Public Parks and Enlargement of Towns

1032 Words3 Pages

“America’s great pioneer landscape architect” that is what Frederick Law Olmsted was called. His paper encouraged three great moral vitalities: the first being public health; by having trees to purify the air and to reduce water pollution, the second is fighting urban wrongdoing especially among poor children, the last was improving the purpose of civilisation by providing services and resources that are available to all. He also focuses on the relationship between the built environment and the natural one.

Context:
Authors’s Background:
Frederick Law Olmsted is considered is considered to be the founder of American landscape, and the countries most prestigious parkmaker. He was born in the year 1822 in Hartford, Connecticut. He passed away at the age of 81 in the year 1903. (“Designing an american landscape”, n.d)
Between the year1837 and 1857, Olmsted occupied many jobs: he was a farmer, a clerk, a sailor in the trade of China, and other variety of jobs. In 1848 he moved to New York, and without any college education, He became the superintendent or the director of Central Park in 1857.
He served as the administrator and then architect-in-chief of Central Park’s construction. After that, he served in the US Sanitary Commission as the administrative head, which was the predecessor of the American Red Cross.
In addition to urban design, Olmsted was very keen on preserving the natural and beautiful areas for the public’s enjoyment. He served as the head of the commission in preserving Yosemite Valley and was a leader in establishing the Niagara Reservation. (A Short Biography, 2011)

Olmsted opened the world’s first full-scale professional landscape design firm when he moved to suburban Boston in 1883. (“Designing an american la...

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...taying healthy and encouraging sports.

In conclusion, one would say that Olmsted thought about the need of the people, he studied their moves and actions and analysed them, which led him to a problem that he then tried to fix. The problem being the urban life and its’ negative effects on the citizens, and the solution was incorporating nature back to the citizen's lives which balanced out these negative effects, thus providing Olmsted with a tremendous success.

Works Cited

A Short Biography. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.fredericklawolmsted.com

Designing an american landscape. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.nps.gov/

Morgan, K., Cushing, E., & Reed, R. (2013). Community by design. Thomas-Shore, inc.

Schuyler, D. (23, July 1996). Frederick law olmsted. Retrieved from http://www.fandm.edu/david-schuyler/ams280/public-parks-and-the-enlargement-of-towns

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