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have been found in grouping related activities -- economy in maintenance and operation, and increase of efficiency per thousand of population served -- that, other things being equal, reasonably large park units, probably twenty acres or more in extent, are considered more desirable than the same total area split into a larger number of small scattered squares. But the conditions in Pittsburgh are peculiar. Here each isolated community, no matter how small, needs its local park; every portion of the long, narrow valley settlement should be near a park; and hillside settlements at distinct levels should have separate opportunities for recreation. Considering the size and shape of the area to be served in many of these cases it is evident that the advantages of concentration must give way to the need for frequent centers, and that economy will here indicate the adoption of a normal size considerably less than that most desirable for cities of flatter topography.

In selecting the land for local parks in Pittsburgh there are three chief points to consider: cheapness, suitability of the land for the purpose, and accessibility to the people who will use it. The best method of procedure is as follows: first, decide upon the general locality within which the park is needed and the functions which it is to serve; second, make a general examination of the values of property within the locality, consider roughly the cost of developing different kinds of land into the sort of park required, and select, tentatively, one or more sites which seem promising; third, obtain options on such of the land within the limits of the tentative site or sites as can be put under favorable option; then, fourth, ask publicly for the tender of any lands in the locality for parks, and hold public hearings thereon; finally in the light of the information thus secured, select definitely the site and boundaries of the park and take the lands by condemnation proceedings. It is far better to proceed in this way than to begin by buying or accepting certain pieces of land, no matter how favorable the terms may be, and subsequently acquiring adjacent pieces to rectify the boundaries or complete the requisite area. The very establishment of a park renders the adjacent land more valuable at once, and therefore, if the City buys park land piecemeal it has to pay in the latter purchases an increased price due solely to its having previously started to establish a park in

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Last modified on 22-Dec 1999
Design format: copyright 1997-1999 Bruce S. Cridlebaugh
Original document: Frederick Law Olmsted, 1910