Evening star., 1925-03-26
Harris and BaIlou Find Score
of Ideas in Survey of
Other Cities.
STAGE NOW SET TO START
WORK ON BIG PROGRAM
Cleveland Visit Proves Practica-
bility of Acquiring Large
Building Sites.

| With a score or more of new ideas
! in modern schoolhouse construction.
picked up in a survey of the up-to-
date schools in Rochester. Buffalo and
| Cleveland Supt. of Schools Frank W.
Ballou and Municipal Architect Albert
| L. Harris returned to Washington to-
1 day prepared to start the actual de-
velopment of the Districts 'Inpreee-
dented S19 900, 900 5-year building pro-
| gram.
The school planners are elated over
| the results of the inspection tour, and
| indicated that they undoubtedly would
be reflected in the initial installment
of the 5-year development project.
We have collected many worthwhile
| ideas" said Dr. Ballou. The trip has
been very profitable; far more so than
we expected"
Large Sites Needed.
! The survey in Cleveland yesterday
/ again served to impress on the com
mittee the need of large sites for
buildings and the wisdom of buying
them in advance of their use. Cleve-
! land has adopted policy of acquiring
three-and- -half-acre sites for its
! new elementary schools and
| for the junior high schools, assuring
! adequate playground space. One
/ school visited, the Benjamin Franklin,
! is located on an immense site con-
/ tanning IL acres.
| Although Cleveland has many
/ schools of recent construction, it is
continuing to carry out develop
! ment program on an elaborate scale.
| A three-year program calling for the
! expenditure of S19,500,00 has just
been projected.
Cleveland Paying More.
I Cleveland, however, Is paying con-
siderably more for its new buildings
than Washington. The estimated cost
of the schools TO be constructed un-
! der its three-year program is SO cents
| per cubic foot, as compared with
maximum of 80 cents a cubic foot
| in Washington.
The school planners made no mis-
take in including Cleveland in its
itinerary. At the outset of the in
! vestigation there, Supt. R. q. Jones
assured them that the city is un-
usually progressive in its school con-
struction innovations. Cleveland
tries out many new ideas" he said,
land God help the man who makes
| mistake. His removal is sure and
prompt"
Two standard types of elementary
schools have been developed in Cleve-
!
the other 80. Particular attention has
been given to the cultural value of the
| architecture.
Movable Furniture Used.
Movable furniture has been adopted
| as standard equipment in all of the
classrooms in Cleveland's new schools.
The teachers assured the inves-
tigators that they would have no other
type. In the other cities visited, how
subject of experiment and although
the administrative officers lauded it
as the best type OF classroom furni-
| ture yet developed, they said they
| found it difficult to sell it to the
teachers and the community.
The types of movable furniture OBJ
! served in the Cleveland schools in
| clude a seat and desk combined and
small tables with six chairs at each.
The latter seemed to be the favorite
! type, but the problem of finding space
for books carried by the pupils from
one classroom to another has not been
| solved. system of cupboards unde-
the blackboards is being considered
for this purpose.
Approaches Made Beautiful,
The Cleveland school designers took
advantage of the large sites acquired
for the new schools, and have given
ment to the approaches. In some in
stances shrubbery and flowers have
| been planted around the entire school
lots At one school $4,000 was spent
for shrubbery alone.
A playground located in front of
the school, the first seen by the Wash
ington school-planners during their
inspection tour, was studied carefully
by Mr.. Harris. This playground was
about 500 feet long and 100 feet wide,
and so designed that it afforded
artistic setting for the building in
the background.
All Of Cleveland's latest schools are
set back far from the street; in some
cases almost in the very center of
the huge sites, leaving large ex-
panses both in the front and rear of
the buildings. At those schools which
do not have Fairgrounds 81 front of
the buildings, attractive lawns, bor-
dered by shrubbery and growing
plants, have been developed
One of the schools inspected in
Cleveland, the Longfellow, has been
put on the platoon plan, somewhat
similar to the Park View School in
Washington. In view of the recent
movement for the extension of the
| platoon system in the District school,
the committee made a thorough in
vestigation of this schools arrange
ment.
Pools Not Favored.
While Buffalo and Rochester are in
cluding large natatoriums as integral
units OF their junior high schools, the
investigators learned that the Cleve-
land school officials are not enthu-
siastic over this idea. Supt. Jones told
the committee that there is feeling
in Cleveland that school swimming
pools cannot be kept sanitary.
OF the varied types of school build
ings inspected in Cleveland, the Miles
kStandish, a one-story structure, ap-
| peared to interest the school plan
ners. Cleveland has five buildings
of this type, and they proved to be
the most expensive yet erected.
novelty in construction in this school
was a gymnasium cordidor. Instead
of a central corridor, there are two
large gymnasiums. The classrooms
open into them from each side, and
the pupils use them as corridors ut
recess and dismissal periods.