. Improvement of Fort Wayne Indiana; report for Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association . , nation and city,are ranged along a singlestreet in a space of twoblocks. But the arrange-ment is absolutely ineffec-tive. The Court House hasthe best site ; but the mostfavorable view one can getof it is through alleys, sincethey alone center on itsdome. Without groundsaround it, surrounded bynarrow streets, where tallbuildings will soon seem toplace it in a little walledcourtyard, one cannot evennow get far enough awayto see it as a whole. Thetwo other buildings, oc-cupying commonplace com-mercial sit
. Improvement of Fort Wayne Indiana; report for Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association . , nation and city,are ranged along a singlestreet in a space of twoblocks. But the arrange-ment is absolutely ineffec-tive. The Court House hasthe best site ; but the mostfavorable view one can getof it is through alleys, sincethey alone center on itsdome. Without groundsaround it, surrounded bynarrow streets, where tallbuildings will soon seem toplace it in a little walledcourtyard, one cannot evennow get far enough awayto see it as a whole. Thetwo other buildings, oc-cupying commonplace com-mercial sites, are hiddenfrom one another by inter-vening structures. In theaggregate there is repre-sented a very large publicexpenditure. One could almost throw a stone from structureto structure; yet there is no cumulative effect. To the problem of creating out of these adjacent but dis-tinct units a single civic composition that should make a CivicCenter, I have devoted a great deal of thought. The practical. Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association 37 difficulties, due to important improvements and high property-values, are almost prohibitive. Yet values on Berry Street, be-tween the Court House and City Hall, are not going to diminishor stand still. They seem as certain as any in the city to ad-vance, and unless a plan embracing this property can be car-ried out at once, it is not likely ever to be executed. Neithercan there be reasonably anticipated the building of a new CourtHouse and a new Postoffice on new sites. The one hope of aCivic Center for many years lies in dealing with the presentsituation. The condition is a striking illustration of the value to acommunity of getting a City Plan as early as possible. Fore-seeing a big, costly Court House on its present site, theremight have been created, before the Foster and Elektron build-ings were erected, a broad, beautiful Mall, leading directlyeastward to terminate in the bluff at the bend of the Maumeeriver, at Monroe Street. An
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