Dennis Bowen Esqr Buffalo

I shall send you by Express a preliminary study of a plan for the City Hall grounds which I will thank to examine and return to me with comments. I see two particulars in which work already done would perhaps have to be undone in carrying out this plan but they are not of weight against the advantages to be gained. There may be necessities to be accommodated, [169]

Plan for Riverside Avenue with Addition of Riding Way, March 15, 1875

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I have had four principal considerations in mind.

1st   that under ordinary circumstances the more important business of the City Hall is of a quiet, orderly, bureau character, with reference to which a certain degree of seclusion of the building from the streets and of elegance in the grounds would be convenient, fitting and in accordance with what is customarily attempted, but

2d   that the building is nevertheless one for public business and should appear open and free to the public; that business is liable to be done in it having great popular interest and on certain occasions the grounds and even the streets near it will need to serve the purpose of outer lobbies. Public guests may at times be received at the building and reviews and receptions if not meetings held before it. More liberal and spacious arrangmnts of standing and passage room should for this reason be provided all about the building than if it were designed for private residence or trade or even for ward or district public business.

The City Hall in the old world is nearly always placed in the midst of an open public place, usually a noisy market place. In our own country small parks are more commonly formed around or at least in front of such buildings. These at first are neatly finished and their appearance satisfactory but I do not know a case where in a populous town they have long remained so—in which, that is to say, the edgings of the walks have not been soon obliterated, and the trees, shrubs and turf sadly abused or the ruling expression of which has not in a few years become one of inefficient governmnt, seediness and delapidation. I do not think you will need to look far to find illustrations of what I mean.

If you want to avoid a similar destruction of your work you must see to it that wherever there is likely at any time to be much public pressure, no kind of decoration is attempted that will not bear rough usage or which, after the tramping over or about it of a turbulent crowd, cannot be made as good as new with water and a scrubbing brush.

3d   a very important item in the cost of the construction of your City Hall is for means of securing an elegant and imposing exterior effect. You want some degree of seclusion and sylvan beauty about your building but you do not want this architectural effect to be lost in a grove of trees. On the contrary any foliage should be so disposed as not merely to reveal but to fix attention upon the more important architectural elements from those points of view and at the distance at which they will be seen to the best advantage.

4th   It is not desirable that the building should seem to have been thrust abruptly through a flat bed of turf. The grounds should be so arranged [171] as to obviously be one in design with it and to support it. This is particularly necessary because the building is so tall and straight and independent of other buildings. It not only needs a verdant drapery to set it off but solid outworks that will have the effect of a pedastal in connecting it with the ground.

You will see that each of these four considerations conflicts more or less with the others and that you will recognize that they cannot be expected to be reconciled except by means more substantial and expensive than we find in every day use nor without a very nice and accurate adjustmnt of the different provisions to be employed. I expect to furnish you with elaborate working plans and specifications and it will be important that they be strictly adhered to. Hence I shall be anxious to have the preliminary plans cautiously scrutinized before their adoption.

The studies are on a small scale and only indicate the larger features of the design but you will see by a little comparison of the different sketches what sort of detail is intended and, as I think, to detect the motive of everything proposed. You will observe the distinction between trees and shrubs & will see that the few fine lawn trees and all the shrubs and turf proposed are to be guarded from injury by means which are designed in strict harmony with and as auxiliary to the architectural effect of the building. At the same time the more striking parts of the building are exhibited to the best advantage and all the arrangments, even to the street, will have, as I hope, a broad, spacious and hospitable effect {such as in my judgment should distinguish the locality of a building for business of importance to the whole community of a city.}

I have thought it necessary that provision should be made for removing prisoners by or receiving them from a carriage and also for receiving needed materials for repairs & other purposes in freedom from a crowd. I have therefore arranged a small closed court in which a waggon can stand and turn and in which materials may be piled, mats & carpets cleaned etc. without being seen from the street or obstructing the public passages.

There will be no occasion for anyone to enter the purely ornamental grnds except in careing for them and they may with little labor be kept as nicely as the daintiest private garden.

I do not know that the architect has intended that the building shall be so terraced about as to hide the basement but if not I have no doubt that on reflection he will see that it will gain much by such an arrangement as I propose. At least to me it would appear more firmly placed, its position more commanding and its proportions more agreeable to the eye {rising from an unbroken base}.

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Plan for Grounds of City and County Hall, Buffalo