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The problem of city beautification as observed in Europe . tybeing preserved in places for water gardening effects, and sur-rounded with a profusion of flowers; narrow streets also, forgreater quiet and retirement. Thoroughfares are designed fortrade and traffic, and quiet streets and squares through which tradeand traffic does not pass for home sites. The German scheme seldom admits of formality in design, ex-cept at the main center of a city, or in the square fronting someformal building, such as the railroad station. The rectangulararrangement of streets — which originated possibly from the
The problem of city beautification as observed in Europe . tybeing preserved in places for water gardening effects, and sur-rounded with a profusion of flowers; narrow streets also, forgreater quiet and retirement. Thoroughfares are designed fortrade and traffic, and quiet streets and squares through which tradeand traffic does not pass for home sites. The German scheme seldom admits of formality in design, ex-cept at the main center of a city, or in the square fronting someformal building, such as the railroad station. The rectangulararrangement of streets — which originated possibly from the an-cient Roman camp design, in which the streets cross at right anglesand there is a main central avenue running each way, through thecenter of the city, with a square at the point or intersection, suchas we have in Philadelphia and a number of American cities, saidto be regularly laid out is not used in Germany; but streetswith sweeping curves, connected by cross-streets, radiating fromcivic centers, are the favorite design. This plan is well adapted. GEEMAN CITIES. 19 to the placing of sanitary structures, and gives pleasing effects inthe vistas afforded, hoth in the daytime and when lighted in theevening, and must he seen to he fully appreciated. The city planning idea appears to have had its inception in theneeds of German cities, recognized hy practical men in charge ofmunicipal affairs, at the time when the progress of the countrytook a great impetus from the enterprise and expansion in everydirection that followed the Franco-Prussian war. Hamburg hadbeen the first of them to install a sewerage system, completed inthe fifties under the direction of English engineers. At about thesame time Altona had put in the first water-filtration plant inEurope outside of England, also under the direction of Englishengineers. Previous to 1870, almost every city was surrounded by a wall,obsolete as a defense and useless, the property of the State, butcovering a valuable space availab
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectcivicim, bookyear1915