, anil the location in this vicinity of a notable group of buildings, including a new municipal building and Ji court house, which with a reconstructed terminal for the Brooklyn Bridge, woukl create a center which, while of entirely unconventional shai)e, would probably be very satisfactory. The plaza at the main entrance to Prospect Park would have furnished an admirable site for the grouping of the pubhc buildings of Brooklyn, but it is so far removed from the administrative center of the borough it would probably be better to adopt it as the location of a group of educational buildings. The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences is already there, and the Mount Prospect reservoir, which will probably not be needed when the Catskill water supply is introduced into the City, if lowered a few feet would have furnished an admirable site for a public building. The loca- tion of the Brooklyn Public I,ibrary on the triangular space in front of the reservoir between Flatbush Avenue and Eastern Parkway, a site the selection of which was strongly opposed by many, seems to have effectu- ally prevented any such use of the reservoir site. There were many other projects suggested and the above conunents relate only to those which have received more or less consideration by the municipal authorities. The report of the commission was referred to the chief engineer of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment for analysis and for an estimate of the probable cost of carrying out those improve- ments which appeared to be most practicable. Such report was made under date of September 26, 1907, and included an estimate of the prob- able cost of carrying out of the projects which appeared most meritorious, this estimate being based upon the assessed value of the property which would be required with a certain addition which was believed to represent the probable difference between the actual cost of acquisition and such assessed value. The plans for the Boroughs of Queens and Richmond were so little developed at the time that it was impossible to present estimates for any of the projects suggested for these boroughs. The total estimates of the probable cost of acquiring the necessary land in the other three boroughs were as follows: Manhattan projects $4.8,628,000: Brooklyn projects $2.5,490.000 ; The Bronx projects .$.5,390,000 ; total $79,508,000. The above total did not include the estimated cost of the Seventh Avenue extension and the widening of Varick Street now under way. When this commission was first organized, the chief engineer of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, who was an advisory member of the commission and acted as its secretary, strongly urged that the coin- mission first take up projects relating to portions of the City which were still undeveloped or where there were no improvements of great value, in order that the obvious mistakes made in the older parts of the City 26 LEWIS might be avoided and a plan for future development worked out which would not involve enormous expense for the acquisition of improved j^rop- erty and for consequential damages. As has been indicated, however, the projects put forward by the commission were confined in great measure to the built-up portions of the City and the cost of acquiring the land needed for them was so great that few of them were ever undertaken. One notable exception to these was the admirable recommendation of the commission for the establishment of a system of parks in the Boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, and it is much to be regretted that nothing was done to carry out this suggestion. System of Main Thoroughfares In the development of a plan for the newer portions of the City, a policy has always been followed which appears fundamentally wrong. This is that complete plans for an entire street system have been made for one section after another, each being almost always immediately contiguous to a section already planned, not only the important arteries but also minor streets in the new section being articulated with those of the older section, while the new layout has frequently absolutely disre- garded existing developments. The manner in which the plan for an un- developed territory should be built up was briefly outlined in a paper presented by the writer at the International Road Congress of 1913 in the following words : A city does not, oi- should not, grow by accretions of fully developed areas ; neither should its street plan expand by the addition of one completely platted area after another. Its growth is not like that of the human frame, beginning with a structure complete in every detail and gradually increasing in size. The skeleton should be created first. The position of the various parts of this skeleton will be controlled by the topography and by the crude but suggestive system of roads which has already developed, each of them for a fairly good reason, namely, that it leads where people wish to go. Others who come to these now unimportant centers will doubtless wish to go in the same direction, and these roads will naturally become the important streets of this new part of the city. Additional connections will naturally suggest themselves, and the entire street system will, if intelligently con- trolled, be developed in a rational manner along the lines of least resistance, and this part of the city at least will be adapted to convenient movement, orderly business and wholesome living. In the Borough of Queens an opportunity was presented about two years ago to enforce the carrying out of the general principles above out- lined, but unfortunately it was not improved. The President of the Bor- ough of Queens requested, and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment granted, an appropriation of about $1,360,000 for the improvement of a number of existing roads in the Borough of Queens whicli were really the main arteries of travel but which had not been laid out and acquired as city streets. In commenting upon this appropriation and the manner in SYSTKM OF MAIN 27 wliich it was used, tlie chief engineer of the Board of Estimate and Appor- tionment in his report for the year 1912 made the following statement: When the authorization of these improvements was under discussion, your ongineer pointed out the great desirability of lixing the location and dimensions of tliese highways and acquiring title to them for their full width before carrying out improvements which would satisfy all present needs and which would make the property owners along those roads not only indiflerent but positively hostile to any Improvement which would involve expense to them. The recommendation was that the desired improvements be authorized only after the President should have pre- pared and the Board should have adopted plans tixiiig the final location and width of the streets, and proceedings to acquire title to them should have been instituted. This was not done, but the improvements were authorized with the understanding that such plans would be made and submitted as soon as practicable. The roads tiave been made and the abutting property owners have secured without expense loads which will answer their purposes for some years to come. In no single instance has a plan been submitted and the title proceedings authorized, and there is no Immediate prospect of this being done. An opportunity has thus been lost to control the future development of this great territory along more rational lines and with streets of adequate width to meet future needs. Attention should be called to the fact that the plans lately presented by the President of the Borougli of Queens show a serious effort to make the old highways a controlling feature of the general plan, although the plans as prepared provide a complete street system between these main highways — streets which will not be required for many years to come. Tiie next step which will naturally suggest itself is to definitely fix the lines of these controlling streets on the ground and to acquire title to them while the land is cheap, in order that their permanence in the plan of this part of the City may be assured. Other old roads in the Borough of Queens had been included within the lines of streets eighty feet and one hundred feet wide, but the acquisition of title to them was deferred, additional buildings were erected along them without regard to the mapped lines, and when the time did come for the acquisition of title, the cost of doing so was so great on account of the damage to buildings, and the protest against the expense was so vigorous, that one b^' one the streets have been reduced in width and they have become, instead of the control- ling feature of the plan for the territory, mere incidents in a common- place street system. One particular instance will be cited: IMyrtle Avenue, extending in a direct line from the Brooklyn Borough line to Jamaica, furnished one of the few direct routes between Brooklyn and the principal center of population in the Borough of Queens. Owing to the existence of a series of cemeteries and parks, no other such direct connection was possible for a half a mile north or south of this street. In view of this fact, it was laid out at a width of one hundred feet, but the acquisition of title was deferred until by reason of the erection of a number of buildings the cost of a widening became so great that the property owners along the street insistently demanded that its width be reduced to seventy feet, and this was done. The principal ai-gument advanced in favor of this reduction was that Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn was only seventy feet in width and it was illogical to provide for a greater width for its extension into the Borough of Queens, but a glance at the map will show that in Brooklyn Myrtle Avenue