Abstract
Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn is among the greatest designs produced by Olmsted and Vaux. From the time that I first encountered it I have been amazed at the wide variety of people and activities that take place there. Its success is the result of the designers’ objective of sustaining a habitable environment, though they certainly would not have used this modern jargon.
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Notes
- 1.
Fredrick Law Olmsted, quoted by Charles E. Beveridge in “Planning the Niagara Reservation,” in The Distinctive Charms of Niagara Scenery: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Niagara Reservation (Niagara University, 1985), 21.
- 2.
Fredrick Law Olmsted, “Paper on the (Back Bay) Problem and its Solution read before the Boston Society of Architects” (1886), reprinted in Beveridge and Hoffman, eds., Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted, Supplementary Series, Vol. I, 441–442.
- 3.
Ibid., 437–452.
- 4.
Frederick Law Olmsted, “Notes on the Plan of Franklin Park and Related Matters” (1886), reprinted in Charles E. Beveridge, Carolyn F. Hoffman, and Kenneth Hawkins, eds., The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted, Volume VII, (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), 468.
- 5.
E. W. Howe, city engineer, “The Back Bay Park,” from the proceedings of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, (1881), 126.
- 6.
Fredrick Law Olmsted, “Paper on the (Back Bay) Problem and its Solution,” 441–442.
- 7.
Frederick Law Olmsted, “Suggestions for the Improvement of Muddy River” (December 1880), reprinted in Beveridge, Hoffman, and Hawkins, eds., The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted, Volume VII, 517.
- 8.
Alexander Garvin, Public Parks: The Key to Livable Communities (New York: W. W. Norton, 2010), 142–147.
- 9.
Alexander Garvin, The Planning Game: Lessons from Great Cities (New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 2013), 132–163.
- 10.
Robert Moses, “The Building of Jones Beach” (a tape-recorded talk delivered on February 26, 1974, at a meeting of the Freeport Historical Society), published in Joann P. Krieg, ed., Robert Moses: Single-Minded Genius (Interlaken, NY: Heart of the Lakes Publishing, 1989), 135.
- 11.
http://www.nysparks.com/parks/10/details.aspx.
- 12.
Cleveland Rodgers, Robert Moses: Builder for Democracy (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1952), 55; John Hane, Jones Beach: An Illustrated History (Guilford, Conn.: The Globe Press, 2007), 14–17.
- 13.
Robert Moses, Public Works: A Dangerous Trade (New York, McGraw-Hill Inc., 1970), 97–98.
- 14.
Tom Lewis, Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life (New York: Viking Penguin, 1997), 37.
- 15.
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles.
- 16.
Hane, Jones Beach, 3.
- 17.
Owen D. Gutfreund, “Rebuilding New York in the Auto Age: Robert Moses and His Highways,” in Hilary Ballon and Kenneth T. Jackson, eds., Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Transformation of New York (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007), 90.
- 18.
Robert Moses, “New Highways for a Better New York,” New York Times, November 11, 1945.
- 19.
“To Add 2000 Acres to State Parks,” New York Times, November 30, 1925.
- 20.
NYC highways were built by borough presidents. As chair of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, Moses was responsible for the bridges and tunnels that connected them. In addition, as NYC parks commissioner, the agency he administered built and managed the city’s many parkways.
- 21.
Carl Abbott, Portland: Planning, Politics, and Growth in a Twentieth-Century City (Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1983), 211–214.
- 22.
Alexander Garvin, The American City: What Works, What Doesn’t, 3rd ed. (New York, McGraw-Hill Education, 2013), 598–600: 1 Robert F. Gatje, Great Public Squares: An Architect’s Selection (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010), 216.
- 23.
Garvin, Public Parks, 81–82.
- 24.
Interview with Bram Gunther, chief of forestry, horticulture, and natural resources, NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, January 9, 2014.
- 25.
Dan L. Perlman and Jeffrey C. Milder, Practical Ecology for Planners, Developers, and Citizens (Washington, D.C.: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2004), 49.
- 26.
John W. Reps, The Making of Urban America: A History of City Planning in the United States (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1965), 304.
- 27.
Young, Building San Francisco’s Parks 1850–1930 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2004), 171–172.
- 28.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/congestion-charging-low-emission-factsheet.
- 29.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/corporate/central-london-peak-count-supplementary-report.pdf.
- 30.
https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/portal/en/index/portraet_der_stadt_zuerich/zahlen_u_fakten.html.
- 31.
Samuel I. Schwartz with William Rosen, Street Smart: The Rise of Cities and the Fall of Cars (New York: Public Affairs, 2015), 174–181.
- 32.
Ibid., 178.
- 33.
Ibid., 176–177.
- 34.
Ibid., 175.
- 35.
Lois Wille, Forever Open, Clear and Free: The Struggle for Chicago’s Lakefront (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1972), 3.
- 36.
Dennis McClendon, The Plan of Chicago: A Regional Legacy (Chicago: Chicago CartoGraphics), 2008.
- 37.
Garvin, Public Parks, 120–135.
- 38.
Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett, Plan of Chicago (1909; repr., New York: Da Capo Press, 1970), 50.
- 39.
Lewis F. Fisher, Crown Jewel of Texas: The Story of the San Antonio River (San Antonio: Maverick Publishing Company, 1997), 31–35.
- 40.
Ibid., 41–42.
- 41.
http://www.thesanantonioriverwalk.com/history/history-of-the-river-walk.
- 42.
Clare A. Gunn, David J. Reed, and Robert E. Cough, Cultural Benefits from Metropolitan River Recreation—San Antonio Prototype (College Station, Tx.: Texas A & M University, 1972) and http://www.thesanantonioriverwalk.com/history/history-of-the-river-walk.
- 43.
Garvin, Public Parks, 65–67.
- 44.
http://communitylink.com/san-antonio-texas/2011/02/17/hospitalitytourism/.
- 45.
https://www.sara-tx.org/public_resources/library/documents/SARA-fact_sheets/SARIP-ENG.pdf.
- 46.
NYC Planning Commission, Capital Needs and Priorities for the City of New York (New York: NYC Department of City Planning, March 1, 1978), 3.
- 47.
Alexander Garvin, Parks, Recreation, and Open Space: A Twenty-First Century Agenda, Planning Advisory Service Report 497/498 (Chicago: American Planning Association, 2000), 40–42.
- 48.
New York City is divided into fifty-nine community districts, whose fifty board members participate in the annual budget-making process.
- 49.
Interview with Douglas Blonsky, president and CEO of The Central Park Conservancy, July 1, 2014.
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Heinberg, R. (2016). Sustaining a Habitable Environment. In: What Makes a Great City. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-759-9_7
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