International studio (33.1907/1908(1908))

The Washington Plan


for the upbuilding of the city. Jefferson, at the
time the appointment was made, expressed much
pleasure that the work had been placed in such
good hands, and we, to-day, have no less reason
for satisfaction. So excellent, indeed, was the plan
made by L’Enfant before the city was begun, that
when more than a century later an expert com-
mission was called upon to suggest upon what lines
development should be continued, reversion was
made after careful consideration to the chief factors
in his original design and emphasis placed upon
those features to which he had given preeminence.
Such for example as the establishment of reciprocal
relations between public buildings, the creation of
vistas appropriately terminated, and the system-
atizing of parks.
One of the first considerations in the planning of
any city is the laying out of streets. In America the
gridiron system has been much used, but L’Enfant
varied this in Washington by placing upon it a sec-
ond system of radial avenues—streets cut on the
bias, as Paul Waterhouse has said, affording at their
intersection sharp-nosed corners. This has given
the National Capital a unique plan and contributed
largely to the individuality of its general appear-
ance. There is, of course, something to be said
both for and against these diagonal roadways, but
the weight of evidence seems to be in their favor.
Primarily, they establish short cuts from one section
of the city to another, the length of the hypothenuse
of the triangle being less than the sum of the two
sides, and while a city is, or may be, a civic work
of art, it is first of all an abode of man. In addition
to this, they afford at their intersection not only odd-
shaped building lots inviting unconventional treat-

ment, but spaces for parks, which furnish sites for
statues and insure perpetual breathing places, as
well as relief from monotonous sameness. Break-
ing the vistas at suitable intervals, the radial ave-
nues guard against what Dickens designated as
“an uninterrupted view over the way,” and pre-
vent the indefinite continuance of a street between
two unbroken walls to a point where, by the laws
of perspective, it would be constrained to close
itself. This, in city-building, is a cardinal virtue,
but few have realized it as keenly as L’Enfant did.
The topography of a city must, of course, largely
determine the character of its lay-out, though too
often natural features have been disregarded.
Under some circumstances curved streets may
answer purposes which straight avenues would fail
to accomplish—such for example as the ascent of a
height or the diminution of distance. In Paris,
Vienna, Rouen, Milan, and many other old-world
cities, streets and boulevards have been built along
the line of the city walls and defensive ditches, and
thus formed quite naturally what is known as the
belt-line system. To a painter, at least, the pictorial
advantages of a curving street, which brings first
one line of buildings and then the other into view,
needs no exposition, but to an engineer its advan-
tages have not always been equally patent. This
is, however, a digression, for turning first to the
plan of Washington and then to those of New York,
Chicago, Buffalo and New Orleans, it will be seen
that in America the broad, straight avenue has been
universally favored; and, after all, if one or the
other had to be adopted exclusively, it is well that
this should have been the choice. Buffalo, like
Washington, was laid out by L’Enfant, New Or-

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