is supplemented by a great number of parallel streets, while in Queens there are no such parallel streets, and they could not be created owing to the obstructions already noted. One more example : Jamaica Avenue, a very old highway of irregular width, is the one direct connection between Brooklyn and Jamaica, and for this reason it was selected as a route for a three-track elevated rail- road, a part of the new dual system. The part of this sti-eet through Jamaica was laid out several years ago at a width of one hundred feet, but no steps were taken to acquire title to the full width. Lately the citi- zens of Jamaica have made an almost unanimous protest against any widening of the street on account of the expense, and this most important thoroughfare between Brooklyn and Jamaica will retain its original width of from sixty-six to seventy feet and will have a three-track elevated rail- road occupying its entire roadway. Chapter IV \\'()i-k of tilt' lirooklyn Committee on City Plan Fl{I':i)ERlC B. rUATT In December, 1911, a group of Brooklyn citizens organized a com- mittee to make a study of the Borougli with tiie purpose of devising a plan for the betterment and for the future development of the Borough. The City and Borough officials having to do with ])lanning ques- tions were appointed members of tiie Connnittee and have rendered most valuable service. Mr. Edward H. Bennett of Chicago was appointed the architect and with his staff spent one and a half years in studying the problem with the Committee and its advisors. The Committee in its work accepted as fixed the rapid transit system of elevated, subway and surface cars. It did not study the housing problem, restriction of heights of buildings, nor architectural improve- ments. It realized that Brooklyn would be largely a city of homes with a manufacturing possibility scarcely less important, and that its financial and shopping business would be largely local. It also recognized the fact that Brooklyn and each of the boroughs should be studied and plaiuied with reference to the Greater City. The method of work was as follows : Careful studies were made: First — Of tiie changes in Brooklyn during the past four decades, especial- ly with reference to industry, shopping and housing. These studies included density of population, trend of growth and probable future development. Second — Intensity of vehicular traffic, botli passenger and business, on the most important streets. Third — Intensity of trolley and surface car traffic in the principal streets. Fourth- — Trend of vehicular traffic on streets naturally used in reaching such centres as Brooklyn and Williamsburg Bridges, East Now York, Long Island and South Brooklyn terminal. Fifth — Natural thoroughfares to Queens and Long Island. Sixth — ^lethods of relief by new diagonal streets, by parallel streets and by widening existing streets. Seventh — Park and playground areas and their location, especially with reference to public schools. Eighth — Treatment of proposed marginal railroad along shore front. Ninth — Educational centre, including the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and a new central library building. Tenth — Jamaica Bay Improvement. Eleventh — Civic center. All these studies were plotted on maps and diagrams and a detailed repoi-t made showing existing conditions and proposed changes. By courtesy of the Brooklyn Eagle, copies of these diagrams have been pre- sented to each member of the Commission and may be referred to in reading the following statements. It will be noted that Brooklyn takes the form of an iri-egular circle and is surrounded for three-quarters of its limits by the waters of the East River, New York Bay, Atlantic Ocean and Jamaica Bay. It should also be noted that the greater Brooklyn comprises several old settlements, such as Flatbush, Gravesend, New Utrecht, with their existing street lay-out, also that a large part of the Borough lying south of the connecting railroad, though plotted, is as yet sparsely developed. Looking at the maps it becomes clear that the original ferries and later bridges to Manhattan were the natural beginnings of the main thor- oughfares through Brooklyn. They were the streets most used for traffic, for business and for shopping. The most important of these streets, taken in order of location, are : Hamilton Avenue, leading from the East River southerly and making with Second and Third Avenues the connecting link between the large industrial areas of South Brooklyn. Atlantic Avenue, leading from the East River easterly to East New York. Fulton Street, leading from the old ferry and later from the Brooklyn Bridge to East New York, and paralleling Atlantic Avenue for a long distance. Flatbush Avenue, with its extension to Manhattan Bridge, making the longest and strongest line clear through to Jamaica Bay. Broadway, leading from the East River to East New York. These five streets diverge like the leaves of a fan and form the funda- mental frame work of the Brooklyn street system. At several important points they are intersected by lateral streets forming the secondar}' part of the system. Such streets are: Fourth Avenue, running from the Long Island dejDot to Fort Hamil- ton, Fort Hamilton Parkway, from Prospect Park to the Narrows, Ocean Parkway, from Prospect Park to Conej' Island, Eastern Parkway, from Prospect Park to East New York, Flushing Avenue, from the Brooklyn Bridge to Queens, Myrtle Avenue, from the City Hall to Jamaica, Bushwick Avenue, paralleling Broadway for three-quarters of its length. It will be noticed, however, that there is no equally imjiortant thor- oughfare connecting these diverging streets. A study revealed the exis- tence of the Kings Highway, a country road still used for three-quarters Plate V— GENERAL MAP SHOWIN'G CHANGES IN STREET SYSTEM RECOM- MENDED BY E. H. BENNETT. ARCHITECT FOR THE BROOKLYN COMMITTEE ON CITY PLAN II HI iNi\: 35111 S Hsn S § 5 2 2 5 '■ r, 2 2 5' _^ _ ^ 2 c 5 5 o 75 WDliK OK llltOOKI.VN fOMMn'TKK OX CITY PLAN 31 of its original length, niul .starling nuar the junction of JJroadway, Husli- wick Avenue and Eastern Parkway, and crossing in a circumferential way most of the main tlioroughfares referred to above. For a sentimental reason, namely-, the preservation of an old historic thoroughfare, and for a practical one as well, much stress has been laid upon the necessity- of widening and developing this road. Such a road, laid out as a boulevard, would be a natural line of travel to Coney Island from Long Island and Queens as well as from Upper New York. It would connect the existing Eastern Parkway with Bay Parkway and the Shore Drive. It would bring a most desirable variation into the street system of large area at present without park, plaj'ground or boulevard of any character. Of almost t(iual iinjjortanrc is the necessity for a north and soutli thoroughfare from Brooklyn to Queens. From the Williamsburg Bridge there is no satisfactory route to Long Island City and the vehicular traffic between the two, especially business traffic, is enormous. Such a thorough- fare would greatly relieve lower ^lanhattan, for it would be easier to cross the Quecnsboro Bridge and use such a road than to go through lower Manhattan and across the Williamsburg or Manhattan Bridge as at present. If such a thoroughfare could be developed as part of a rapid transit crosstown line tying together the elevated roads, the relief botli to passengers and vehicles would be great. Third in importance is the relief to Broadway by tlic extension of Bushwick Avenue to the Williamsburg Bridge. Tlie congestion around the bridge would be relievefl, Broadway would be relieved, and a new de- velopment of improved buildings would take place if the six or eight blocks intervening could be cut through. A fourth very desirable connection is that between tlie eastern end of Bushwick Avenue and the Conduit Koad south of Forest Park. A most satisfactory connection through the cemeteries to Forest Park has already met the approval of the city authorities, but this road leads to the northward and will be restricted to pleasure vehicles. Fifthly, there should be a connection of the present shore drives along the Bay and an extension of them so that there may be a continuous drive- way from Bay Ridge Parkway at (j(?th Street to and around Fort Hamil- ton, through Dyker Park, along Warehouse Avenue to Coney Island, and thence to Jamaica Bay and Eastern Parkwjiy. Brooklyn is most fortu- nate in its waterfront and what is not needed, or is unsuited, for docks and shipping should be developed for the use of the ])ublic in recreation. In the sixth place, there is tlie very important marginal railroad planned to connect the industrial sections along the river from the Navy Yard to the Bush Terminals in South Brooklyn. The carrying out of this ])roject would relieve the Heights of considerable commercial traffic WOIIK Ol- HltOOKI.VN COMMIirKK ON CirV I'l.AN .'H of its original lonstii, aiul starting near the jiiiKtioii of JJn.adwa.v, Hiisli- wick Avenue and Eastern rarkway, and crossing in a circiiinferential way most of tlie main thoroughfares referred to above. For a sentimental reason, namely, the preservation of an old historic thoroughfare, and for a practical one as well, much stress has been laid upon the necessity of widening and developing this road. Such a road, laid out as a boulevard, would be a natural line of travel to Coney Island from I,ong Island and Queens as well as from Upper New York. It would connect the existing Eastern Parkway with Bay Parkway and the Shore Drive. It would bring a most desirable variation into the street system of large area at present without park, playground or boulevard of any character. Of almost I'ljual iniportaiicc is tlic lUH'c.ssity tor a north and soutli thoroughfare from Brooklyn to Queens. From the Williamsburg Bridge