Frederick Law Olmsted's Legacy in Public Parks in Connecticut
Write an article to submit for our class publication that illustrates Frederick Law Olmsted (FLO)’s legacy in public parks in Connecticut and how environmental planning or landscape architecture can address the problems associated with current issues in public parks and green spaces and also can improve benefits of
these spaces.
Cover the following aspects in your paper:
• Give a brief overview/background of FLO’s work in Connecticut. What are the characteristics of his park designs, the roles of public spaces (including parks) in his time, and problems or opportunities related to the provision of public park spaces, especially within the historical context of Connecticut?
• Choose one of the parks Olmsted designed in Connecticut. Briefly describe key design intent and elements of the park. Focus the article around current use and implications of the park from urban/environmental planning, social justice, and other constructive perspectives. Explain the vision and concept behind the place, if applicable, and how they respond to the locally realized problems of contemporary use of the parks.
• Conclude with your own thought pieces at least discussing what could be some of the challenges in developing and implementing future parks in Connecticut and beyond, what would be the transformative power of parks and how we could reinforce it, and what are strategies for diffusing inclusive park planning or design into broader development practice in Connecticut.
Research: Must be researched and supported by at least two credible, authoritative sources of literature, in addition to any popular or “self-published” information used.
Formatting: Minimum five full written pages (not counting title page, images, or references), double spaced, Times New Roman 12pt. Use 1” margins on all sides.
• Include a title page with illustrative imagery and title, and a header or footer with your name, course name, assignment # and date.
• Using APA formatting style, provide a list of references used to develop your work at the end of the article.
• Use the “track changes” feature in Word to indicate the revisions you make from draft to final.
Rubric: This paper is worth 28 points:
6 points: clarity and organization of writing
6 points: meets basic requirements (length & formatting, revising & editing)
10 points: compelling, well developed thesis and description of case study
6 points: quality, use of references
Edit/Revise: Go through peer reviews on your draft paper and include a half page note how you went through peer reviews along with responses to my comments for final submission.
Due: Paper draft: Thursday, January 27
Final Revisions (with track changes) + cover note: Tuesday, February 15
References:
• Beveridge, Charles E., Meier, Lauren, and Mills, Irene (Eds), 2020. Frederick Law Olmsted: Plans and Views of Communities and Private Estates.
• Beveridge, Charles E., Meier, Lauren, and Mills, Irene (Eds), 2015. Frederick Law Olmsted: Plans and Views of Public Parks.
• Birnbaum, Charles A. and Tallant, Sandra L. 1996. Balancing Natural and Cultural Issues in the Preservation of Historic Landscapes: Selected Papers from the National Association for Olmsted Parks Conference. George Wright FORUM 13.
• Carr, Ethan. 2013. Frederick Law Olmsted: The Early Boston Years, 1882-1890 (Volume VIII).
• Colley, David P. 2013. Prospect Park: Olmsted & Vaux's Brooklyn Master Piece,
• DeMause, Neil. 2001. Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
• Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted (A Merloyd Lawrence Book)
• Lawliss, Lucy, Loughlin, Caroline and Meier, Lauren (Eds) 2008. The Master List of Design Projects of the Olmsted Firm, 1957-1979.
• Levine, Edward J. 2008. Central Park. Acadia Publishing. 94.
• Martin, Justin. 2011. Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted. Da Capo Press.
• New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
• Tang, Yanhong and Ahern, Jack (2019) "Imparting Olmsted’s Legacy Abroad: An Exhibition Series in Beijing, China," Proceedings of the Fábos Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning: Vol. 6,
Article 15. DOI: https://doi(dot)org/10.7275/1s9j-cb16
• Twombly, Robert. 2010. Frederick Law Olmsted Essential Texts. New York. Norton & Co.
please use the 2 references and APA format. Also, use track changes for peer review for the final revision. Foucus on the Olmsted's design on beardsley park and compare and contrast with the hitorical impact and future impact by green infrastracture and public park. Conclude with your own thought pieces at least discussing what could be some of the challenges in developing and implementing future parks in Connecticut and beyond, what would be the transformative power of parks and how we could reinforce it, and what are strategies for diffusing inclusive park planning or design into broader development practice in Connecticut. Reduce the second paragraph talking abouth his principle and combine them into his design of beardsley park. Feel free to ask me any questions if you have any updates, thank you!
Assignment #1
2022/01/27
Frederick Law Olmsted + Public Park
Overview/background
"The possession of arbitrary power has always, the world over, tended irresistibly to destroy humane sensibility, magnanimity, and truth." My favourite quote Olmsted said in terms of his efforts in politics. Frederick Law Olmsted was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1822. After the loss of his mother when he was four, his father sent him to receive his education from ministers from the countryside of the city. Olmsted had many interests in early life and worked in many different fields, farmer, newspaperman, social commentator, and journalist, which influenced him the most in his future landscape architecture career. When he travelled through England in 1850, Olmsted visited 125-acre Birkenhead Park and was impressed by the scene he saw, "And all this magnificent pleasure-ground is entirely; unreservedly, and for ever the people's own. The poorest British peasant is as free to enjoy it in all its parts as the British queen." (Eisenman 289) Olmsted observed English people had appealing and pleasing public green space for everyone in the community can enjoy it without any discrimination or the class difference back in the 19th century in Europe when America had tremendous growth and change from shifting from a farming economy to heavy industrial. Furthermore, America was also oppressed by racial and social discrimination when people of colour could not even have human rights. His experience in England has dramatically impacted his future design philosophy and ideology and his desire to fight for environmental justice and other political inequality as a landscape architect.
Although Frederick Law Olmsted committed as a landscape architect in his late life, his legacy goes far beyond creating hundreds of masterpieces of landscapes and parks. He left a blueprint and the design principles he applied when designing these parks. These principles support his design philosophy that the garden can be a remedy for healing people. Olmsted illuminated that other than the physical health risk associated with industrial urbanization such as water pollution, incomplete combustion, and brownfield. City living can cause mental health issues due to the artificial lights of the urban environment, such as overwhelming traffic, dense building blocks, unsafe pedestrian walk paths can lead to "excessive nervous tension, over-anxiety, hateful disposition, impatience, and irritability." Olmsted advocated the "restraining and confining" condition of city streets to compel people to walk jealously, safely, watchfully to remedy these mental health risks that may cause by living in the city. They are a genius of the place, which the design should take advantage of its opportunities and constraints simultaneously and develop it with initiate knowledge of the site. This principle expresses that his design utilizes its opportunities and even the disadvantage of the site instead of covering the bad. This method indicates FLO's focus on the integrity and connectivity of his creation, putting green infrastructure, activity belts, and recreational areas as nodes or connections to entertain pedestrians and bikers with reasonable and surprising l...