Evening star., 1919-03-07
REGRETSCHO|CE OF
NAVY BUILDING SITE
Frederick Law OImsted OBJ
jects to MaTing Beauty OF
Public Parks.

| Frederick Law Olmsted told mem
bers of the Washington Society OF
Fine Arts in the course of his lecture
on Parks and Fairgrounds" at the
Central High School last night that
one of the saddest occurrences IN
Washington during the war was
the erection of the new Navy Depart
ment building on the site set aside
for the great woods adjoining the LIN
coin memorial
"The emergency did not Justify that
intrusion" Mr. Olmsted declared.
There were other places where the
building might have been put" The
speaker laid stress on the necessity for
having definite landscape architecture
plans and of sticking to them, or only
changing long-established plans upon
the most mature reflection Nothing
must be done to impair the beauty of
any park exclusively set aside for
esthetic purposes" he said.
characterized "Pitiable Showing
"a rather pitiable showing" was the
| way Mr. Olmsted characterized the
| failure TO carry out. the plans SUP
| mitted by the Fine Arts Commission
of which he was MEMBER. oniy one.
| sixth of the needed park space, both
| in large and small parks, have beer
set aside as called for by the plans
| OF the commission.
| One large park, Montrose; two ole
| forts, one-fifth of Rock Creek Park
| the beginning of the reclamation o.
| the Anacostia fats and thirty-fve lit
! tie triangIes, etc--these mark wha
| have been accomplished in the ma
! tfonal program, the speaker said
| Little is known by the public, ac-
| cording to Mr.. Olmsted. OF the com
| missions plans for the new cit!
! growing up beyond Florida avenue.
| Wilh the population constantly pour
| ing into this section, the demand ant
| need for more small park spaces i
now greater than ever. he intimated
Declines to Discuss Details.
Mr. Olmsted refused TO discuss ii
detail the park system, large ant
small, contenting himself with gen
eral outline of the fundamental prin
eiples underlying all correct park AM
Fairgrounds planning.
| Conditions existing in relation t
the control of park planning are a,
deplorabie today as they were man,
| years ago Mr.. OlmSted declared
Parks are set aside for one prtmar,
purpose. and then. some years Later
some one else comes along and start
A movement to use the park, part TO
one purpose and part another Thi
is fundamentally wrong, Mr. Oidmste
pointed out, on the principle that 'yo
cannot eat your cake and have 1t, too.
He made this point clear to his audi
tors by an extreme example, stating
that park set aside for city reser
voir purposes, for instance, coul
hardly be used for bathing beach pur
poses at the same time.
| The park must be either one or tn
other, Similarly, parks set aside prl
marily for their esthetic value. sue
| as the Rock Creek Park, should no
oe made utilitarian, except when thi
can be done skiflfulIy, and with re
! suitant slight detriment TO tn
| ssthetic value of the park.
Not a Real Detraction.
The use of a certain meadow in
| great park for base ball purposes ma
,e secured without any real detrac
Ion from the park as a whole. Sue
proper mixture of the two sorts 0
| park plans, Mr.. Oimsted declared, /
oased upon the old proverb abou
| killing two birds with one stone"
Slides showing parks. good and bad
throughout the United States and Eu
rope, and equally good and bad play
grounds, added to the audiences en-
Joynent of the lecture. Glenn Brown
presided.