there is no satisfactory route to Long Island City and the vehicular trMffic between the two, especially business traffic, is enormous. Such a thorough- fare would greatly relieve lower Manhattan, for it would be easier to cross the Queensboro Bridge anil use such a road tlian to go through lower Manhattan and across the Williamsburg or Manhattan Bridge as at present. If such a thoroughfare could be developed as part of a rapid transit crosstown line tying together the elevated roads, the relief both to passengers and vehicles would be great. Third in importance is the relief to Broadway by tiic extension of Bushwick Avenue to the Williamsburg Bridge. The congestion around the bridge would be relieved, Broadway would be relieved, and a new de- velopment of improved buildings would take ])Iacc if the six or eight blocks intervening could be cut through. A fourth very desirable connection is that between the eastern aw. This law brought a new era. The Commission created by it, referring to the First District Commission particularly, not only inherited the results of all the vears of transit progress which had preceded it, but it was vested with greatly increased powers. It was given sweeping powers of regulation and control over existing public utilities, as well as those which it brought into being. It had constructive powers as well as regulative powers. The Rai)id Transit Board disappeared. The new Commission, with Wm. R. Willcox as Chairman, immediately took u|) the transit problem. But in spite of its great powers innumerable obstacles interfered with ra])id progress. It was found necessary to obtain still more amendments to the Rapid Transit Act. The feature of the amendments to the Rapid Transit Act of 1909 was the terminable form of contract, or the short lease provision. The defect in tiie Elsberg amendments was overcome by recognizing that the con- tractor was entitled to be recouped for his expenditures before the City could exercise its short lease privileges. Tiierefore, it was provided, in case the City should recapture after a minimum period of ten years, that the contractor's expenditures should be returned to him with fifteen per cent additional. Now at last the City was in a position to build new transit lines under almost any plan whicli it might elect to follow, but it could only buikl new lines. It could not add to tlie existing facilities, which represented hundreds of millions of dollars of outlay, or co-ordinate such facilities with such new lines as it miglit vuidertake to build. Tlie inability to amalgamate, in this manner, tlie old and new lines was another stumbling block. This was disclosed by tlio negotiations with the existing companies which were carried on by tlie Commission and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment during 1910, 1911 and 1912. Consequently in 1912 other amendments to the Rapid Transit Act were obtained. The amendments of 1909 and 1912 were the last legislative steps necessary. Sliortly thcre;ifter, and as the culmination of forty-five years of effort, on ^larch 19, 1913, Edward E. ]McCall, the newlj' appointed Chairman of the Public Service Commission ; Theodore P. Siionts, President of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, and Timothy S. Williams, Presi- 42 TURNER dent of the New York Municipal Railway Corporation, signed the Dual System Contracts. The Dual System Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Richmond, the five boroughs which constitute the Greater City, although separated from each other physically, form a city approximately included in a semi-circle of eighteen miles radius. Each borough to a certain degree maintains its individuality and within its own boundary contains its particulai- social and commercial districts, but the great majority of the borough activities are concentrated in one area used by all of the boroughs in common. This area at the present time is located in the lower portion of Manhattan and comj)rises that part of the borough south of 59th Street between the Hudson and East Rivers. This is the objective point for most of the municipal travelers. Tlie active life of the Greater City, spreading out over 327 square miles, is concentrated here into an area of only about eight square miles. In short, this is the real community center of the Greater City. A comprehensive municipal transit system must join all the bor- oughs together and make them equally accessible to the community center. These are the chief functions of such a system from the city plan stand- point. The Dual System aims to accomplisli tliis ultimately. The Dual System includes the existing transit lines as well as the proposed new lines. At present Queens and Richmond have no rapid transit lines. The existing Manhattan elevated system below the Harlem River was constructed between 1868 and 1880; the Bronx portion of the INIanliattan system, between 1885 and 1891, and the existing Interborough Subway between 1900 and 1904<. These systems were designed to serve only Manhattan and The Bronx, which then constituted New York City. Although the first subway was not put into operation until after the Greater City came into being on January 1, 1898, it was conceived, planned and ready to be built prior to consolidation, and therefore was not intciiiled as a system for the Greater City. Similarly, tlie Brooklyn elevated lines, which were l)iiilt between 1885 and 1894, were only intended to serve Brooklyn. The Manhattan and Bronx subway and elevated lines traverse the residential portions of the boroughs and then pass through the community center in lower iNIanhattan. They fui'nish the people of these two bor- oughs with a through ride for one fai-e from their homes to business. Furthermore, every outlying track can be utilized to its full capacity into the community center for the benefit of' the section^ traversed by it. Therefore, to the extent which their capacities permit, the services of these lines are ideal. This is why they have been such an important factor ! X ^\^ %,^ / ,-. ^^ivA^: v^^^ \. / A"^^ ^^^. \, ^ >-^ ^.r-sf^ ^\ \ \ f^/lN VxC _\ \ ^fi jvy \ yAS — V l^^^l^ y^( '^>rc? J4 ^1-^0^ t\ \ y^ 'JjkS^^ ^^.jv^ kV^ 1 — 'z~^ ^"^^^^-^ z^ -f 1 44 TUKNEE in the development of Manhattan and The Bronx. In Brooklyn, on the other hand, there are ten Hnes converging into and throttled through two lines across the East River to Manhattan, but even these latter two lines do not traverse any portion of the community center in lower Man- hattan. Therefore, practically none of the New York-bound Brooklyn elevated passengers ai-e carried to their destination. As long as Brooklyn was a separate city these hnes performed their proper function, but as soon as it became a part of the Greater City, with lower Manhattan the objective point for the majority of tlie passengers, then Brooklyn suffered in consequence. New York and Brooklyn as entirely independent cities, like all other sister cities, were intensely antagonistic to each other and jealous of each other's advancement. In spite of the fact that as early as 1883 — fifteen years before consolidation — the Brooklyn Bridge united them for the purpose of promoting their common interest, and also in spite of the fact that the majority of the Brooklyn people preferred to earn their livelihood in what is now Manhattan, every obstacle possible was interposed to the merging of the two communities. Their transportation systems, their most important medium of intercommunication, were kept severely apart and were permitted to develop only in the interest of the particular city which they served. Although the geographical configuration of Manliat- tan had something to do with the matter, the conditions just described are the primary causes for the intense population congestion in Man- hattan. Now that the obstacles to transportation inter-communication will soon be removed, marked changes will rapidly take place. Although the existing systems of Manhattan, The Bronx and Brook- lyn, as just described, now only serve these separated communities, they are capable of articulation with the now lines under a comprehensive ti-ansit plan. Failure to utilize them in such a manner would have been a great economic waste. Consequently, upon the existing lines as a foun- dation the new plan has been formulated. The Interborough Company's system will furnish rapid transit for Brooklyn, Manhattan, The Bronx and Queens. The Brooklyn Company's system will do the same thing for Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, and ultimately will also serve Rich- mond. In this way a Dual System serving the whole City has been created. The enlarged system to be operated by each company will consist of its existing system extended by nddinir tracks to ils existing lines, by (■xtiMiiliii;; ils cxisiiiiL; lines further out into new territory, and liy (■(instructing' new City-built subways for its use. Tlie existing subway and elevated single-track mileage is : For the Interborough Company 191 miles For the Brool■ 7 FULL M Wll ATTW EXISTING TRACK CAPACITY :^: COMMUNITY CENTER NEW TRACK CAPACITY Plate XI— DIAGRAM SHOWIXC, EXISTINC AND NEW TRACK CAPACITY 50 TURXKR Although at times the gain has seemed slow, this is a history of con- tinuous progress. The evolutionary process going on was making com- pany exploitation more difficult; at the same time it was extending the City's powers. Each advance step was bitterly contested by individual and corporate interests, but the pubhc interest was gradually and surely prevailing. Municipal transportation was being removed more and more from' the realms of business and was becoming to a greater and greater extent a social problem, until now the City is almost in supreme control. Coincidcntly, however, the principle has been recognized that if the City is going to assume the supreme control, it must also assume the