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Lecture 1:

Listen to part of a lecture in an architectural history class.

Now we’ve talked about how social concerns inform the designs of some architects in the United States in the 19th century. And it holds true not only for building architects but also for landscape architects. The way we design our landscapes is hugely important to, for how we live, easily as important as the buildings we live in. And these social concerns were especially apparent in the work of a huge figure in the history of landscape architecture: Frederick Law Olmsted.

Olmsted is particularly associated with the building of public parks in the mid1800s. At that time, with industrialization, the United States was moving from a rural, agricultural way of life to an urban one. Many people were moving from farms to cities, and cities themselves were growing fast. And that was creating concern and anxiety about people losing touch with nature.

Now, based on your reading, how did this situation relate to Olmsted? Ken.

Well, he saw that as cities grew to accommodate the larger populations, a lot of open space would be used up for buildings and infrastructure. I guess he thought that eventually there might not be any open space left, green space.And others shared this concern as well, people with some power.

Right. So in New York City, they decided to build this huge park, Central Park.

And they hired him to design it. Right. Olmsted together with Calbert Vaux. And he, what Olmsted wanted to do through this park and others was to preserve people’s connections with the natural world. Central Park is his best-known project and it really launched his career. There were so many details that made this such a model of success that…yeah, Julia.

It seems like he integrated the park into the city really well, especially by putting streets across the park so that you can still get from one side of the city to the other, and those streets don’t disrupt the unity of the park very much. But why not? What feature, what modification did he make?

Well, they weren’t any narrower than any regular city streets.

No, not narrower. Oh, lower. He put them at a lower level than the rest of the park and used short tunnels.

Exactly. The streets were designed to be as unobtrusive as possible, not interrupting the flow of people walking in the park, not interfering with the natural setting, while still functioning as streets.

Making tunnels was the best way to achieve this balance in many locations within the park, and then pass for pedestrians went above the street throughout the park.

What’s so special about it to me is Olmsted did such a good job of using the space by emphasizing the natural elements of the park. So with ground areas that were low, he made them even lower and turned them into ponds and meadows, then he emphasized some high, rocky areas. He used…he planted small forests close to grassy meadows. By doing this, he emphasized contrast in contour and texture, but he made it all work as a whole. He also made the northern half of the park more of the nature preserve while the southern part was more for people and recreation.

So Central Park was a huge success and it led to more work for him. He designed dozens of urban parks throughout the country. So that’s probably his greatest legacy to architecture as a profession, but not his only legacy.

He also designed landscapes for public buildings, campuses, even entire towns. In that area, urban planning, he showed the same concern for preserving open spaces that he had shown with Central Park. For example, his design of a town of Riverside, Illinois. He planned it so it would have the conveniences of city living, but it also had open space for recreation for nature. He lowered the streets slightly so they wouldn’t block natural views, like views of the Des Plaines River, which flows through Riverside. He really wanted to preserve the shores of the river so he didn’t put houses there. Instead, he turned the river front area into a park. And about a quarter of Riverside is parks.

What’s also remarkable is that Riverside, well, even today, the streets and other parts of Olmsted’s plans are almost completely intact. It’s really an oasis in the city that’s grown around it, the city of Chicago, since that time. Goes to show you how valuable good design really is.

ifferent reasons for different species.