DJ Trava

Posts Tagged ‘Olmsted’

I’m not a New Yorker by choice, but I really have a difficult time imagining a life without Central Park. It’s my only green sanctuary, a respite in what seems to be an infinite sprawl of steel, concrete and glass. Central Park is the only place where I can collect my thoughts, get grounded, relax and just breath. I consider Central Park the lungs of New York, supplying the much needed oxygen for a busy and bustling crowd constantly on the go. I even recommend all my visiting friends to book a room a one of the Four Star New York Hotels that over look Central Park, I’ll even go so far has to pay for the room if necessary.

I actually have a friend coming to visit this weekend because there’s is a celebration of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, the founder of American landscape architecture. A true parkmaker. Olmsted, after leaving a career as a journalist partnered with an English-born gentleman named Calvert Vaux. The two of them won the Central Park design contest in 1858. After that they went to Brooklyn and created Prospect Park. Even though they were partners, it was Olmsteads voracious personality and social standing the outshone Vaux.

My visiting friend and I both have an extreme appreciation for the contributions Olmsted made to American parks in general. His fundamental design principles came from his understanding of social class structure around the world and he detested slavery and made sure that all the parks he created were accessible to all people no matter their social standings, race or religion. Truly a revolutionary in his concepts of the time. He planted his reputation, one park at a time, as America’s preeminent landscape architect. One I and my visiting friend will appreciate this weekends celebration at Central Park.