greater responsibility, and therefore the contractor must be protected in his in- vestment first, the City coming second. This last is the principle under- lying the Dual Contracts. The Dual System not only meets the immediate requirements, but also provides for the future. Whenever new lines are needed the City can construct them, -and the companies are required by their contracts to operate them — the City, however, assumes any operating deficit. Although the Greater City is 17 years old, except for the four sub- way stations In Brooklyn, The Bronx is the only outlying borough actu- ally having transit intercommunication with Manhattan. In Brooklyn's case the Dual System largely remedies this condition by co-ordinating the old lines and new lines — by doing this Brooklyn's accessibility to Manhattan will be increased nearly 5000% at one stroke. To obtain the greatest benefit from this enormous gain, it were better to forget Brook- lyn as Brooklyn and consider it as what it properly Is — an integral part of the Greater City. Transit work must not cease. Richmond should be brought Into the plan. Queens should have more lines. In Brooklyn the existing lines cannot develop their full capacities with the existing outlets to JManhat- tan. More outlets into and traversing Manhattan are required. This will permit the removal of some of the elevated lines now cluttering Brooklyn's principal streets, and their connection with subways into and tlu-ough Manhattan. Never before In this City, and as far as I know In no other city In this country, has it been possible to develop the transit facilities In then- proper relation to the other features of the city plan. The Dual System permits this to be accomplished. Transit lines can now be built out Into entirely undeveloped sections, thus creating new lines of travel, not ad- hering to old ones ; preceding the population, not following the popula- tion; providing new territories for the constantly Increasing population, not confining it to the existing population centers and along old lines of travel; and thereby constantly promoting the growth of the entire City as a unit, not retarding it. UAPIU TKANSIT DKV i: l.O I'M I'.NT 51 When tlic Duiil System is In opeivition completely and the needed extensions provided, instead of being a collection of separated borough communities, New York for the first time will be a unified city in fact as well as in name. The City's future growth must be built on its transit skeleton. Its transportation system must be the real foundation for the city plan of the future. Chapter VII Recreation, Civic Architecture, Building Districts and General Summary of Present City Planning Needs GEORGE B. FORD Recreation Parks — From its earliest days New York has been noted for its parks. Even on the earliest plans of the City we find spaces left open for common use and for parade grounds. The Battery and City Hall Park existed almost from the beginning of the City. In the plan of 1807, we find not only those parks but a number of small proposed parks of about four blocks each, such as Blooniingdale Square, Manhattan Square, Haarlem Square, Observatory Place, Hamilton Square, Haarlem Marsh, The Market Place, Union Place, and lastly, " The Parade," which occu- pied all the space between 23d and 34th Streets and between 3d and 7th Avenues. Of these, Manhattan Square still exists as the site of the Natural History Museum. Haarlem Square has been superseded by Mount Morris Park. The Parade has been reduced to Madison Square. Union Place has been reduced in size and the other proposed parks have never been opened. New York made its first great step forward in cre- ating its park system with the acquisition of Central Park between 1856 and 1863. Its 843 acres cost the City .$6,664,502, of which a little more than a quarter was assessed on abutting property owners, and the rest on the City as a whole. Not only was New York City one of the first cities in America to acquire ahead of its growth a large open space for park use, but in the design and layout of this park under Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvin A^aux it set a new style in informal, picturesque landscape design, which revolutionized park layouts throughout the world. For it was not until after Central Park had been laid out that the historic parks of Europe were changed over from a formal to an informal treatment. The next large park to be acquired in Greater New York was Pros- pect Park in Brooklyn, which was bought between 1864 and 1869. Its 526 acres cost the City $3,210,981, of which between 40 and 45 per cent was assessed locally. Prospect Park with its charming, picturesque treatment was also designed by Olmsted and Vaux. The part of River- side Drive and Park below 129th Street was bought between 1872 and 1903. It contains a total of 190 acres, costing the City $8,239,931, of which two-fifths was assessed locally. Olmsted made the original design 1 /^'"-^-'^^ ■■ ©.■ 7^ LJUiUiUiUl "]1 [^ . °"-^^^ |^y^|^g|^\. V^^Mj ^ f^' -1^ :^^ Plate XII-PLAN OF PORTION OF CENTRAL PARK SHOWING INFORMAL LANDSCAPE DESIGN 54 FORD for the layout of the lower part and the work was executed under Samuel Parsons. Van Courtlandt Park was acquired between 1884 and 1909, and its 1,132 acres cost the City $2,401,684. Pelham Bay Park was acquired between 1888 and 1891, and its 1,756 acres cost the City $2,746,- 667. Bronx Park was acquired by the City between 1888 and 1904, and its 719 acres cost the City $2,408,996. The northern part, which is given over to the use of the New York Botanical Society, was designed by John R. Brinley. The southern part, which is used by the New York Zoologi- cal Society, was designed by George Deerdower. The layout of Van Courtlandt Park and Pelham Bay Park was designed and executed by Samuel Parsons, Landscape Architect of the Park Department. Crotona Park in The Bronx was acquired by the City between 1888 and 1911 and its 154 acres cost the City $1,332,788. It, too, was designed by Samuel Parsons. Forest Park in Queens was acquired between 1895 and 1898, and its 536 acres cost the City $1,276^773. So far, except for a few road- ways and paths, it has been left in its natural state. A plan for the layout of this park has been made by Frederick Law Olmsted but has not yet been carried out. Dyker Beach Park was bought by the City in 1895, and its 140 acres cost the City $229,942. Rockaway Park was bought by the City in 1912 and its 262 acres cost the City $1,316,458. High- land Park, acquired between 1891 and 1908, with an area of 102 acres, cost the City $504,000. This completes the list of New York parks of 100 acres or more. They are eleven in number with an aggregate area of 6,361 acres. They have cost the City almost $30,333,000, of which $6,287,000 out of the cost of the first three was assessed locally. In addition to the above the City has bought many smaller parks, squares and open spaces, so that at the present time the park area actu- ally acquired for each of the five boroughs is as follows : PARK AREAS IN NEW YORK Per Cent of Total Borough Acres iu Parks Area of Bor- Population per ough in Parks Acre of Park Manhattan 1440.19 10.25 1745 Bronx 39.37.72 15.13 155 Brooklyn 1141.12 2.29 1648 Queens 1057.75 1.27 353 Richmond 63.56 .17 '534 Totals 7640.34 3^65 716 We see from the above table that for the whole City of New York there are 7,640.4 acres of park space for 197,599 acres in the City as a whole, or 3.81% of the area of the City is in parks. As the total population of the City is 5,476,996, this means tliat there are for each acre of park space in the City 716 inhabitants. The following table shows the com- Plate XIII— MAP SHOWING PARKS AND PARKWAYS IN NEW YORK CITY AND VICINITY parative amount of space devoted to parks in other cities, both here and abroad : PARK AREAS OF LEADING CITIES City. Park Area Per Cent of Total Area of City Population per Acre of Park New Yorl- 7,640 6,652 5,397 5,278 15,175 3,500 3,81 8.9 6.21 4.51 3.30 716 London 680 Philadelphia Boston Metropolitan Dis- 204 Essex & Hudson Counties. N. J 300 Tlie park figures which we have been presenting above do not take account of boulevard and avenue space, which, on account of its treatment with trees and grass jjlots, etc., perhaps should be considered as a part of the park .system, especially as integral connecting links between the parks. From a study of these maps and tables it is evident that Manhattan and The Bronx comjDare very favorably in their park area with the stand- ards set by other large cities. In Brooklyn, the space devoted to parks is below the average, while in Queens and Richmond the park space is barely adequate for present needs, with no provision whatsoever for the future growth of the borough. In both of these boroughs and in the out- lying sections of Brooklyn there are large tracts of land which, in their natural beauty, are wonderfully suited to park use, far better than to any other use, even housing. As these tracts are as yet unimproved, they can be acquired b}' the City at comparatively low cost now. In the map of Greater New York, made in 1900 for the Paris l'',\liil)itiiin by Louis Risse, city engineer at that time, we find a great many tracts of this sort set apart as proposed parks. Also the New York City Iin|)rovement Com- mission in its rejjort of 1907 made many recommendations for the ac- quiring of park land, in particular for the Borough of Queens, according to the report prepared by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. Two years ago the park commissioner again presented this report of Mr. Olmsted's in revised form, but very little was done with it. On the new uniform scale map for the five boroughs, which has just been prepared by Mr. Nelson P. Lewis, there are many tracts which are denoted as " proposed parks," but the City has no definite policy as to the acquisition