Dhillon 1

Devan Dhillon
Professor Johnson, TA Lee
LAR 150B1
30 April 2016
Word Count: 2743
Central Park, New York, New York
Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted
Since 1858, when the first areas of Central Park opened to the public, the green space
inside the cement jungle has been a tourist and cultural center of the city. Central Park is located
in the center of Manhattan, the most densely populated borough of New York City. It was also
the first publically landscaped green space in the United States (Conn). Today, it boasts a
seasonal skating rink, manmade lakes, performance spaces, various sport and play areas, a zoo,
and Cleopatras Needle from Egypt. It is an oasis for New Yorkers, providing running, walking
and bicycle paths, as well as large grassy hills that are escapes from being trapped inside steel
and glass building, cement dwellings. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Central Park
remains the most famous of all parks in the world. Born into a middle class family, Olmsteds
education was varied, and his passions also made him a famous essayist and anti-slavery author.
Central Park began construction just before the Civil War and even throughout the war, the park
achieved completion bit by bit. Working with the British designer Calvert Vaux, Olmstead
helmed the largest undertaking for a designed green space, mixing materials, planning pedestrian
flows, bridge design innovations, and exploiting the technology of manmade feats of
engineering, resulting in an oasis that would be loved, admired, and used in countless way for all
time.

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The oldest son of a prominent New England Family, Frederick Law Olmsted was born in
1822 to a successful merchant in Hartford, Connecticut. His mother died when he was young, but
his father remarried and he grew up with a stepmother that was supportive of Olmsteds love of
nature (Rogers). As Olmsted reached adulthood, he became more and more inclined to keep his
own set of writings that offer direct insight to his life, recently catalogued by Charles Beveridge,
a social history professor at the University of Maryland. Beveridge headed the project, now
referred to as the Olmsted Papers Project, chronicling his life and insight of each paper over nine
volumes. In the early volume, Olmsted recounts that as a boy he loved to ramble in the woods
and fields surrounding his Connecticut home and that it was of no concern to him or his family
when, still in the woods after sunset, he would seek overnight shelter in the homes of friends
(Rogers). A love of nature for Olmsted could strike as inspiration anytime, continually viewing
nature as beauty to be seen and appreciated. In one of his earlier writings, Olmsted recalls a
carriage ride with his parents where he felt it was his fortune also at this period to be taken on
numerous journeys in company with people neither literary, scientific, nor artistic, but more than
ordinarily susceptible to beauty of scenery and who with little talking about it, and none for [his]
instruction, plainly shaped their courses and their customs with reference to the enjoyment of it
(Rogers). It should be noted that Olmsted suffered a sumac poisoning accident when he was
fourteen, leaving him visually impaired for the remainder of his life. Due to this injury, he did
not go to college, but rather became a self-learner and motivated essayist.
As an adult, Olmstead had a vast list of experiences based on his upbringing, especially
since his mother died when he was very young. The community who helped raise him were very
learned and knowledgeable, thus Olmsted's career was shaped by his idea of a civilized society.
Through his landscape designs and writings, he tried to recast the form of America's cities and

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suburbs, and to promote the refinement and culture he thought the citizens of a republic could
attain (Schuylar). These deep beliefs influenced all of Olmsteads design projects, that all
attempted to bring unity, space, and the ability for equality for all who would enjoy them. It is
known that he criticized the slaveholding South because he believed the region lacked the social
and cultural institutions that would raise the level of civilization there (Schuylar). Designing the
landscape for seventeen high-profile, nationally recognizable locations, the top five include
Central Park, Niagara Falls, The U.S. Capitol, Fenway Park, and the Stanford University
campus. The main theme that all three of these planned spaces have is wide walkways and
directional flow of people, large areas for people to relax in, and breathtaking views from many
angles. Take for instance the Niagara Falls project (also co-designed with Calvert Vaux); the
design was simple, remove the decrepit factory and cheesy amusement park and instead, clear a
line of sight and large picnic areas to simply take in the natural wonder of the waterfall (Niagara
Falls State Reserve). Likewise, Central Park is an enormous example of views, open places to
rest and a way to bring nature into the industrial world. For the U.S. Capitol, the project was an
addition to the existing building, so to make the project work, Olmstead leveled the grounds and
installed, what else, footpaths that allowed people to walk near the building and enjoy its image,
or for people to walk about on a break, there is seating for people to have lunch on while they
enjoy the area, along with an iron trellis to blend green and steel (Grounds of the US Capitol).
Some of his projects were not so much about adding or preserving beauty as they were
about creating useable space in undesirable locations. Much of Central Park was drained and
trudged, which will be discussed later, but that process applied to many future projects,
especially the Fenway Park one. In Boston, there was an unfortunate reality that the salt water to
fresh water mix was harming the area known as Back Bay, and Olmstead knew it could be

