Page:John Nolen--New ideals in the planning of cities.djvu/49

CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES the eminent German engineer and writer, "is more likely to be attained by seeking out the natural topographical conditions. A full consideration for the levels, roads, and boundaries must be the basis upon which all schemes must rest, and these considerations can only be left out of account if they become antagonistic to the legitimate requirements of traffic and town extension, or for economic or esthetic reasons. The closer a town plan adheres to the natural conditions, the more original and attractive it will be. The filling in of the secondary roads to the main network of thoroughfares should be approximately rectangular, because the rectangle is the most convenient form of building block, and for the actual traffic requirements the diagonal system can always be resorted to. The radial form of arrangement is advisable for important focal points; town gateways, railway stations, the approaches and similar situations. Curved streets adapt themselves as a rule better to hilly ground than straight ones; for wide vistas, distant perspectives, and grand monumental effects the straight line asserts itself. The day has gone by for the unqualified employment of definite systems; henceforth they should not play a ruling but a subsidiary role."

The classification of cities according to the types distinguished by dominant functions includes government cities, such as national or state capitals; commercial cities, industrial cities, residential cities, especially those serving as resorts; garden cities; and ideal types, as for example the city proposed by Mr. H. C. Andersen of Rome, Italy, or the city planned in connection with the memorial projected in commemoration of the organization of a League of Nations.

From the point of view of city planning, one of the most interesting types in this classification is that of the "garden