of these areas. On the other hand the present policy of the Committee on the City Plan is to remove the name " proposed park " from these tracts and simply leave them as unplotted areas. Of late the City has acquired very few park areas of any importance and tliose it has acquired it lias bought only as some special opportunity was presented to the City rather than ac- cording to any well defined jiolicy of rounding out tl^e park system. KKCRKATIOS 57 111 .ulditioii to the parks within tlie City limits the metroiiolitjin area should t.ikf jucomit of the park systems of Hudson, Essex and Union Counties in New Jersey, the Palisades Interstate Park, wiiieh starts just above Fort Lee Ferry and runs along tiie Hudson River to the Harriman tract in the llamapo Mountains, and the Bronx Itiver I'arkway, which starts at the nortliern boundary of Bronx Park in New York and fol- lows the Bronx River for fifteen miles to the north. As tlie Palisades Interstate Park, es])eeially, is largely used by New York people, it should be considered as part of the New York City park system. The Essex and Hudson County parks aggregate 3,500 acres or one acre for every 300 people. The Palisades Park, including the Bear Mountain and Harri- man tracts, contains 20,000 acres. The Bronx River Parkway contains 1,130 acres. This makes a total of about 28,770 acres of park space available to 7,000,000 people. Playgrounds — The movement for jjlaygrounds and organized play started in America. In fact, the first playgrounds in the world, in a modern sense, were started along the Charles bank in Boston many years ago. The movement for organized play and equipped playgrounds spread ver}' slowly at first and had no general development of importance until Ciiicago started its great sj'stem of playgrounds and plaA-ground parks. This system iias set an example which is now being followed in a greater or less degree all over the world. New York City was early in the field and it has gradually been acquiring more and more playground space throughout the five boroughs. In addition to the special playgrounds, the Board of Education has adopted a policy of providing recreation space out of doors adjacent to each of its schoolhouses. Working out a closer co-operation in policy between these two sets of jjlaygrounds might well be to the advantage of all. Together they would be the natural nucleus of a " Neighborhood Center," about which would be grouped those buildings which had to do with the common life of the local com- nninity. The Board of Education has also eight athletic fields, the total acreage of wliidi is 1.5.9-i acres, and in the five boroughs they have 22 school sites entirely unoccupied and unused. In addition to the above the City has lately set apart in the larger parks several areas which arc used exclusively for play purposes, for gj'mnastic apparatus, for tennis courts, for ball fields, ponds for skating and boating, etc. The City has also eiglit recreation piers, where the second story of public docks is devoted exclusively to play use. To jirovide still further local play space in congested districts, the City has during the last two or three years been roping off certain asphalted streets. 21 in Manhattan and .5 in Brook- Ivn last year, for the length of a block during certain hours of the day? so that the children could play tiiere out of danger of jiassing vehicles. In addition to the play space provided by the City, the New York Parks and Playground Association and its Brooklyn Committee and certain of 58 FORD the social settlements and other agencies have been opening up vacant private lots for play use, chiefly in Manhattan and Brooklyn, putting play apparatus in them, and putting a play director in charge. The newly formed Bronx Committee operated eight playgrounds in the public parks of The Bronx this last summer. Lately combined yard space in the centers of blocks has shown great possibiUties for playground use. The policy is well deserving of study with a view to applying it in laying out new subdivisions. Through these various agencies, both public and pri- vate, the City has available a considerable area for open air play use, and the following table will show how this is distributed throughout the City and the amount of space available per child : PLAYGROUND AREAS IN NEW YORK Square Feet of Acres Total in Space per in Acreage Population in School Child in School in per Play- Play- School Athletic Play Acre of grounds grounds Play- grounds Fields Space Pla.\groiuid Mnnliattan .. 101.32 24.6 4.23 1.82 127.74 19.700 7.00 32.8 17.74 5.00 44.80 13,850 Brooklyn . . . . 94.27 72.2 12.92 5.30 171.77 11.000 2.27 67 5.5.54 2.17 71.17 S.-'^OO Richmond . . 36.8 119.84 1.65 38.45 2..500 Total . 201.87 234 15.82 15.94 453.93 12,000 The experieiuc of Cliitago with its playgrounds has proved that each child needs about scvcnty-Hve square feet of playground space. Their minimum standard !.■, thirty square feet. If the playground system is going to be of any great value, there should be a playground within one quarter of a mile of every home, and larger play fields should be within a i-easonable distance and a 5 cent fare of every part of the City. On studying our maps and figures we find that only a very small proportion of tlie City measures up to these requirements, and that only for the present population with very little provision for the future except in the neighborhood of the large parks in the Bronx. Most of Queens and Rich- mond not only have made no provision for the future, but have hardly made a beginning by taking care of their present recreation needs. The direction and control of recreation in the City is in charge of the Bureau of Recreation of the Department of Parks in Manhattan, a special official of the Park Department in Brooklyn, and the Recreational Department of the Board of Education. The recreation piers are under the supervision of the Pai-k Departments and the play in closed off streets is under the control of the Police Department. Playgrounds on vacant private lots are managed by the Parks and Playgrounds Association and CIVIC ARCHlflXTURK OW by tlic social settlements. In addition, the Recreation Commission wiiich was created several years ago co-operates witii tiicse otlicr agencies, and furtiiermore lias under its direct control the public gymnasiums and cer- tain open sjjaccs. Correlating all of the above, the general policy of rec- reation for the City is under the control of the Committee on Social Welfare of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment. Many suggestions for an extension of the recreational system have been presented from time to time by the Parks and Playgrounds Associa- tion, by the Recreation Conmiission and by various groups throughout the City interested in recreation in particular, or civic welfare in general. More specifically, a comprehensive plan for the extension of the play- ground system in Brooklyn was presented two years ago by the Brooklyn City Plan Committee. Unfortunately, except for the remarkable work done by Jacob Riis, in the nineties, in acquiring small parks m the crowded lower east side of Manhattan, there has been no active policy of acquiring land for playground use. Conclusion — Playgrounds witli directed ])lay are recognized gener- ally as a necessity in cities in order to insure to the child a healthy and normal growth. Parks are necessary as lungs for the community and as places of recreation. Most of New York is woefully lacking in both, even for its present population. There are various tracts within the city, as yet undeveloped, which are eminently suited by nature to park use. It often happens on account of peculiarities of topography that such land is useful for parks just in proportion as it is useless for any other pur- pose. Tlicrefore, it can be had at low cost. The City needs now a scientifically worked out program plan for the extension of the park and playground system, based on the carefully estimated growth of the City for a long time to come. Such a plan should be closely co-ordinated witli the plans for tlic thoroughfare, street and transit system and those for the districting of the City. Civic Arciiitecturf. From tlie standpoint of the general appearance of the City and the impression tliat it makes on the visitor, the character and quality of its architecture is of the greatest importance. No one likes an ugly or sordid city, and unless it appeals to the eye it is very difficult for the visitor or even the citizen to be really enthusiastic about the City. It is well known that under our laws it is impossible for the City to control the appearance of privately owned structures ; but it does have full control over public buildings and structures, and by demanding that such build- ings be designed with taste it can not only set a worthy example to private builders, but by the very number of the public structures can have a marked influence upon the effect of the City as a whole. From the first the average quality of City architecture in New York has been wood. In the oldest prints and views of Manhattan we find pubUc buildings that were quite worth while architecturally. There were, too, interesting grouping of buildings, such as " Bridewell," the " Work- house " and the " Goal," as they stood on the site just north of the present City Hall. The Governor's house was beautifully set where the Custom House now stands, as was the old City Hall, at the intersection of Wall and Broad Streets. The present City Hall was designed by Mangin and McComb in 1803-1811, and with its open setting is one of the architectural gems of the country. Later we have interesting groups, such as the Metropolitan Art Museum, the Natural History Museum, The Brooklyn Institute, City College, New York University, Columbia University, Bcllevue Hospital, and the Bronx Zoo Buildings, etc. We