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rescued. The views were incredible, but the smell was not (Back Bay Fens). In order to
preserve the land, he developed a sewage system that doubled as a drainage system, that also
enabled the area to do its natural job of catching overflow flooding. As described by historians,
the process worked like this:
First, he devised a way to control the amount of water in the Back Bay, by building tidal
gates where the Fens flowed into the Charles. Next, he installed a huge sewage
interceptor on the Boston side of the Fens basin. This conduit reduced health hazards and
provided a run-off for one of the two streams. In times of extremely heavy rains, he
anticipated that the Fens would serve as a temporary storage basin for run-off water.
Because of this Olmsted planted vegetation in the park that would not die as a result of
this. His final preliminary work was filing in the land around this conduit (Back Bay
Fens).
It should also be noted, that after completing the comprehensive drainage system that enabled
Boston to regain valuable land, the park placed on top of the work had The Ride, or a large
winding path that had multiple entrances and exits for people to stroll through the park in.
Olmsteads continued success and innovations changed the landscape of Americas growing
nation, shaping everything from small parks, the nations capital, to large-scale national parks. In
addition, he was the first to make such sweeping plans and formal civil engineering plans in the
nation.
Given that Olmstead never worked alone, it was interesting to read about his view as
project manager. He often commented in his own essay that taking on the task of Central Park
was to accept responsibility for many objectives: Central Park thus emerged out of a complex
mix of motivations to make money, to display the citys cultivation, to lift up the poor, to refine

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the rich, to advance commercial interests, to retard commercial development, to improve public
health, to curry political favor, and to provide jobs (Rosenzweig). Olmstead had a long standing
working relationship with British designer Calvert Vaux, and for many that was enough to
establish the grandeur of the projects, for the British, and Europe in general, grand gardens and
landscaping designs were centuries old professions. As noted earlier, Olmstead was the first
landscape and urban designer, and while extensively influential throughout the United States,
another designer followed over a century later. Lawrence Halprin, the designer of the Franklin D.
Roosevelt Memorial, which opened in 1997, seemed to pay homage to the father of landscape
design. President Roosevelts memorial was developed on the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.'s
West Potomac Park. Landscape architect Lawrence Halprin arranged massive granite blocks into
four outdoor rooms, one for each of Roosevelt's terms as U.S. president from 1933 to 1945.
Halprin integrated waterfalls, sculptures, and quotations to commemorate the man and his era
(Back in Time: Architecture (1997)). What Halprin modeled after Olmsteads designs is the
idea of separate but unified spaces. Like Central Park being one unified space, it is punctuated by
different aspects and zones, the Roosevelt Memorial is one material broken into four rooms with
four features. The pictures below show how Halprin and Olmstead utilized natural elements, the
granite rocks, to juxtapose the raw aspect of nature within soft green space to create distinction.

Central Park

Roosevelt Memorial

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Much like the building of Central Park was hindered by the Civil War and a shifting
focus on civil rights, the Roosevelt Memorial was being built when the National Organization on
Disability was pushing for the American Disability Act (ADA) to receive more justice than it had
in the past. Once Halprins designs were being built, the National Organization on Disability
(NOD) and some historians objected that none of the 10 memorial sculptures of the President
would show him in a wheelchair, with crutches, braces, or a cane. He used the devices
throughout his presidency because he had been paralyzed by polio years before his first
inauguration in 1933 ("Back in Time: Disabled (1995)"). The NOD objected on a national
platform because they wanted his disability recognized so that generations to come would know
Roosevelt as he was, not as history wanted to paint him. Interestingly, the Roosevelt family
disagreed with the NOD, saying that Roosevelt was a very private person and hated that his body
betrayed him. The similarities between Central Park and the Roosevelt Memorial includes the
large walking paths that wander from area to area, and with each turn, a new view of nature or
the urban surrounding area is revealed. A difference between the designs is that the Roosevelt
Memorial is a part of a quartet of memorials called The Mall, including the Washington, Lincoln,
and Jefferson Memorials, where Central Park is self contained. Yet, even with the difference in
purpose, the design elements are very similar; all natural materials, nature within an urban
setting, walking paths, statues (for Roosevelt) and bridges (for Central Park) that identify unique
elements of the whole, and a sense of elevated culture amongst a society where culture is failing.
To truly appreciate the gravity of Central Park and what it means, it is best to hear what a
passer-thru thinks. Reverend George Anderson, in an article titled Of Many Things for the
American Magazine relating his emotions and views as he wandered the park repeatedly to get
away from the city. Highlights of his article include:

