OPEN RECONSTRUCTION EXHIBITION IN ROBINSON

An exhibition illustrating the work of reconstruction in the war zone by the French society, La Renaissance des Cities, opened yesterday in Robinson Hall. The exhibition which is open to the public will continue for the remainder of this week, and will be open from nine to give. It has been arranged by Professor James Sturgis Pray '95 of the School, of Landscape Architecture, who is a member of the American Committee for La Renaissance des Cites, in connection with the committee's campaign for $250,00 to be presented by America, as a gift of friendship to France, for completing the model village of Pinon.

The exhibit includes charts of a few of the two hundred odd towns in the war zone, with which La Renaissance des Cites has collaborated in the preparation of plans for reconstruction. These plans show how local engineers, in order to improve traffic conditions, had planned to straighten the street lines on the familiar American gridiron plan. La Renaisssance des Cites has been able to substitute another method of widening the streets for new traffic requirements by cutting back as a general rule only on one side and on the other retaining the picturesque irregular house fronts.

French Support Work

The accepted plans for the reconstruction of Rheims, the work of the American city planner, George B. Ford, are also on view. These have recently been on exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York at the annual exhibit of the Architectural League.

A list of the officers of the various committees of La Renaissance des Cites enumerates many well know men of France. There are committees on social economy, technical problems, hygiene, law, art, applied art, and methods and materials. Marshals Hoffre and Foch are named as among its patrons.

Much space is given to the plans for Pinon, the proposed model demonstration village of La Renaissance des Cites. Pinon is in the Department of the Aisne, ninety miles from Paris at the end of the Chemin des Dames. It was elected as best suited to serve as a living example of the principles advocated by La Renaissance des Cites after a searching investigation of villages all through the destroyed zones. Since it is situated on the main rail and road routes from Paris into the war zone and will epitomize all the highest achievements of city planning, the French society expects that Pinon will provide ideas for civil development to visitors from all parts of the world. In addition to the plans for the town, there is a set of photographs of scenes in the war area, including the ruins and temporary barracks of the Pinon of today. Contrasted with the latter are the architect's drawings for the new buildings of the model village, which are planned to be modest and artistic, befitting a small farming community.