have latterly tiie striking urcliiteetural treatment of most of our bridges and the plans which are being carried out for their approaches, including the great private bridge of the New York Connecting Railways. The proposed plans for the future layout of Blackwell's Island, for the Park Circle Plaza and the Brooklyn Public Library, which is already being built, are in- teresting suggestions in civic grouping. Probably, however, the most important work which the City is doing in civic design is in the planning of the Civic Centers for each of the five boroughs. The Brooklyn City Plan Committee and the Bridge Department have prepared most elaborate and interesting plans for the Brooklyn Civic Center and bridge approach. Richmond already has a promising Civic Center well under way about its charming new Borough Hall. Queens has a nucleus for a Civic Center about its Court House, and The Bronx is just at the present moment trying to decide on the site for its County Center to supplement the pres- ent Civic Center at Crotona Park. The greatest work, however, in civic design that the City is now undertaking is the building of a great Civic Center about the circular Court House in Manhattan, where the City is acquiring about $10,000,000 worth of land in order to give the magnifi- cent circular Court Building proper approaches and setting on all sides. In addition to the above forms of civic architecture, the P\iblic Service Commission is doing much to enhance the appearance of the City in improving the quality of the design of its rapid transit structures and stations, particularly in the parts about to be built in Queens and The Bronx. Similar interesting work has been done for the City in the con- trol of the design of street fixtures such as lighting standards, telegraph and telephone poles, watering troughs, subway kiosks, public comfort stations, and other street accessories, for the architectural quality of these has vastly improved within the past few years. The City has also been fortunate recently in the quality of the monu- ments and statues erected in the streets, and parks, such as the Pulitzer fountain, tiie P^iremen's monument, the Carl Srhnrz and the Strauss 62 FORD memorials, etc., as well as in the case of older monuments, such as the Washington and Brooklyn Arches and the Hunt Memorial, the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, the column in Brooklyn and the Sherman and Farragut statues. After all, perhaps some of the greatest con- tributions to civic architecture have been made by private corporations ; as, for example, the great educational group around Columbia University. The New York Central has also set a remarkable object lesson in the de- sign and placing of the Grand Central Station with approaches north and south, and particularly in the waj' it has preserved a uniform cornice line on the west side of Vanderbilt Avenue, of the same height and character as that of the station itself across the street. As an example of the possi- bilities in improving the appearance of the City, particularly in the out- lying sections, the work which has been done by the Sage Foundation Homes Company at Forest Hills Gardens, Long Island, in the design and arrangement and harmonious grouping of the station and all of its sur- roundings, is particularly interesting. For sheer beauty New York City can boast of views or vistas which compare with those of any city in the world. Not only is the effectiveness of Columbia University Library, with its great formal terracing and approaches, hardly surpassed in Europe, but almost nowhere can we find a view that compares in charm and inspiration with that obtained by standing in front of the northwest door of tlie IMunicipal Building, looking up through its beautifully de- signed arch, over that gem of arcliitecture, the City Hall, to the wonder- ful Woolworth Building rising beyond. It is a remarkable standard for the City to live up to in its future civic art. The City has been in the habit of having all of its buildings of any importance designed by private architects. The City has had at several periods for a short time a consulting architect. The Board of Edu- cation has its own architectural department. In general, from all of tliese sources the results have been comparatively good. However, the great advance in the control of the quality of civic architecture came with the creation of the Art Commission of the City of New York on January 1, 1898. Boston had an art commission with very limited powers in 1890 and Baltimore in 1895. Mr. John M. Carrere, acting through the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects and through the Fine Arts Federation, proposed in 1896 that such a commission should be appointed in New York City. An act creating it and giving it very broad powers was incorporated in the Charter of the Greater City. During the first four years of its ex- istence it had jurisdiction only over works of art and it passed upon the designs of public sti-uctures only when requested to do so by the Mayor or the Board of Aldermen. Since 1902, however, the law requires it not only to pass upon all works of art but upon all public structures of any sort, and upon all private structures built wholly or in part upon public land ; also upon the lines, grades and plotting of all public grounds. The - w 64 roED only exception under such jurisdiction is that when a structure is to be erected costing $250,000 or less, the Commission shall not act if requested not to do so by the Mayor or the Board of Aldermen. Such a request has never been made. There are ten members of the Commission, of ivhich four ex-officio members are the Mayor, the President of the Metropolitan Museum, the President of the Public Library and the President of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. The other six members are appointed by the Mayor from a list consisting of three times as many can- didates as are to be appointed, submitted to the Mayor by the Fine Arts Federation. Of these six one must be an architect, one a sculptor and one a painter, and the other three laymen. There is a further provision that when a structure is under the special jurisdiction of a conmiissioner or a department of the City, such commissioner or the licad of such depart- ment shall be a member of the Art Commission during the consideration of the designs. The Art Commission acts as a jury and considers not only the artistic quality of plans, drawings or models submitted to it but considers the appropriateness of their site and the fitness of the design to its use. The approval of the Ait Commissioners is essential on all matters over which tliey have jurisdiction, and final payment cannot be made until they have approved of the design, but if they fail to pass upon a design within sixty davs of the time when it was submitted to them tiie work can be carried on without waiting further for their approval. They have no initiative and make no concrete suggestions for improving designs submitted to them. Many hundred matters are submitted to them in the course of a year, but as it works out, many matters which should by law be submitted tb them are not, in fact, as the Commission lacks the funds necessary to following up all building on City land. That they have had a marked influence in raising the standard of taste and beauty of public structures is obvious to any one who compares the designs as first submitted to them with the designs as they finally approve them. Under Mayor McClellan for the two years following July 1, 1907, Mr. Walter Cook sei-ved as Consulting Architect to the Board of Esti- mate and Apportionment. His duties were to supervise the preparation of plans, designs and specifications connected with the construction of all public buildings authorized by the Board of Estimate and Apportion- ment. His work was creative and he had the initiative which the Art Commission lacked. In this capacity he had a marked effect on the quality of City architecture during the two years that he was in office. There remains much constructive work to be done in carrying out the future building of the City, not only in creative design, but in choos- ing sites and in the study of the relative location of buildings as erected by different departments, so as to gain such effectiveness as can be secured by grouping. The City needs some one body that can keep a clear perspective of the whole field of development and who will see that indi- vidual building projects as they come up conform to the great compre- hensive plan. CoXTROLLlXG PlUVATE DEVELOPMENT Probably tlie most useful function the City can exercise along gen- eral city planning lines is in the control of the improvement and develop- ment of pi-ivate property. Every city suffers great economic and social losses from the haphazard development of its private property. As things are now, with rare exceptions, every district and even every parcel of property is developed by itself, with little or no reference to its relation with its surroundings or to the most desirable development of the neighborhood. In Germany the city governments do show a decided control over the development of private property, and the advantages which their methods present in efficiency, economy, convenience and gen- eral well-being, are most obvious. In America we have done very little along this line. For example, with regard to housing, we find notorious conditions of congestion in certain parts of the City, while as yet over three-quarters of the area of the City is unimproved. We find people living five or six thousand to the block in six-story tenements where three- quarters of the rooms receive no sunlight from one end of the year to the other, and then we wonder why the death rate from tuberculosis is so high. In the business and industrial world similar conditions prevail. People