Versailles, La Rue de l'Orangerie

To judge by objective criteria, this ought to be an excellent street, yet it is not. While the buildings are of nearly ideal height, the street is quite wide, and judging by the use that is being made of it, considerably wider than it needs to be. (The trams will of course make use of a great deal of its width as they pass.)

At the left edge of the photograph is a break in the wall of buildings, and the building at the extreme left certainly does nothing to contribute to the street's quality. These two buildings seriously damage the street's sense of enclosure - even though it is still fully enclosed, the gap-tooth effect is disturbing.

The sidewalks would appear to be much too wide for the traffic they carry. The problem of oversized squares will be taken up later, but it is worth noting that streets can be too big, as well. (Virtually all streets constructed since the advent of the automobile are much too wide from a visual standpoint, although they are usually much too narrow from a traffic engineer's standpoint.)

The buildings have comparatively little surface relief and would benefit from the addition of balconies and deeper window reliefs to the buildings that lack them. The many closed shutters give the street a dead look.

One final point - the photographer has not chosen the best vantage point, which would have been in the middle of the street. Since he would have been working on a tripod, he would have been afraid of being disturbed in his work by a passing tram.

 
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