IN CONCLUSION
The purpose of this Report is in part to point out needs and opportunities for bettering the grounds of the New York Botanical Garden, in part to set before the Managers, some of the rather complicated and far-reaching considerations which ought constantly to be kept in view whenever a decision affecting any part of the grounds confronts them, in order that they may make each decision wisely for the Garden as a whole and avoid snap-judgments.
It is not in itself a program, but it may become a useful basis for a program to be adopted by the Managers, definite as to the near future and tentative as to the more distant future.
It is not at all in the nature of a set of plans and specifications for all or any of the modifications suggested. So far as any of the suggestions it contains may be embodied into a program by the Managers, the first step in the physical execution of any part of that program should be the preparation of plans and specifications so thorough and detailed that the Managers, with the aid of their various technical advisors, can assure themselves in advance exactly what is proposed to be done, just how it is to be done, how it will affect other parts of the program, and what it involves financially and administratively both in first execution and in proper maintenance. The Managers and the Director-in-Chief of the Botanical Garden are in a wholly different situation in such matters from the owner of a private estate, whose purposes may be admirably served if, with a fairly consistent and intelligent idea of the kind of place he wants, he authorizes a succession of improvements in general terms and leaves the details of execution of each, within reasonable limits of cost, to be settled as the work proceeds by designers and executives in whom he has confidence, without requiring complete plans and specifications in advance. The difference is not merely that the Managers have a fiduciary obligation to take fewer chances than a man may reasonably do with his own property, but also that the purposes to be served are far more complicated and enduring and proposals need to be scrutinized in detail from more diverse technical points of view before final commitments are made.
Respectfully submitted,
(Signed) Olmsted Brothers