Urban Parks Movement

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Urban Parks Movement

• Pathways to Sustainability and Justice
• March 14, 2006 Straub

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Population of New York City
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Population of New York City
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• 600 to 650 thousand Africans imported between
  
• 1650 and 1807.

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Tenement Living
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Frederick Law Olmsted

• Born 1822, Hartford CT.
• About to enter Yale in 1837, got sumac poisoning.
• Spent 20 yrs traveling and studying.
• Worked in NYC dry-goods.
• Traveled in China trade for a year.
• Ran scientific farm on Staten Island.

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Frederick Law Olmsted

• Went with two friends around Europe for 6 months,
  1850.
• Published Walks and Talks of an American Farmer
  in England, 1852.
• Traveled around the Antebellum South twice for
  the NYT.
• Published three volumes of travel accounts and
  social analysis.

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Birkenhead Park, Liverpool England
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Frederick Law Olmsted

• Partner in publishing firm and editor of Putnams
  Monthly Magazine.
• Hired as Supt of Central Park.
• Entered design contest with Calvert Vaux in 1857,
  and won.
• Did not retire until 1895.

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Olmsted Parks

• Central Park (1858)
• Prospect Park (1866)
• Delaware Park, Buffalo (1869)
• South Park (later Washington and Jackson Parks),
  Chicago (1871)
• Belle Isle, Detroit (1881)
• Mount Royal, Montreal (1877)
• Franklin Park, Boston (1885)
• Genesee Valley Park, Rochester, New York (1890)
• Cherokee Park, Louisville (1891)

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• The rich and poor, the cultivated and well-bred
  and the sturdy and self-made shall be attracted
  together and encouraged to assimilate.
• FLO, 1858

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Pacific Northwest Parks
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Other Projects

• Stanford University (1886)
• U.S. Capitol grounds and terraces (1874)
• Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC
• And LOTs of others!

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• "The mere proximity of dwellings which
  characterize all strictly urban neighborhoods is
  a prolific source of morbid conditions of the
  body and mind, manifesting themselves in nervous
  feebleness . . . and various functional
  derangements."
• FLO, 1869

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