I have your favor of 27th, suggesting that a third part of the proposed park for Detroit might be laid out independently of a general plan and asking if I will prepare a plan for such a part at the rate per acre of my usual charge for the general planning of a park.

There are doubtless reasons for the suggestion of which I am ignorant but I should hope that the end in view might be reached through some less objectionable expedient. I cannot but think it of the first importance that all parts of a park work should be in subordination to a comprehensive design, each part being made helpful to and being helped by every other part. In devising a plan therefore every part should, in my judgemnt, be subject to revision until every other part is provisionally determined. It would be better to plan the wing or corner of a dwelling house without knowing what the main part is to be than to take a like course with a great park. I would therefore submit to the Commissioners that it will be better to give me an opportunity of examining the entire property and of conferring with them before requiring an answer to the question.

And upon this proposition I beg to observe also that before a park can be fully planned it is inevitable that ideas will be advanced which are more or less in conflict with one another. The making of a plan should be to some extent a gradual process of weighing the comparative importance of these ideas, throwing out those which would make the plan too complicated and incoherent and of adjusting and fitting together such as can be harmoniously used. It should not therefore be the straight-forward work of an expert representing his own ideas without consideration for others and most certainly not if the expert is a stranger to the people in whose behalf the work is to be undertaken [573] and unfamiliar with the circumstances under which it is to be done. Hence I advise as the first step a free conference between the Commissioners and myself if they entertain the idea of employing me, such as there would be as a matter of course between a client & his intended counsel in an important case at law.

I do not wish to be engaged in the matter nor can I suppose the Commissioners wish to be unless it is considered one of importance; and as a work of art, demanding in its design the best and most mature study that can be given it, nor unless it is likely to be prosecuted with a view to the best results attainable with the means at command.