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Letter of Transmissal

MR. T. E. BILLQUIST, Chairman,
Committee on City Planning.
Pittsburgh Civic Commission.

November 26, 1910.

Dear Sir: -- I have the honor to submit herewith a report upon desirable improvements in the main thoroughfares and the down town district of Pittsburgh, prepared in accordance with the instructions of your Committee and in consultation with its members.

In submitting the report I wish to take the opportunity of expressing my appreciation of the attitude of your Committee throughout the twelve months during which the investigations and the preparation of the report have continued, and of the part which the keen interest of its members and their helpful criticism have had in making the report a useful one.

The closeness of the connection between the problems discussed in this report and those of the Traction System, which have been concurrently studied by Mr. Bion J. Arnold, has involved frequent conferences with Mr. Arnold and his assistant, Mr. George A. Damon, as well as with Mr. John P. Fox, engaged by the Mayor for a study of the same problem; and the information and suggestions furnished by them have been of great assistance. In the preparation of the report on the Allegheny River bridge problems, submitted jointly by Colonel T. W. Symons and myself and printed in Part V of this report, information furnished by Colonel H. C. Newcomer, in charge of the local office of U. S. Government engineers, has been of the utmost value. I am also greatly indebted to the Flood Commission, and especially to Mr. E. K. Morse, Chairman of the Engineers' Committee of that Commission, for the use of maps and other data gathered by them.

It would have been impossible to secure an intelligent basis for the conclusions and suggestions presented in this report without the great quantity of detailed information and other help furnished by the Board of Assessors, the Departments of Public Safety, of Public Works and of Law, especially through Mr. N. S. Sprague, Superintendent of the Bureau of Construction, Mr. Chas. A. Finley, Superintendent of the Bureau of City Property, and Mr. Lee C. Beatty, First Assistant City Solicitor. Throughout the investigation and the preparation of this report I have had the benefit of illuminating and stimulating conferences with Mayor Magee.

The actual gathering of necessary information from the above and other sources, the field studies and the preparation of nearly all of the drawings accompanying the report, were carried on under the direction of my personal assistant, Mr. Edward C. Whiting, with the active help of Mr. Allen T. Burns and Mr. Sherrard Ewing, General Secretary and Assistant Secretary of the Commission, to all of whom my hearty thanks are due.

My friend and colleague in the study of several city problems elsewhere, Mr. Arnold W. Brunner, of New York, has given me valued counsel in regard to the possible architectural treatment of the proposed Civic Center, and has been good enough to contribute to the report the interesting sketches on pages 13 and 14 for a possible municipal building framing the east side of the proposed square.

As explained at length in the body of the report, the work has been greatly handicapped and limited in its scope and effectiveness by the entire lack of accurate detailed maps of the city and surrounding country. This lack would have rendered the report almost wholly impossible had it not been for the very useful topographical map of this part of Pennsylvania prepared and published by the United States Geological Survey. Not only have my studies of the outlying thoroughfares been based almost wholly upon this map, but the Survey has courteously permitted the use of transfer sheets from their original plates for the thoroughfare map published in this report.

Respectfully submitted,

(Signed) FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED.

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