International studio (33.1907/1908(1908))

The Washington Plan

THE WASHINGTON PLAN AND
THE ART OF CITY-BUILDING
BY LEILA MECHLIN
It is easier, perhaps, to realize how a
picture can be produced through the medium of
pigment applied to canvas, than by the use of
building materials in conjunction with nature, but
a great painting may, in reality, be no more a work
of art than a beautiful city. Both have many of the
same attributes : composition, color and effect must
be considered with each, though the prime object
of the one is esthetic enjoyment and of the other
civic convenience. A painter commonly interprets
what he sees before him, but a city builder deals
with non-existing things and, planning chiefly for
the future, must possess visual imagination. When
a painting leaves the artist’s studio it is usually fin-
ished, but when a city is laid out it is only begun.
And yet the essential part of city-building is the
plan. To be sure, some cities have been evolved
without one, just as some children have grown up
without guidance, but the haphazard system does
not, as a rule, in either case bring about results
which are felicitous. Not that the accident of
chance is to be accounted altogether evil, for in
more than one instance which may be recalled it

has served a good purpose—infinitely better is the
system of streets evolved from the cow-paths across
the meadows than that imposed by a ruler and
tape-line stupidly handled.
In the early days of our republic city-builders
had unrivaled opportunities, and some used them
well, but to-day the chief business of those who give
their attention to such matters is the remedying of
past blunders. A majority of our large cities have
within the past five years secured plans for their
picturesque rearrangement and artistic develop-
ment, which they are now, at no small cost, putting
into effect. Not that this movement is confined to
the United States; London and Paris have been
actively carrying on the same work for their im-
provement, and other European cities are following
their lead. It is therefore especially interesting at
this time to note upon what particular lines the
work is being directed and to observe with some
care the plan which in this country at least has
given the movement impetus.
The city of Washington is peculiarly fortunate
in having been admirably laid out. As soon as the
site for the National Capital was selected, President
Washington engaged Major Pierre Charles L’En-
fant, a French engineer of unusual ability and taste
who served in the Continental Army, to make a plan


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l’enfant’s plan

FROM ENGRAVING, 1792