Читать книгу Pittsburgh Main Thoroughfares and the Down Town District - Frederick Law Olmsted - Страница 5

Introduction

Table of Contents

There are two main divisions of City Planning. One looks to the rearrangement and improvement of what has already been unwisely done through lack of proper planning or through force of adverse circumstances of any sort. The other looks to the wise and economical layout of what still remains to be done, especially at the outskirts of the city where the major part of the city's growth is bound to occur, and where the city plan is daily taking shape out of nothing, whether it is intelligently designed or not.

Prevention is cheaper than cure, and a moderate expenditure of effort and money will accomplish far greater results in the long run if applied to the wise control of the growing suburban districts, where new streets are constantly coming into existence, than if applied to costly remodeling of the older parts of the city; but the latter is sometimes of the utmost importance, and is of direct interest to a much larger number of citizens than the prosaic work of controlling scattered suburban development. In accordance with the instructions of the Commission this report deals primarily with certain problems of remodeling in the down town district, and with the improvement of the main thoroughfares between this, the heart of the city, and the more important outlying districts.

To carry out at once all the recommendations of this report would, even if it were possible, impose an altogether unreasonable financial burden upon the City and the contiguous boroughs. Such procedure is unnecessary and indeed impossible. But in many cases there is a crying need for the improvement already, or it is of such a nature that any delay is apt to involve a considerable increase in the cost and the difficulty of carrying it out.

Suggestive treatment of street junctions in outlying districts, Stuttgart

The most urgent general improvement of this sort is the establishment of new building lines on all main thoroughfares which it is proposed to widen; this in order to anticipate, as far as possible, the construction of new and costly buildings on the present street lines.

Of the specific recommendations made in this report it seems advisable to give the earliest attention to the following:

In the Down Town District		Page
The cutting of the Hump and the widening of certain streets in the Hump District as recommended	10
The extension of Grant Boulevard to Webster Avenue	11
The acquisition of land required for the proposed Civic Center	11
The widening of Diamond Street	17
The widening of Market Street	17
The relocation of the Market	18
The new connection between Penn and Liberty Avenues at Eleventh Street	7
The elimination of the Try Street grade crossing	10
The proposed bridge and tunnel to the South Hills	49
Along Outlying Thoroughfares	Section
Sixteenth Street bridge	1	56
Twenty-eighth Street grade crossings	2	57
Thirty-third Street improvement	3	57
Forty-third Street bridge	6	59
[1] Haights Run bridge	9	59
Hazelwood grade crossing	18	64
[1]Baum Street improvement	20	65
Center Avenue improvement	21	65
[1]Hamilton Avenue extension and connection with Kelly Street	22	65
Larimer Avenue extension	24	66
Batavia Street	33	71
Wilkinsburg grade crossings	34	71
Wilkinsburg-Edgewood connection	35	71
Rankin improvement	38	72
Duquesne bridge	51	75
California Avenue and Brighton Road extension	52	75
Lowry's Lane	56	77
East Ohio Street paving	57	77
Sycamore Street grade crossing and Bridge Street improvement in Etna	60	78
Allegheny River Boulevard as far as Main Street connection	61	79
Main Street grade crossing in Sharpsburg	62	79
Carson Street	64b	80
Chartiers Avenue grade crossing	65	80
Crafton-Carnegie connection	69	81
Washington Avenue improvement	72a	82
Thoroughfare to Beechview	73a	83
Carrick connection from South Hills tunnel, probably Climax Street route	75	84
Twenty-second Street bridge approach—South Side	80	86

In the following cases the actual improvements are not so urgent, but the new street locations should be established before expensive developments, which are apt to occur at any time, shall interpose serious new difficulties in the way of the proposed improvements:

	Section	Page
Penn-Liberty connection at Howley Street	5	58
Fifth Avenue—Center Avenue connection at Soho	12	61
Ellsworth Avenue extension	13	62
Forbes Street extension	39	72
Etna improvement	59	78

For other specific thoroughfare improvements recommended in this report there appear to be no very urgent demands at present. Generally speaking they should be carried out only as some special opportunity offers, or in anticipation of some obstructing development which cannot now be foreseen, or as a growing traffic shall demand.

But a thing of greater consequence than any one of these specific improvements, a thing of vital import to every taxpaying citizen of the present and future City, is the making of comprehensive and accurate topographical maps. It is only on the basis of such maps that all municipal engineering, and indeed much other work, directly managed by the City, can be planned and carried out with proper economy and efficiency. It is only on the basis of such maps that improvements in the city—details of city replanning—can be most economically determined. And in the outlying districts, where the future city is being built, such maps are absolutely essential to an intelligent planning or control which will avoid the heavy penalties that follow haphazard city growth, especially in such a hilly region.

Comparative diagram showing the volume and the estimated gross tonnage of traffic on the thoroughfares leading into the Down Town District

GENERAL PLAN

OF THE

DOWN TOWN DISTRICT

Footnote

Table of Contents

[1] Already provided for, wholly or in part, in the current bond issue.