OCR Text |
Show COMMUNITY PLANNING FOR THE SOUTHEAST Ik. .''.. V..'. :.LVi,... ..II BEAUT1FK A-' A-' TION EXPERT, Leon Fichner, , roving ambassador of the Centennial Commission, begins seri'.'s of pianning and l.eautilieation articles ih The Bulletin. LEON FREHNER . These two words BEAUTIFICATION and IMPROVEMENT IMPROVE-MENT we have been hearing so much about, and perhaps using to some extent, are words that should rank high in any man's language. They are. words that every citizen should understand un-derstand thoroughly and use daily. Stated briefly, IMPROVE means: "To make better or to grow better." And BEAUTY means: "That quality or combination of qualities which gratifies grati-fies the eye- or ear. or which delights the intellectual or moral sense hy its grace or fitness.'' Little thought is required to appreciate ap-preciate the profound implications and relationships of these two words. Things that give pleasure can be uplifting and in fact usually are! Beautiful music, beautiful scenery and the feeling of order and fitness in all human creations, lift man above the desire for ordinary achievement. Scenic beauty is not only stimulating stim-ulating but it is healthful as well in that it regenerates the mind. Thus country beauty may have as much curative power as country air. The beauty given to a community through landscape materials cannot be valued in dollars and cents and yet I am sure that many of us could never appreciate this value val-ue unless by some quirk of nature na-ture all living plants in the city should suddenly disappear, landscape Architecture's Contribution to Beauty Landscape architecture with its lawns, its shading and enframing en-framing trees, its shruhlieries and flowers, its (gardens and parks, makes a definite contri bution to the beauty of our communities, com-munities, and they make a more general appeal than any of the kindred arts, for the reason that most persons have been trained from childhood to appreciate outdoor beauty. The Japan ?se so developed a love for beauty that their gardens became sacred to them. The early Persians considered consid-ered their gardens to be their' greatest creations. The word paradise with its heavenly meaning, was derived from the Persian word. Paradeisoi. which means garden. The Greeks developed de-veloped many of the arts to the point of perfection and beauty that even today we find it hard not to-jmitate them, and much of "credit for their aehieve-f aehieve-f Continued on Page 8) FREI1NER . . . Continued from Page 1 ments is given to the fine appreciation ap-preciation for the arts that was developed among the Greek populace. po-pulace. Today's Program Today (1947) we in Utah are deeply concerned with a beauti-fication beauti-fication program. In some communities com-munities it has struck deep in the community consciousness and commendable results have followed, while in other com- munities the people have not been stirred to the necessity of improvement. Mental attitude in the form of "living as our grandfathers lived" is responsible respon-sible for much of the ugliness in Utah today. If a community is to produce any noticeable results in the way of beautification it must first of all have leadership capable cap-able of stimulating, educating, and activating every citizen. We do not expect miracles to happen over night. If we can merely sweep the rug for this season for this centennial party par-ty we will do well. But if a greater, a deeper disposition to home and community improvement improve-ment is not generated from this I brief campaign it will be regrettable regret-table indeed, and it will be our own fault. True, we want the visitor vi-sitor to our state to be well impressed, im-pressed, but more than anything else, we who live here should not fail to catch and hold that vision of what Utah communities can be through a continuous planning plan-ning program, in which we (1) conserve our natural beauty which is our greatest single asset, as-set, and (2), plan our cities as clean, beautiful, healthful places in which to work, play and live. Communities Are Living Organizations Our communities are great liv ing organizms and if they are to be healthy and beautiful they must be diagnosed, dissected, put on a proper diet and then continuously contin-uously nursed along. Our citizens should ever be educated to planning plan-ning processes and the planning program. They should be made to realize how important their contribution (their own home grounds) is to the sum total of the c om m unity appearance. . Above all, we should never devolve de-volve the decadent idea that our city is perfect and nothing remains re-mains to be done this has contributed con-tributed largely to much of our ugliness, our blight and cancer-. ous conditions that are gnawing away at the vitals of our communities. com-munities. Pioneering is always a way of life and when it stops progress stops. We have reached a stage in our growth and development where "big plans" alone will right our wrongs and prevent future mistakes. Planning is the key-word and beautification and improvement are the end results. re-sults. (In his next article, Mr. Freh-ner Freh-ner will discuss home grounds, I and how each of us personally can get behind the Centennial program.) r . |