work year in and year out, in twelve-story factory loft buildings which cover almost solidly the whole block. To alleviate these conditions the City has already done quite a httle in a curative way, but almost nothing in the way of j^revention. The State Tenement and Labor Laws and the City Building and Sanitary Codes have made a good start by limiting the height, area and congestion of tenements and factories, and to a slight extent thc3r liave limited tlie area of various other buildings. However, while these restrictions do have a certain effectiveness in alle- viating the worst conditions in the City, they are of little or no help in preventing the recurrence of these conditions in those parts of the City which are not as yet built up so densely. It was with a particular view to making a start toward the control by the City of undesirable private development, that Mr. George McAneny, then president of the Borough of Manhattan, brought for- ward the problem of limiting the height, area and arrangement of build- ings. This resulted in the appointment by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, in March, 1913, of the Heights of Buildings Commis- sion, which consisted of 19 members, with Mr. Edward M. Bassett, for- merly Public Service Commissioner, as Chairman. On this Commission were a number of the leading real estate, business and manufacturing ^tl|UI IM MIJ 9 msiM' liiLi UJ*Uii ^ ■■^" ' ■ T-^f ^^B lUHd LJI^l "S L f ;^ -J luLJ Uil&Ji s k m^K '« ^^!^? -^ 1 , ^!&^ ase map reproduced by courtesy of Ohman Map Company Plate XVIII— MAP.OF UNIMPROVED PROPERTY IN THE BRONX Black indicates unimproved land /: ■. % I Borough of Brooklyn le map reproduced by courtesy of Ohman Map Company Plate XIX— MAP OF PREVAILING LAND VALUES IN BROOKLYN Numerals indicate prevailing assessed value per front foot for inside lots 70 FORD men of the City, as well as leading architects and engineers, and they all gave freely of their time and energy to help in arriving at a sane solu- tion of a most difficult and vital problem. An appropriation of $15,000 was secured, and a staff appointed with Mr. George B. Ford as Secretary and Director of Investigations, and with Mr. Robert H. Whitten as Special Investigator and Editor of the Report. The staff, which consisted of some 36 members in all, collected the available data with regard to building restrictions in other cities both here and abroad, Mr. Frank B. Williams being sent to Europe especially to report on the character and effect of restrictions there. The staff collected data with regard to building matters for the five boroughs of New York, presenting it in the form of reports, tables, charts and maps, among which were the following : The prevalence of the use of artificial light during the day-time particularly in down-town office buildings. The distribution of vacancies in their relation to the height and bulk of buildings. The general classification of buildings by use. The distribution of buildings by height. The detailed distribution of office buildings, hotels and lofts by height. The detailed distribution of factories by heights and particular use. The detailed distribution of residential buildings by heights. The distribution of assessed land values per front foot. The distribution of the percentage of the lot covered by buildings. The distribution of unimproved property. The distribution of brick buildings outside of the fire limits. The detailed distribution of buildings by height in lower Manhattan and along Fifth Avenue. Further the staff tried out many different ideas for height and area limitation to see their effect on typical and actual examples. The result of the work of this Commission was the submission of a report to the Board of Estimate in December, 1913, in which was made a specific recommendation for a general height and area limitation for the whole City. This is at present before the Board of Aldermen in the form of an ordinance. The Commission felt strongly as a result of its consideration that the City should be districted with different height, area and character of occupancy regulations for different parts of the City. Realizing that the City Charter would probably not permit such districting, the Com- mission framed two Charter Amendments, which would give the City this power. These two amendments permitting the Board of Estimate and Apportionment to district the City according to the height, area and use of improvements on private property, and authorizing it to of ngs Commi; XX— USE OF ARTIFICIAL LIGHT IM OFFICES 0\ EXCHANGE PLACE FROM BROAD STREET TO BROADWAY. OFFICES WITH WINDOWS BLACKED IN WERE USING ARTIFICIAL LIGHT AT NOON ON A BRIGHT DAY appoint an Advisory Commission on Districts and Restrictions who would report back to the Board with a definite plan of action, was passed by the State Legislature and became a law in May, 1914. In June, 1914, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment upon the report of its Committee on the City Plan, of which Mr. McAneny is Chairman, appointed a Commission on Building Districts and Restric- tions with Mr. Edward M. Bassett again as Chairman, and with seven- teen members, many of whom were on the former Commission. Mr. Robert H. Whitten, the Secretary of the Committee on the City Plan, is also the Secretary of this new Commission, and Mr. George B. Ford is its Con- sultant, and the Committee on the City Plan has further put its staff and rooms at the disposal of the Commission. At the first meeting of the Commission which was held the latter part of June, 1914, Mr. Whitten and Mr. Ford presented a plan for work which should be done during the summer in the collection of data fundamental to districting work, data which was essential, as a matter of fact, not only to intelligent district- ing, but also to city planning work as a whole. The Commission recon- vened in September and since then has been actively at work determin- ing its method of procedure and plan of campaign. It has been very diffi- cult to find a point of departure in starting the work, as there is almost no precedent for an undertaking of this sort, but the Commission decided that the first most important step was the classification of buildings throughout the City, in accordance with their tendency, to exist in groups noticeably uniform in height, area or use. Latterly the Commission has been meeting regularly once a week to work out and discuss classifications and to determine on a reasonable height, area, setback and use limitation for each type. In addition to this program of regulation and restriction there are many possibilities of so laying out block and lot units according to the best use of any property as to forestall the necessity of much of the restrictive program which now seems desirable. This matter is deserving of most careful study. Controlling the development of private property not only for the welfare of the City as a whole but even for the advan- tage of the particular property affected is one of the greatest functions of city planning. In no way can the City exert a more beneficial influ- ence over its physical growth than by regulating in a common-sense way the character of the improvement of property. General Summaky of City Planning Needs Enforcing the City Plan and Paying for Improvements — In order to get at city planning satisfactorily, we must have proper means of en- forcing the city plan as made and paying for improvements as carried out. At present the City has no means of forcing the private property By cnurtcsy of Heij Key to H Platb XXI— map showing HEIGHT DISTRICTING IN WASHINGTON, D. C. Plate XXI— MAP SHOWING HEIGHT DISTRICTING IN WASHINGTON. D. C. Key to Height Limitations: Olive. 160 feet; red. 130 feet: yellow. 95 feet; green, 90 feet; blue. 80 feet; lavender. 60 to 85 feet; whit SUMMARY OF CITY PLANNING NEEDS 78 owner who is laying out a subdivision, to accept the city map for his property or to lay out his system of tlioroughfares, streets and blocks for the best interests of the community as a whole. The City sliould have such power. Furthermore the present methods of paying for improvements, wliethcr by the City as a whole or by local assessment, are oftentimes most unsatisfactoi-y. The City should have the power of excess con- demnation for carrying out such enterprises as such a method would render peculiarly profitable to the City. Controlling the Development of Private Property — The City has almost no control over the development of private property, with the result that it is developed according to the whim of individual owners. This has caused a most unfortunate congestion in many parts of the city, with a distinct menace to health, safety and morals. As under the police power, the City has the right on the plea of danger to health, safety or morals, or general convenience, to regulate private develop- ment, it is manifestly to the advantage of the City to profit by its lesson of the past and prevent the recurrence in the newer districts of the un- seemly conditions which we find now in many of the older regions. The removal of encroachments on busy streets could well be continued wherever desirable, setbacks on narrow streets should be called for by the Cit}' to allow for future convertibility as the City grows and as the character of occupancy changes. The City, under the police power, could restrict the character of occupancy in different parts of the City for the welfare of the citizens and to stabilize property values. The City could also limit the height and area of buildings, differently, in different parts of tlie City, in order to secure to all the greatest amount of light, air, safety and amenity. Furthermore it would be desirable to make studies to determine the best lot and block units for the various parts of the city, with a view to the probable future use of the property. Streets and