The buildings to be included within the civic centre are the city hall, courthouse, hall of records, post-office and Federal court, custom house, administrative buildings for the various departments, and certain buildings of a com mercial character, either in the civic centre or adjacent thereto and contributing to its general effect, such as a chamber of commerce, banks and life insurance buildings. The leading prin ciple of the design is that one of the buildings dominates the rest. This one is usually the city hall or courthouse. The other buildings are in character and style related to the dominant building, but not of such size or outline as to detract from its importance, as it should be, in an artistic sense, protective of the others. Another important principle of the civic centre is balance, the buildings being so proportioned and placed with reference to each other that their masses and outlines produce a pleasing effect. The design of a civic centre is an artis tic prob:em of great magnitude. It is a paint ing, with the city and the sky as a background, a sculpture in masses, and it should have strength, feeling, completeness, balance and splendor. The art of the civic architect is one in which the greatest talent may find opportu nity for expression not attainable in any other art. Probably the best example in the world of a civic centre is to be found in Washington. Originally built after the plans of L'Enfant, improvements have been continually added, in particular, in accordance with the report of the Senate (1902) regarding the construction of public buildings. Philadelphia, Seattle and Chicago, as well as many other progressive American cities, have planned and built civic centres on the most approved plan.
Main Streets.— The proper expansion of a city depends upon the arrangements of the main streets conforming to the topography, i what is known as the great ground plan. Most American cities have rectangular block systems, with long straight streets. Few have diagonal and circumferential streets, often found in European cities. Very excellent examples of great ground plans are those of the cities, Karlsruhe and Mannheim, Germany. The principles given in this system of streets have been adopted in many European and American cities. For instance, the horseshoe effect, ac cording to the plan of Mannheim, has been adopted in the remodeling of Chicago and Saint Louis, while the radiating street system of Karlsruhe is being followed in the new capi tal city of India, New Delhi. This radiating street plan is also to be found in Washington, D. C., and Buffalo, N. Y.
The area occupied by streets varies, ordi narily from 30 to 40 per cent of the total area of the city. The streets of Washington, which are unusually wide and imposing, occupy 54 per cent of the city's total area. By the Prus sian law of 1875, enacted to regulate the streets of Berlin, it was prescribed that the main streets should be 95 feet or more in width; secondary thoroughfares from 65 to 95 feet; and local streets from 40 to 65 feet. Another standard, for secondary German cities, such as Dusseldorf, Cologne, Frankfort, etc., is: Main thoroughfares, 85 to 120 feet; secondary thoroughfares, 50 to 80 feet; and loial streets, 35 to 48 feet.
In London, the Royal Commission on Lon don Traffic, in its report of 1905, stated: "The chief difficulty that stands in the way of im proving the means of locomotion in London is the narrowness of the streets, and the fact that they were not originally laid out on any gen eral plan." In accordance therewith it was recommended that the following be observed: Main avenues, 140 feet; first class arterial streets, 100 feet; second class arterial streets, 80 feet; third class 60 feet, and fourth class 40 to 50 feet, the width in each case to include the footways on either side, and no street to be less than 40 feet.
The widths of the more prominent avenues in European cities are as follows: Avenue des Champs-Elysees, Paris, 250 feet; Reeperbahn, Hamburg, 210; Unter den Linden, Berlin, 190; Ring-Strasse, Vienna, 185; Belle-Alliance Strasse, Berlin, 160; Andrassy, Budapest, 145; Avenue Henri Martin, Paris, 130; Whitehall, London, 120-145; Victoria Embankment, Lon don, 120; Potsdamer and Friedrich Wilhelm Strasse, Berlin, 110; Princess and George Streets, Edinburgh, 100; Avenue de l'Opera and Paris Boulevards, Paris, 98; Holborn Via duct, London, 90•, Regent Street Quadrant, London, 85; Picadilly, London, 75; and Queen Victoria Street, London, 70.
One of the main objects in modern city planning is to secure streets of definite length, properly terminated, or curved or otherwise changed as to direction, avoiding the principle of having them of the same width throughout.
The eye should rest at easy distances upon columns, arches, statues, fountains, facades or other suitable objectives, and the quality of unity will thus be gained. Without a terminal, a vista is meaningless. What, for example, would the Avenue de l'Opera be without the closure of the Grand Opera House; Rue Royale, without the Madeleine; Avenue Vic toria, without the Hotel de Ville; the Vienna Burgring, without the Parliament building; Reichsratstrasse, without the Votiv Kirche; and Unter den Linden, without the Branden burg Tor? In undertakings of breaking new streets, foreign cities have not hesitated at expense. Paris it is estimated has spent $265,000,000 on its reconstruction. London in new streets has spent $100,000,000, and the new commission has under way expenditures that will increase this by $125,000,000. That expenditures for the betterment of traffic conditions are justified is shown by a calculation made with reference to the improvement in a portion of Saint Louis, the cutting through of Gravois avenue to 13th street, a short stretch of three blocks. It is estimated that the saving in time to those using the cut-off would amount to $500,000 in a year. The calculation is on the following basis: The saving would amount to 10 minutes per day for every person traveling over the road. In a year this would amount to 100 hours per per son, which at 20 cents per hour means a sav ing of $20 per year, or for a traffic of 25,000 persons daily— one-twenty-eighth of the city's population — the aggregate of $500,000 per annum.