wholesale, retail, business and residential, will the full force of the design be
fulfilled. Every effort has been made to foresee these future district devel-
opments and to facilitate their growth and success, by planning streets of suit-
able size and grade, and by a subdivision of property into lots and alleys so
as to serve best the purpose of each particular district.

During the years 1906 and 1907 a large engineering force, under the direc-
tion of James H. Bacon, Harbor Engineer of the Grand Trunk Pacific
Railway, had been engaged in topographic and hydrographic surveys, so
that when the landscape architects reached Prince Rupert in January, 1908,
complete surveys were available. A considerable acreage of Kaien Island
had been cleared of the heayy growth of spruce, hemlock and cedar and
other contracts for clearing were about to be let. At that time Prince
Rupert possessed a sizable storage warehouse. An inclined board walk ex-
tended back from the wharf, and facing this walk, upon which ran a dummy
railway, were a series of frame buildings and tents—a curious mixture of
houses, railway buildings, postoffice, general stores and a barber shop. An
offshoot from the main walk led to ‘‘Knoxville,’’ a settlement of tents, of
which the most conspicuous, due to a large sign reading ‘‘The Empire,”
called attention to the fact that here was established Prince Rupert’s first
newspaper.

The aspect of the cleared townsite was a waste of stumps, with here and
there a great tree looking lonesome and detached, and reminding one of a
silent sentinel surveying the destruction on all sides. The rugged character
of the land, accentuated by the bristling stumps, was rather bewildering at
first, and days were spent by the landscape architects in smoothing out the
complex topography into a simplified series of planes, some level, some
inclined, eliminating for the time being the irregularity of the surface.

It was discovered that the trend of the several planes, constituting what
is to become the business section, were all either northeast or southwest; in
other words, that the long axes of these separate planes were approximately
parallel in direction. This disclosure was of far-reaching importance, for it
indicated that the main streets of the several planes should be parallel, and
subsequent study convinced the designers that not only would the business
section be best served by a rectangular system of blocks—with considerable
variation,—but that the construction of straight avenues—taken into con-
sideration with the availability of the greatest amount of property for build-
ings—would be less costly than curving avenues.

To anyone expecting to find a theoretic ideal city design in the plans of
Prince Rupert there must be a disappointment, for the unusual character-
istics of the site must convince one at a glance that no stereotyped or theo-
retic city plan would suit the conditions. The design, of necessity, had to
be original and adaptable to the unusual topography, and yet, in the opinion
of the designers, the requirements for a large city are well met.

It had frequently been asked before the plans were published whether
Prince Rupert was to conform to the gridiron, the wheel or the star idea—as
typifying the subdivision into rectangular blocks; or into radiating and con-
centric streets; or into the separated civic centres with more or less geometric
treatment of streets and blocks. Whatever one may think of the merits of
each—and there is undoubtedly good in them all—the theory of any one of
them should never be applied so as to sacrifice the individuality, or the
adaptability, of the site. That the design must be suitable to the situation
is essential to any well-conceived city plan, and plans are good or bad ag
they fulfill this great requirement.