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The park is more than grass and trees. Taking any of the winding paths, what I have long
noticed are the huge outcroppings of glacial rock. They rise up as reminders of the
prehistoric beginnings of the island of Manhattan itself.On one of them, I once noticed
three children playing, their watchful mother close by. Another day, I passed two women
seated in a grassy area, tossing a ball to a miniature collieWhether adults or children,
against those ancient surfaces, likely to last unchanged for thousands of years, the human
beings stood out as emblems of the brevity of human life Healing in one form or
another is among the goals for the many who seek respite in the park. But others who
frequent its open spaces need healing of another kindhealing of a societal nature
(Anderson).
What Anderson experiences is the most common reaction the visitors of the park have on a
regular basis and the exact thing Olmstead tried to achieve. The seamless connection with nature
and city enables people from all income levels to cross into one of the fifty entrances and leave
the worries of cab horns and exorbitant rent behind and find a few minutes solace from the rush.
In 2009, the Central Park Alliance did a comprehensive study and count of how many people
enter and exit the park. At that time, they counted nearly 38 Million visits in one year, with at
least 9 Million unique visitors. Keep in mind that these figures are already seven years old, and
this year alone, Central Park has hosted three new events including a Papal visit just a few
months ago, in which the park closed for the first time in decades to secure the entrances and
exits with security teams and only ticketed people could enter, the half million ticket holders that
is. In addition, for those who volunteer for a week in the park to clean, the city put on a
fundraising concert with Beyonce as the main event in 2015, honoring the quarter of a million

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volunteers (Park Information). With events like this, the future for the Park is brighter than
ever.
While the patronage of the park changing as society and culture evolves, the fact of the
matter remains that without Olmsteads plan and supervision, the main achievements of the park
would have never been possible. For instance, the bridges alone are a testament to the time,
innovation of materials, and engineering feats that were awed and ignored. As an example, one
bridge was made entirely of marble. The only such bridge in the parkPedestrians entered at
one end, passed through a long corridor beneath a carriage drive, and reached a double stairway
[where] marble benches inside the underpass Despite its uniqueness, Marble arch was
demolished in 1938 to expedite automobile traffic through the park (Brown). It seemed that
beauty was sacrificed for technology for poor Marble Bridge, but the park still boasts seven cast
iron bridges, the first made in the nation and the highlight of Central Park as they are used in
films, painting, photographs, and tourist memory albums over and over again. Central Parks
seasonal skating rink, manmade lakes, performance spaces, various sport and play areas, a zoo,
and Cleopatras Needle from Egypt is an oasis for New Yorkers, providing running, walking and
bicycle paths, as well as large grassy hills that are escapes from being trapped inside steel and
glass building, cement dwellings. Without Olmstead and Vauxs design, Olmsteads commitment
to innovation, flow, development and job creation, the Central Park project would have never
achieved its status or refinement. When was the last time you walked through a park and knew it
was built before the Civil War, and other than a few road repairs here and there, the bridges,
lakes, statues, fountains and boathouse are original. It is a true piece of living history and shows
no sign of slowing down in its significance or stature.

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Works Cited
Anderson, George M., Of Many Things. American Press. Vol. 191, No. 10, 11 Oct. 2004.
Web. 23 Apr. 2016.
"Back Bay Fen." FrederickLawOlmsted.com. SMF, LLC, 1 Jan. 2008. Web. 29
Apr. 2016.
"Back in Time: Architecture (1997)." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2016. Web. 30 Apr.
2016.
"Back in Time: Disabled (1995)." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2016. Web. 30 Apr.
2016.
Brown, Jeff L., Bridges of Central Park. Civil Engineering. Feb 2013. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.
Conn, Phyllis. "Central Park." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2016. Web. 24 Apr. 2016
"Grounds of the US Capitol." FrederickLawOlmsted.com. SMF, LLC, 1 Jan. 2008. Web. 29
Apr. 2016.
"Niagara Falls State Reserve." FrederickLawOlmsted.com. SMF, LLC, 1 Jan. 2008. Web. 29
Apr. 2016.
"Park Information." The Official Website of Central Park NYC. City of New York, 1 Apr. 2016.
Web. 29 Apr. 2016.
Rogers, Elizabeth Barlow. Olmsted as an Author. The New Criterion. March 2016. Web. 23
Apr. 2016.
Rosenzweig, Roy and Elizabeth Blackmar. The Park and the People: A History of Central Park.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1992. Print.
Schuyler, David. "Olmsted, Frederick Law." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2016. Web. 24
Apr. 2016.