[Illustration: CARNEGIE TECHNICAL SCHOOL.]
[Illustration: PHIPPS CONSERVATORIES IN SCHENLEY PARK.]
In speaking of the civic center scheme for the business district,
earlier in this article, I held that it should be supplemented by a
larger one. This larger plan would provide a fitting approach to the
East End, and could be made to join the two great improvement projects.
Owing to the interruption offered by Herron Hill, the usual approaches
now to the East End are by Forbes street or Fifth avenue,--two mean and
crowded thoroughfares, a block apart, that parallel the Monongahela
and carry street car traffic by the shortest route to the Carnegie
Institute region and the section beyond; by Wylie and Centre avenues
(half over the hills), or in a roundabout way, by Liberty street or
Penn avenue,--again relatively narrow and crowded thoroughfares, and
for the most part meanly built up; or, finally, by Grant boulevard. The
latter, beginning near the Union Station and cut out of a hill at much
expense, was an attempt to provide a pleasant approach. Like the drives
and viaducts serving the outer park reservations, it shows imagination
and engineering skill. It is indirect, however, is too narrow to
carry the bulk of the vehicle traffic, and with its cuttings, vacant
property, sunny stretches and aggressive billboards, it is not yet
inviting but it could be made attractive by terracing and parking. The
need, however, aesthetically and practically is for an approach that
shall be better than any of these.
Forbes street and Fifth avenue run east from the jail and court house
in perfectly straight lines. They are at approximately even grades for
a mile, separated from each other by only a short block. At Seneca
street the grade changes, and from there on any joint improvement would
involve a viaduct or other device, until the streets grow parallel,
and close together again for the final half mile to Schenley Park.
Suppose the two streets thrown together in one broad and splendid
way, from the jail straight eastward for the first mile. None of the
property here is expensively built up; most of it is exceedingly
poor and shabby. There are, for the whole distance, the two streets
and an alley, a total width for the whole distance of probably at
least 140 feet that is now public property. At short intervals there
are cross streets, to the number of about a dozen; these also are
public property. And there is a school in the area to be used. Thus,
altogether, the municipality already owns, one may confidently say,
more than half of the land that would be required. The only question
is concerning its wisest utilization. It may be admitted that to buy
the intervening private plats, unifying the public property and making
it available for a single scheme, would involve large cost. But there
would be much on the other side of the ledger. Think of the noble
thoroughfare, with its special lanes for high speeding surface cars,
its quadruple roadways, one for fast moving and one for slow moving
vehicles in each direction, its lines of trees and shaded walks; think
of its convenience, its directness, its capacity, its spectacular
sufficiency; think of the increase in the value of the abutting
property. Under the Pennsylvania Law of Excess Condemnation part at
least of this value would accrue to the city, as in the case of the
great London improvements. Even in the matter of absolute (initial)
outlay, the expenditure would probably not be greater than for the
subway now proposed, while it would grant practically equivalent
facilities for transit, as far as rapidity is concerned, with many
other advantages.
Instead of expending a vast sum to give setting to a group of public
buildings, in the proposed civic center, this parkway could be made to
give the adequate setting incidentally. Certain ones would be placed
along its margin at the western end. Further, the improvement, instead
of redeeming one small space, would redeem two streets for a mile at
least. It could even be extended farther by means of a viaduct or
some other device, and ultimately carried clear out to Schenley Park.
[Illustration: PATH IN HIGHLAND PARK.]
There is no opportunity in this discussion to go into the project with
detail. Even the Eastern terminus of the improvement must be left for
later consideration. But it is plain that should the avenue stop at the
mile, that much would be worth doing and would immensely increase the
comfort and decrease the delay of getting to the East End. Further, the
splendid avenue would be democratic in its benefit, since the trolleys
would have their place in it. The wage earner would go bowling home or
to business as well encompassed as the motorist. The social benefit of
that, and of the ceaseless entertainment which the traffic of the gay
avenue would offer, is to be esteemed. There is no park so popular as a
great street.