on a temporary bridge. This improvement is notable in that it connects the north and west sides of the city, and in that it gives to the city an entirely new diagonal street.

Western and Ashland avenues and Robey Street are three major north-and-south streets which the Plan Commission has recommended be made through streets practically from city limits to city limits. Construction work on the first two is going forward under the Board of Local Improvements. Western Avenue varies in width at 18 different places from 50 to 330 feet. It is to be made a minimum width of 100 feet throughout its length. Ashland Avenue is now open at four places and varies in width from 42 to 100 feet in 28 different localities. It is to be opened where it is now closed and made not less than 100 feet wide all the way through the city. The improvement of Robey Street has not reached the construction stage yet. This street is closed in nine places and varies in width from 30 to 100 feet in nineteen places. It is to be opened where it is now closed by means of viaducts 66 feet wide, so designed that they can easily be widened to 86 feet, the width. which the Plan Commission recommends for Robey Street. The effect of these wide continuous thoroughfares will be to facilitate traffic very greatly and further to unify the city.

On July 15 an important addition to the city's boulevard system was formally opened. It consisted of extending Grand Boulevard for slightly over a mile by widening South Park Avenue from 66 to 198 feet. At 23rd Street the new boulevard is carried over the right-of-way of the Illinois Central Railroad Company by means of a viaduct, to connect with the drives in the new lake-front park. The work was executed by the Board of South Park Commissioners. It is impossible in a paper of this length to point out all the far-reaching effects of an improvement such as this, but perhaps the most striking is that business now has an opportunity to expand to the south as it did to the north after the completion of the Michigan Avenue widening.

Many other valuable street widenings are either under construction or have been provided for by ordinance of the City Council.

The negotiations for the new lake-front park included the rehabilitation by the Illinois Central Railroad of its terminal facilities; and the railroad is now at work electrifying its sub

urban trains, after which electrification of the through passenger and freight service within the city limits will follow. A new terminal is planned for Roosevelt Road fronting upon Grant Park. The whole Illinois Central project is to cost approximately $88,000,000.

A second great terminal project has been brought to completion with the formal opening of the new Union Station on July 23 of this year. This terminal serves five railroads, and includes, besides the passenger station, a large number of improvements made by the railroads in return for concessions from the city. These were in the nature of street, bridge and viaduct improvements and were in accordance with Chicago Plan Commission recommendations. They were estimated to

be worth seven and a half million dollars to the city because that is approximately what it cost the railroads to make them. The whole Union Station development cost, in round figures, $75,000,000.

There are still other groups of railroads which have prepared plans for loop terminals to replace and improve upon the facilities now in use. Intimately associated with the proper solution of the problems of these railroads is the straightening of the south branch of the Chicago River from Polk to 18th streets, which the Chicago Plan Commission vigorously advocates, and for which the Federal Government gave its consent in 1923.

From the standpoint of the relief of traffic congestion the river straightening would be one of the most effective things that could possibly happen, for it would then be possible to extend five loop streets south to connect with their southerly extensions through the city, and with Archer Avenue-a great diagonal artery extending southwest through and beyond Chicago. As it is now, these five streets-Market, Franklin, Wells, La Salle and Dearborn-come to a stub end just south of the loop because of a decided bend in the river, and the traffic which they should bear is thrust on to the few and overcrowded through streets which Chicago now has. The present city administration has been very actively pushing this project, while a committee of citizens appointed by the mayor is negotiating with the railroads.

It is hard to do justice to the Plan of Chicago and the progress that has made upon it without the aid of maps and dia

grams upon which to point out the true significance of these improvements. Each one is able to stand alone on its own merits as abundantly worth all it cost, and yet all interlace to form the most logical physical layout that is possible for Chicago. It is a complicated matter to remodel the face of a city like Chicago, and Chicagoans are thankful that they have a plan to guide them. They are already enjoying the benefits of such parts of the plan as have been carried out, and they expect to gain more and more advantage from it as time goes on.

THE ST. LOUIS PLAN

By Harland Bartholomew, Engineer, City Plan Commission, St. Louis, Mo.

The effectiveness of a city plan can be measured by the extent to which it directs all physical growth into channels of orderliness, economy and beauty.

Previous to 1916 there had been ten (10) years of haphazard, intermittent, albeit earnest, city planning effort in St. Louis. Approximately one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) had been expended by public and private agencies with little or no genuine accomplishment. In 1916 a new City Plan Commission adopted a definite program and set to work with the object of preparing plans and attempting to induce and direct all growth in a more orderly, economic and attractive manner than had previously been its habit. Like most City Plan Commissions, it had no authority other than powers of recommendation. The extent to which its objects have been attained may be judged from the review of things accomplished and in progress enumerated in the main body of this paper.

It should here be noted that the City Plan Commission of St. Louis is composed of nine (9) citizens and five (5) city officialsthe president of the Board of Aldermen (vice mayor); the president of the Board of Public Service; the Director of Streets and Sewers; the Park Commissioner, and the Building Commissioner. These latter are the city officials most concerned with the execution of work of a city planning nature.

The City Plan Commission of St. Louis is virtually the place in the city government where policies with respect to physical improvement are decided by a group of representative citizens and important city officials. It should further be said that such accomplishment as has been possible in St. Louis is due largely to the splendid co-operation and active participation of city officials in the work of the Commission, supplemented by the most unselfish and extensive work of those citizens who have served upon the Commission and as members of its various committees.

STREET PLAN

After more than one (1) year of careful study by a large committee, there was devised and published in 1917 the Major Street Plan of St. Louis. This plan comprised a system of inain thoroughfares so widened, extended, opened and connected as to provide opportunity for communication more or less directly between all parts of the city. Since 1917 the plan has been kept alive by an occasional revision or supplementation. The total number of projects involved is one hundred thirty-two (132). These are of widely varying magnitude, many being small corner cut-offs to eliminate irregular intersections, but in other cases involving complete new openings and widenings of narrow existing streets to form direct arteries of travel one hundred feet (100') wide in some instances several miles in length.

A summary of the present status of the street plan is shown by the following table:

Execution of the Major Street Plan does not always involve condemnation of property and great expense. As a part of the operative policy of the city government, the City Plan Commission passes upon all subdivisions of which one hundred seventeen (117) have been submitted since January, 1922. Several miles of street width in accordance with the Major Street Plan have been dedicated. In other cases future street widenings have been protected by the establishment of building lines where a plat involved only a small proportion of some large project. In one case where compliance with the Major Street Plan caused an owner to sacrifice more land than was justified, an actual compensation in cash was made. In another instance, in a large industrial district an existing street sixty feet (60') in width. was widened to one hundred feet (100) for a distance of approximately one (1) mile by voluntary co-operation of property owners after considerable preliminary negotiation and involving, of course, one hundred per cent (100%) agreement.