Living on the edge of a town, brought up by an enthusiastic nature-loving mother and a father involved in outdoor activities, I explored both natural and designed landscapes. When discovering that several of the natural landscapes I perceived were, in fact, (re-)designed by the nineteenth-century landscape gardener Lucas Pieters Roodbaard, my curiosity in cultural landscapes was raised. Soon, I explored a wider context and started collecting literature, ultimately studying landscape architecture, and always with a strong interest in history. The focus on public parks became inevitable when I ended up in landscape consultancy.
This book was my first introduction to planning parks for cities. That was produced with a well-illustrated text that evidenced the determination and commitment of generations of designers to provide cities with a healthy green infrastructure.
I liked it because it provided both a designer’s perspective as well as giving general context that I have since used as a starting point for my own observations and research. Due to its international remit, I also like to include it as a reference on any reading list for student work on public parks.
This classic is not a history book as such, but as a single source, it provides great insight into nineteenth-century park-making and context. It uses the Parisian situation as a pretext to recommend improvements to park provision in other cities, and I love it because the author is so direct and critical, not only with respect to the situation in the French capital but also elsewhere. He is an enlightened observer of fashion and governance.
Terse criticism is provided where required, and which I Iike, and sensible, practical recommendations that are intended to improve the situation in England and often still resonate today. I also like the horticultural detail provided and the sensuous lithographs of plans and views, and I adore the cover of the original edition, which I treasure.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and…
As an open space, garden, or park ‘open to and maintained by or for the public,’ the notion of the public park is primarily a Western concept that is interpreted and translated variously in different cultures.
I like this book because it links policy in the USA to the design of public parks and provides four typologies in its development from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. While I have not made much use of these typologies since they apply particularly to that American context, it has inspired me to look deeper into how what we do is directed by policies and how our designs reflect politics.
Galen Cranz surveys the rise of the park system from 1850 to the present through 4 stages - the pleasure ground, the reform park, the recreation facility and the open space system.
This book reminds me of a spell in Boston, in my first job, and I acquired it then as I was eager to take the opportunity to explore its famous park system. This title was recommended to me as the main source of reference. I was immediately attracted to it because it was well-illustrated and with a direct, clear, and accessible text that explained the progress of the project.
To me, it provided a concise context and background for the park system that became prototypical as ‘the emerald necklace,’ not only in the USA but also internationally. I like the way it also addressed the theoretical development, the design process, down to the very detail of the project, in what remains one of the few such critical monographs of a single landscape concept.
Whether flying a kite in Franklin Park, gardening in the Fens, or jogging along the Riverway, today's Bostonians are greatly indebted to the legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted. The man who dreamed of an "emerald necklace" of parks for Boston completed his plans in 1895, yet his invigorating influence shapes the city to this day, despite the encroachment of highways and urban sprawl. Cynthia Zaitzevsky's book is the first fully illustrated account of Olmsted's work: the process of "getting the plan" of a park, supervising its construction, adding the necessary "furniture" of bridges and other structures, and selecting plants, shrubs,…
I like the way this book not only traces national and international influences on the development of public parks in Britain but also how they affected design and management. It is all set out in a clear narrative, and at the time of its initial publication, it was a pioneering study.
The contents of this volume have now been incorporated in an even more comprehensive volume ameliorated and edited by Paul Rabbits, which completes the story to the present day. I like it as a standard go-to and as a source of reference for the study of public parks in the UK, which served as such an important source of inspiration elsewhere.
This book identifies the main national and international influences on the development of municipal and other public parks in nineteenth-century Britain, relating these influences to the design and use of parks and clarifying the significance of the achievement. Municipal parks made an important contribution to the urban environment, developing within a social, economic and political context which profoundly affected people's attitudes towards recreation. The promoters of parks wanted them to facilitate education and entertainment, and they reflected this in their design, buildings, statues, bandstands and planting. Towards the end of the century, disused inner-city burial grounds were transformed into the…
This book responds to the increased interest in public parks as part of our social and cultural heritage. It provides a historical context, illustrates the range of design details, and provides philosophical approaches to renovation and care, as well as practical approaches to aspects of conservation. Specific elements within public parks are featured, and general principles are provided.
Aspects covered include the social functions of parks, memory and value, methods of study, buildings and monuments, use of iron, paths, shrubbery planting, bedding, lakes, and water features, and play and sports facilities. While focusing on the situation in Great Britain, further international comparisons are drawn to serve as practical examples and sources of inspiration.
