Moses designed each park building to fit its distinct local setting

Evidence

But that didn’t mean it should look like the Jones Beach bathhouses, he said; if his men looked around him, they would see that the setting here was very different from that at Jones Beach. The setting there was the long, low sweep of sand and sea; here it was hills and trees. The Jones Beach bathhouse had been long and low, its lines horizontal; the lines here should be more vertical—perhaps they should start thinking about columns, maybe even a colonnade. He would leave it to them, but he didn’t want any of them forgetting that the function of a bathhouse wasn’t to impress or overawe; it was to help people have a good time—he wanted it light, airy and gay. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 1617

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly relevant to the ‘Grafting & Growth’ essay’s interest in designed landscape infrastructure — here a builder insisting form follow both site and human use.
• SHARE: Worth sending to a landscape-architecture or public-design friend: Moses’ exacting, site-specific design briefs for public amenities.
• XREF: connects to: Moses built monumental stone bathhouses to serve the masses at public beaches — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 977