Subdivisions — Under the Chief Engineer, Mr. Nelson P. Lewis, a very considerable start has been made toward establishing a system of thoroughfares throughout the City, but very much yet remains to be done. There should be worked out a co-ordinated system of thoroughfares, based on the various tendencies of development of the different parts of the City and on their probable traffic uses. This system should be based not only on the needs of tlie City itself, but also on those of the whole surrounding district. It should, furthermore, consider rapid transit needs, and the width of the thoroughfares should be based on future rapid transit use. Especial attention should be given, also, to designing the thoroughfare system, so that it would properly serve the rapid transit and railroad stations. SUMMARY OF CITY PLANNING NEEDS 73 owner who is laying out a subdivision, to accept the city map for his property or to lay out his system of thoroughfares, streets and blocks for the best interests of the community as a whole. The City should have such power. Furthermore the present methods of paying for improvements, wlutlicr by the City as a whole or by local assessment, are oftentimes most unsatisfactory. The City should have tiie power of excess con- demnation for carrying out such enterprises as such a metiiod would render peculiarly profitable to the City. Controlling the Development of Private Property — The City has almost no control over the development of private property', with the result that it is developed according to the whim of individual owners. This has caused a most unfortunate congestion in many parts of the city, with a distinct menace to health, safety and morals. As under the police power, the City has the right on the plea of danger to health, safety or morals, or general convenience, to regulate private develop- ment, it is manifestly to the advantage of the City to profit by its lesson of the past and prevent the recurrence in the newer districts of the un- seemlj' conditions which we find now in many of the older regions. The removal of encroachments on busy streets could well be continued wherever desirable, setbacks on narrow streets should be called for by the City to allow for future convertibilit}' as the City grows and as the cliaractcr of occupancy changes. The City, under the police power, could restrict the character of occupancy in different parts of the City for the welfare of the citizens and to stabilize property values. The City could also limit the height and area of buildings, differently, in different parts of the City, in order to secure to all the greatest amount of light, air, safety and amenity. Furthermore it would be desirable to make studies to determine the best lot and block units for the various parts of tlic city, with a view to the probable future use of the property. Streets and Subdiiisions — Under the Chief Engineer, Mr. Nelson P. Lewis, a very considerable start has been made toward establishing a system of thoroughfares througliout the Cit}-, but very much yet remains to be done. There should be worked out a co-ordinated system of thoroughfares, based on the various tendencies of development of the different parts of the City and on their probable traffic uses. This system should be based not only on the needs of the City itself, but also on those of the whole surrounding district. It should, furthermore, consider rapid transit needs, and the width of the thoroughfares should be based on future rapid transit use. Especial attention should be given, also, to designing the thoroughfare system, so that it would properly serve the rapid transit and railroad stations. 74 FOttD When we come to the minor streets, it is to the advantage of the City that they should be so laid out as to secure every advantage that comes from natural topography and so that they would be peculiarly adapted to their best future use. Furthermore they should be designed with a view to their conversion to a more intensive use as the City grows ; and, in particular, some of the secondary streets should be designed with the idea that, at some later date, they may need to be converted into thoroughfares. Passenger Transportation — The City already has a wonderful transit system which will amply take care of most of the needs of the City for some time to come. However, there are a number of sections of the City, which the present plans have not taken care of, and it is desir- able to study the fundamental data which have recently been collected on the distribution of the life and activities of the City, in order to round out plans for transit service and to work out a comprehensive plan for a complete transit system which shall correspond to the probable future growth of the whole City and the surrounding region. In particular, these plans should co-operate with the districting work, in order to serve the probable new needs and distribution of the City's activities. There are many possibiHties of improvement in a thoroughgoing co-ordination of all the services of the various transit companies, espe- cially at the express stations of rapid transit and railroad lines. There are possibilities, too, in designing the thoroughfare system of allowing for open-cut railways, which, as the City grows, may be converted into subways. With such plans developed, it is possible to work out an order of urgency, so that in each case the most pressing improvements may be carried out first. Freight Transportation by Rail and Water — Rail and water ter- minals have been located, in general, where their owners wished to locate them, rather than where they would best fit into the city plan and serve the needs of the community as a whole. It is to the obvious advantage of the City to determine soon the best economic use of each part of the harbor and waterfront and railroad rights of way and to decide on the best sites for terminals and distributing stations of various kinds, par- ticularly for food supply. This work should be done in harmony with the districting of the City and the new needs which this will probably bring out. Furthermore, the freight handling system should be co-ordi- nated with the street and transit systems with a view to securing the best thoroughfare and transit approaches to the terminals and to laying out the region around the terminals so that it could be developed hai-moniously with the latter. This subject includes a study of the whole surrounding district, including the Jersey meadows. It would probably result in work- ing out one great comprehensive system with interconnecting railways SUMMAEY OF CITY PLANNING NEEDS "5 and witli co-ordinated classification, shipping and storage systems, there- by obviating a great deal of the present waste. Recreation — New York has, at present, a good system of parks, but they are very unevenly distributed, and there are large sections, par- ticularly in Queens and Richmond, that have almost no parks available at present, to say nothing of the future. It would be greatly to the advantage of the City to determine on a comprehensive park and ]ilay- ground system for the whole City, locating the distribution of areas of various sizes where they would best serve the probable growth of the City. Then any tracts which arc peculiarly suited by nature or availability for park or playground use could be noted and an order of acquisition, based on urgency and expediency, decided upon. This plan should be co-ordi- nated with the plans for transit and thoroughfares, witli a view to making all areas as accessible as possible. In connection with the districting and subdivision work it would be desirable to determine on a policy for the use of the centers of blocks for common recreation. It might also be worth while to work out a plan for co-ordinating general playgrounds with school recreation and to see that both co-operate with the plans for the development of neighborhood centers. Civic Architecture and Landscape Architecture — The City is making a splendid start toward a grander civic architecture in the working out of the civic centers in the five boroughs, in the great plans which are being worked out for the bridge approaches, in the plans which are being made for the grouping of various institutional buildings, and in the good architectural quality of recent street fittings. Much remains to be done, however, in the carrying out of these plans with a view to securing a harmony and bigness of conception that would look forward for some distance into the future. The location of all new public and semi-public buildings could be studied to see whether they would not fit to advantage into !i civic or neighborhood center. Much could be done, too, in the way of improving the landscape setting of public buildings and of the sti-eets and thoroughfares. Property owners could be encouraged to a better architectural treatment of their buildings, and, in particular, much could be gained by insisting that all structures erected on or over public prop- erty should be submitted to the Art Commission. The Comprehe7isivc Plan — The City needs a comprehensive plan for its whole physical development. All of the matters which have just been mentioned should be correlated and co-ordinated in one complete scheme. That development of every tract of land should be determined upon which is best not only for itself but for the neighboring tracts and for the City as a whole. Then the whole circulating system and the lot, block and open space units should be designed so as to secure to the City 76 FOED the best use of each of its parts, both now and far into the future. The comprehensive city plan should not stop at the City boundaries but should include the whole commuting belt, so as to bring the entire region that is related to and dependent on the City into one perfectly co-ordinated plan. i. B. BROWN PRINTING & BINDING CO