plentiful, but never a sight of the elevated chute so universal in America.
On the outskirts of Reims is a newly sprouted “Cite-Jardin,” a suburban development that is
startlingly like similar projects in the United States. Visions of Pelham Manor or Waban, Mass., come to mind immediately at the sight of these new stucco homes, with mottled tile roofs and numerous dormers, each house with its separate plot of ground. From the French point of view, it is most unusual in that the houses are not built flush with the street, and neither are they surrounded by the invariable stone wall or iron fence. A conversation with the contractor of the project, a burly, bewhiskered man who would make an excellent moving picture comedy “cop,” revealed the fact that much study had been given the American achievements along similar lines before this “Garden City” was laid out.
The character of the new buildings in Reims, like that of the smaller structures, is usually simple and direct, with only rare attempts to be dressy. There are a few monstrosities, of course, these nearly always being bank buildings or department stores.
The public buildings in the city have not yet been touched, although work goes cautiously on in the cathedral. There remain vast, empty, wreckage-strewn acres to be built up. What has been accomplished is prodigious, but what remains to be done is fairly overwhelming. The Northern departments of France are unquestionably rising up anew, but the simile of the mushroom has no application here. It is decidedly a slow and painful growth.
A new store building in Reims
A fair example of what is growing up in the midst of the wreckage. Wall surface a brilliant white stone, shop front of composition marble, and a faint attempt at polychrome decoration above the third story windows
On the Place de la Republique, Montoire
On the outskirts of Reims is a newly sprouted “Cite-Jardin,” a suburban development that is
startlingly like similar projects in the United States. Visions of Pelham Manor or Waban, Mass., come to mind immediately at the sight of these new stucco homes, with mottled tile roofs and numerous dormers, each house with its separate plot of ground. From the French point of view, it is most unusual in that the houses are not built flush with the street, and neither are they surrounded by the invariable stone wall or iron fence. A conversation with the contractor of the project, a burly, bewhiskered man who would make an excellent moving picture comedy “cop,” revealed the fact that much study had been given the American achievements along similar lines before this “Garden City” was laid out.
The character of the new buildings in Reims, like that of the smaller structures, is usually simple and direct, with only rare attempts to be dressy. There are a few monstrosities, of course, these nearly always being bank buildings or department stores.
The public buildings in the city have not yet been touched, although work goes cautiously on in the cathedral. There remain vast, empty, wreckage-strewn acres to be built up. What has been accomplished is prodigious, but what remains to be done is fairly overwhelming. The Northern departments of France are unquestionably rising up anew, but the simile of the mushroom has no application here. It is decidedly a slow and painful growth.
A new store building in Reims
A fair example of what is growing up in the midst of the wreckage. Wall surface a brilliant white stone, shop front of composition marble, and a faint attempt at polychrome decoration above the third story windows
On the Place de la Republique, Montoire