Page:John Nolen--New ideals in the planning of cities.djvu/83

CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES buildings abutting on park property—stores, apartment houses, saloons, etc.—should be reasonably regulated. More important still are the facilities for reaching parks. Many cities have postponed the consideration of this point until proper provision was impossible, or, if not impossible, very expensive.

Notable among the writings on the larger questions affecting public parks as a part of city planning are the reports of Olmsted Brothers; the special number of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March, 1910, entitled "Public Recreation Facilities"; the papers of Andrew Wright Crawford of Philadelphia; the article on "The Commercial Value of Parks, by W. E. Harmon, in The Survey of February 26, 1910; the paper of George E. Kessler on "The Actual Distribution of the Cost of Kansas City Parks"; the article by John Nolen on "Some Examples of the Influence of Public Parks in Increasing City Land Values," Landscape Architecture, July, 1913; "Can Public Parks Be Made Self-Supporting?" by George A. Parker, and especially the two papers on "Public Parks" read before the American Social Science Association in 1870 and 1880 by Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr.

Public buildings constitute an essential element In a city plan, and first of importance Is their location with regard to the city as a whole. They may be grouped in one center, or in various centers, according to the plan of the city and the local requirerments. They are rightly placed when grouped In locations that will suit economic conditions and when they are readily accessible to the public.

As one of the chief factors in this subject is the growth of a city, it may be stated as a principle that the location