The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 20, 1906, Page 2

SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. The idea of city beautiful, sco be kept from making San Francisco a 3 the work to take many years and to involve the spending of many millions, or hundreds of millions is not new. There is one solid, influential faction of citizens who insist, most prop- r Franelsco shall be ncisco. The plan 1t 11 by the architects in stion involves the beautifying of the vet without the spending of such ous sums of money as to make nelers stagger when the load is sug- d for them to bear. The new plan, while it coincides with the hopes of those who yearn for a bril- it beautiful new city, also is found o jibe with the argument of that group of San Francisco citizens which says: “First of all, get busy in San Francisco, instantly and at every point possible, and keep alive the breath of commerce in the town Cut out beauty if that sentiment es with the bringing back to life urt city. the If this novel plan, now to be expounded hese columns, is found to satisfy both groups of earnest, sincere citizens, and to blaze the way for a journey which San co may take with comparative ease back to the goal of beauty and rength, then t may be found oc- n to isng the doxology, with every- most heartily In the grand s song. old religic Here is the plan then in brief: Preserve the beauty and orderliness of San Francisco during the years that per- manent new buildings are being put up by ng Market street and Kearny and the other streets of the re- shopping district uniformly faced by long, low buildings, the front of which be made to resemble stone, though v composed of stucco or “staff.” ollow the ideas of the builders of<the fair structures at Chicago and where the line” of ture w to produce ex= il effects, capable of be- ate in essence at this time in g the stricken city, and me: le consider what is to be done t® help, and which plan for the restoring of the ity to life best deserves a unique, feas The fruit of a labors, ¢ which these “long, low made San Francisco at but litle more expense than will be required to erect a vast conglomeration of individual shanties, shacks and unsightly one-story structures of every sort. , Now, what can be said to inhere in those suggestions of such paramount worth as to make the idea immensely valuable to San Francisco at this time? Before the plan is explained in greater detail, it may be sald that the advant- ages, as expounded by skillful far-sighted architécts who have favored The Call with sketches and data with which to expound the plan, loom large and are so distinct that the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not overlook one of the points. SCO SUSGEST/ON “For A SULSINESS L S = 7, \\ CORNER OF VANNESS AND The very simplicity of this plan, call- ing for nothing more than concerted ac- tion among pyroperty owners, builders and merchants, is likely to daze the crowd of folk who are now trying to get light on the rebuilding problem in San Francisco, but the simplicity eventually may serve to insure the general adoption of the plan. If that end is gained able men declare that the biggest chasm that sep- arates San Francisco from permanent ‘weal will have been bridged. Now for the advantages: First, the builder’s expenses will be but a trifle greater than under the go-as-you-please plan of erecting shacks anywhere and everywhere all over the retail district. J L) QU I IO I T 0 IO =10 MARKET STRIETS -/ Second, the depressing effect of a con- glomeration of mining town shanties will be overcome. Third, retail business will be vastly increased if the retail stores are housed in structures which, while inexpensive and but one-story high, have the effect of cleanliness, beauty and even art. Those are three great blg advantages to be gained. They are wortha lot of struggling for and much hard thinking, and whoever can help to achleve them will have done morg for hsi city than can be done in any other way at this time. Consider how these points are to be gained. Let property-owners in one block agree to have their one-story structures all of one height, and all constructed under the direction of one architgct and all faced with “staff,” that stone-like stuff which at the World's Falir in Chicago gave the “white city” much of its reputation for beauty. This long, low line of seeming stone is to be broken at intervals by a pelon, a bit of an arch, and at corners, when destred, by curves that will add to the general picturesque effect of the street. Concerning the cest of such strugtures architects will inform all who inquire that the cost per foot of such frame structures faced with stucce gnd embelfshed by an occasional pilon or arch will be but a few dollars mere per foot than for the cheapest sor§ of shack that can be bullt. Architects also will inform the inquirer that thé difference in appearance between a block of one-story structures con- structed on these lines anda block of heterogeneous shantles is really the dif- ference between the ordinary man’s con- ception of . the difference between hell and heatven. Consider now that peint of how to avold the terribly depressing effect that 2 wilderness of mining town shacks, dirty or at least suggesting dirt and squalor is bound to affect the morals of the city dur- ing the years that must elapse before San Francisco is permanently rebullt can be avolded. Who is it that does not know of the effect upena city’s spirit that environ- ment exerts. Test it for yourself. Take a walk througha dirty quarter of an Eastern ora Continental city. Note the depressing effect, the shrinking of one's spirit, the feellng of being dragged down toa level with the serdld surroundings. It is human nature to be thus affected. The operation of natural laws brings such an effect to pass. Again recall the exhileration produced by, a swing downa boulevard of Parls, or down Broadway in New York, or State street in Chicago, or- Canal street in New Orleans, Pennsyl-ania avenus In ‘Washington. It was an uplifht to mingle and be swept along past bufldings that indicated life and high life amoig a threng of bustling folk, with no s tion of raw squalor on any hand. Den’t your chest swell a bit under theso conditions? Wasn't your head held same- what higher? Didn’t the thermometer of your spirit register pretty well among the high figures at these times? Surely all that came to pass and why? Environment. That's the keynote. Now if environment is to be considered ia this building up of San Francisco, or atldast the arranging of those quarters for storcs which must be occupled for at least sev- eral years, while the town gets its: breat!: in recovering frem its disaster, ther the value of this plan of the skilled architects becomes easily and at once apparent Keep the city pretty and neat and In- viting while the skyscrapers are going up. That's the plan, told l.n' & dozen words. San Francisce folk may be/cow us enough. Say that they have more co o to the square inch than any other people. Say that their nerve and spirit are thes admiration of the world at this time. Admit that they can’t be beaten for that sort of thing and still thete will have to be the admission that every ounce of en- couragement and help that San. Fran- cisco can get is a good thing to impert. That's why the scheme to keep San Francisco beautiful at slight = expense vmht.h.bufla!umnh-lu,.npl uable suggestion, worth while -and de- serving of instant and serfous atteniion at the hands of the property owners, the buflders, the tenants and all whose shou!- ders are now to the wheel, boosting. ‘Who now is authority for the statement that this simple scheme to- schiswe so much is feasible, practicable and:well ‘worth while? ‘Well, suppose Burnham, great architect, Continued on Page Three. -