From the point of view of appearance, the big general mass relations of the scheme will have the preponderant influence, but an important minor consideration is the parallelism between the surface of the bank and any flight of steps which may lie upon it. This would give the bank a slope of about one on two. The turf terrace bank has perhaps its best use where different levels are to be individually defined, but still very definitely recognized as parts of one larger open area. Planting at the top of such slopes may be desirable and can be effective; even architectural balustrading at such a place is occasionally good. Planting directly at the bottom of these slopes is, however, extremely hard to manage: the slope itself, as we have seen, cannot readily be planted, and if it be kept in turf, it makes an open space behind planting at its foot which is likely to make this planting appear as if it had insufficient background. Steps leading from one level to another in a landscape design are, Steps like gateways, objects which have or seem to have an economic use, and so a certain feeling of inevitableness in the scheme, but which are also extremely desirable objects in the esthetic design. They diversify and enrich the walls or banks of terraces; they lie naturally as terminal objects and vista points to walk towards, and centers of pictorial compositions to look at. From the necessary relation of the riser and tread of their steps* and the relation of the height of their balustrades to the height of a man, they introduce an element of human scale into the composition and a pleasant suggestion of human use. Flights of steps are often more effective when supported by larger objects. They may run down by the side of a projecting building or retaining wall, agreeably filling in and softening what might be otherwise a harsh angle. They may, however, themselves assume dominant importance in a view, forming architectural objects of almost any degree of interest and complication. When steps are treated as important objects in this way, two interrelated considerations are likely to be paramount: their architectural form and the directions of traffic and views to and from them. Where the line of traffic and view is continued unchanged beyond the steps in each direction, or * See article by F. L. Olmsted, Jr., Notes upon the Sizes of Steps required for Comfort, with diagram, in Landscape Architecture, Jan. 1911, vol. 1, p. 84–90. Steps in Formal Design where the traffic is turned abruptly at the foot of the steps, or the traffic and the view stop short or turn abruptly at the top, a single straight flight of steps will probably be constructed. There will be a tendency to make the width of the flight of steps equal to the width of the path which approaches them, but considerations of the total mass of the flight as an object in the design will enter here, and if it be not very high, it may for this reason be made wider. Or the mass may be considerably increased by posts, balustrades, ramps, or projecting bases for flower pots at the sides of the steps. If the steps lie in a turf bank, it is usually desirable to have the line of the nosings of the steps lie in the plane of the bank or at least be parallel to it. Balustrades on such steps are not practically necessary and are usually not esthetically desirable. A low ramp paralleling the slope of the bank, or perhaps a stepped ramp is more likely to be congruous with the shape of the bank. Where a single flight of steps leads to an open panel below or to walks that go in several directions, the steps, or at least the lower part of the steps, may well recognize this dispersion of traffic by a rounded or splaying form. Such a form has an obvious esthetic advantage in design, since the broader lower steps give a pleasing base to the whole flight and lead the eye agreeably from the rising line to the horizontal surface below; but nevertheless such forms should be used only with great care unless the lower area to which the steps lead has considerable openness and expanse to right and left of the steps. One line of traffic below may be spread into two lines above by balanced flights of steps rising to right and left. Such an arrangement almost necessitates something niche, fountain, or similar feature in the wall between the steps at the lower level, terminating the single lower path and enframed by the balanced flights of steps. This arrangement is usually best when it is sunk into the face of the retaining wall, rather than when the landings at the tops of the two flights of steps form projecting bastions. Two lines of traffic below may be collected into one line above often by two balanced flights of steps applied as it were to the outside of the retaining wall and projecting above in a bastion for the top landing, or by two flights of steps, usually curving, sunk into the body of the terrace and enframing a fountain or pool at the lower level. In the case of the re-entrant steps, the portion of the retaining wall inclosed by them would almost certainly be decorated by niche or fountain or statue. And the wall which supports the landing at the head of the projecting steps may be given additional interest in a similar way. The upper landing, particularly when it projects, is likely to be a point commanding a view. The fact that there is usually a view down the whole axis makes it often desirable to depress this upper landing, so that its outer balustrade may not interrupt the view more than is necessary. It is also possible, as in the case of the Dragon Fountain at the Villa d'Este, for a single axial path to come to a fountain feature backed by a retaining wall and, going around it by symmetrical enframing flights of steps, proceed above still as a single axial path. A path at one level may be, for purposes of design, carried on at another level with its direction parallel but not continuous. A single flight of steps running parallel to the face of the retaining wall may satisfactorily make the bayonet joint between the two paths. Such an arrangement however is hard to manage if the axial relation of the lower path is important; it is more readily done where the lower path lies on the outside of a terrace or for other reasons does not have to be axially treated. There are of course endless other possibilities in the design of steps as architectural objects; this discussion is intended to point out only some of the most obvious examples. (See Drawing XXVII, opp. p. 202.) In informal and naturalistic landscapes, the design of steps will be more obviously motived by their use, though they are still important in the esthetic composition. They should usually seem to be fitted to the topography with as little disturbance and difficulty as possible; they should almost always be sunk into the bank rather than protruding from it, and they should very rarely lie unsupported on an open bank, but rather should be enframed with shrubs, overarched with trees, or should run along the side of a projecting ledge. Flights of steps are bound to be conspicuous objects on an informal path; they should therefore be seized upon to be made interesting incidents, — they should, that is, be enframed, supported, made a part of a harmonious composi Steps in Naturalistic Design |