Central Park, An American Masterpiece: A Comprehensive History of the Nation's First Urban Park

Customer Reviews:

A fantastic book for a very much loved park.......2006-07-26

Did you know that the elm lined mall leading to the Bethesda fountain and the view of the ramble are actually based on the layout of a church? Or that all of the lakes in Central Park are manmade. This and many other very interesting facts are interspersed with lovingly taken photographs of the park which were taken by the author of the book as well. Miller starts decribing how the park came to be and the leading ideas and ideals that lead to its creation by Olmsted and Vaux. She proceeds to describe systematically the various sections of the park providing historical information as well. She delves into the some of the controversies and compromises that Olmsted and Vaux encountered in the creation of one of the finest examples of 19th Century art but it is not a comprehensive history of the park. There is a 2 page map of the park at the of the book with a legend identifying each of the features discussed in the book. If you are first time visitor to the city wishing to explore the park in detail or a life long New Yorker this book will delight and surprise you.

Definitive Review of the Finest Work of Art in NYC.......2006-02-20

As an avid fan of Central Park who has been exploring it and studying the books on it for decades, I was amazed at what there was still to learn about it from Miller's book. For example, other historians allude to a connection between Central Park's design and the Hudson River School of landscape art: Miller provides actual sources of the designer's inspiration and shows the results explicitly in the photos. And all in a way that is not at all "bookish" but instead makes you want to go right in and see for yourself the scenes she shows so well in the book's illustrations. The beautiful photos and fascinating stories and the well chosen historical prints all work together in such a compelling and entertaining way that one might never realize one is being educated by a superb textbook in the field of art.
With her emphasis on the past of the park, and its present restored beauty, it is understandable that the author does not use very much of the book's valuable space on the remaining present-day problems, but she might at least have alluded to the incongruity of the city's insistence on using this artistic matepiece as a through route for motor traffic during the majority of daylight weekday hours. In effect, the city's Dept. of Traffic is providing a refuge from the chaos of the surrounding streets during rush hours - but for the cars, not for the people. If you want to appreciate the park shown in this book, go during the times when the traffic noise does not drown out the wind in the trees, the birdsong, and the happy voices of children!

New York's Oasis.......2005-09-21

Central Park is breath taking and this book does a fine job of giving the reader a feel for what makes this 850 acre masterpiece so special. The book is quite thorough and does an commendable job of disecting various sections of the park. The color photos are vivid and well thought out and the text is highly informative. The author has a real love for the park and it comes out in her writing. If you have never visited Central Park or have visited and fell in love with it like so many others, you will love this book. This oasis really is the heart of New York City and to understand New York you have to understand the parks history and its vast importantance to the city. Central Parks importance to New York and New Yorkers cannot be overstated, I can't imagine the city without it.

A Gorgeous Book Commemorating America's 1st Public Park.......2004-03-16

Commemorating the 150th anniversary of Central Park, photographer and historian Sara Cedar Miller celebrates the aesthetic, cultural and historic significance of America's first public park with the book "Central Park, An American Masterpiece." This is the park's definitive illustrated history, and offers some of the most gorgeous photographs I have seen on the subject - a difficult task given the number of pictures that have been drawn, painted and photographed of the Manhattan landmark. The book includes over 200 color illustrations, original plans and drawings alongside modern photos, giving the viewer/reader an historical perspective.

Accompanying Ms. Miller's work, portraying the park throughout the seasons, is a well written text which highlights the conception and creation of the park and its art and architecture. This is a big, beautiful picture book that would make a wonderful addition to any home or library. It's a wonderful gift idea. I know as I have given it numerous times.

Ms. Miller is the parks official historian and photographer and has been since the mid-1980s.
JANA

A book as worthy as the park it celebrates.......2003-11-26

Sara Miller has put together an outstanding book: a book as vast and detailed as the Great Park itself. For those not familiar with the park and its history, this is an invaluable introduction to the political, demographical, economic and, especially, aesthetic thinking that went into the creation of 800 acres of gorgeous park space in the middle of Manhattan. For those seasoned veterans of NYC history, this is a welcome reminder of the enormous vision and efforts of Calvert Vaux and Fredrick Law Olmsted, as they conceived the park.

Nota Bene: A lot of books have gorgeous photos but the print job is miserable ... Others have high-qualtity prints but the photos aren't that interesting ... This book has glorious prints and an expert print job. Pick up this book.

Book Description

The move to liveable communities--ideal ``small towns'' and neighborhoods where people work, live, play, and walk from place to place--is on. Profit from what a visionary group of architects leading this movement has learned about designing new ``small towns'' in Peter Katz's The New Urbanism. You'll discover the amazing potential for this kind of work as well as case studies, site plans, project analyses, and 180 beautiful photographs. This unique reference also tackles--and answers--the critical issues of crime, health, traffic, environmental degradation, and economic vitality and opens a startling window on the look and feel of future communities. Every designer can profit from this guide to building the utopias of tomorrow--today!

Customer Reviews:

Time to Pay Attention.......2005-08-05

I'm actually studying to be an Urban Planner in school. New Urbanism was a concept that greatly interested me because its principles focus around SMART and RESPONSIBLE planning.

I'm a huge fan of Peter Katz's book. There's only one thing I have to critisize about it--it doesn't confront those opposed to New Urbanism concepts, and I believe that in order to be effective you must challenge the tired, old, and sometimes downright arrogant ideas of the opposition (mostly the same Urban Planners who got us into this whole Urban Sprawl Mess).

Basically, New Urbanism speaks for itself. I would admit, it does have its own issues, but ALL great ideas have issues. And honestly, I would trade the issues of a New Urbanist Town over the issues of a delapidated suburb any day.

I think the best example I can give about how New Urbanism can nuture a growing and healthy community is to look at the television show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition". Not to say that all New Urbanist communities build such homes, but the point I'm making is that the crew of EM:HE give to a family what they truly deserve...a good home. A good home makes a good family, and a good family can contribute to a good community.

New Urbanism is like that, in that it builds COMMUNITY. I mean, how many of us come home to our neighborhoods and sigh at what we see. I know I do. It saddens me to drive past the run down streets of my neighborhood, only to know the local government is content in finding it suitable enough for habitation.

And with rising gas prices, who wouldn't want a walkable community. I know I would, and I live in Florida--one of the more Humid States in the Union. I remember in my early college days. My Community College was 45 minutes to an Hour away (NO TRAFFIC), and so was BORDERS, my place of employment. I would go to school in the morning, drive back home, then drive all the way to BORDERS. That's A LOT of Gas, and A HUGE dent in my pocket book. But I had no choice, and I absolutely LOVED my school and job.

And that's how Jacksonville, Florida is. I LOVE it here, I love my city, but it TOTALLY sucked when I didn't have a car to get around. You HAVE to own a car in Jacksonville, being as the mass transit system is as close to unreliable as it is efficient.

I support this book as much as I support the New Urbanism movement. This book will help educate as well as inform readers of the benifits of SMART URBAN PLANNING. The notion that the ideas of New Urbanism are dangerous are absolutely absurd when compared to the dangers of the decaying suburbs of America. Why do you think Bank of America is so involved in creating better communities? Less bank robberies (LoL). And take a look at a city like Boulder, Co--voted the number one place in the country to raise a family. The city is built on an opposition to Urban Sprawl (though they could do better to lower the real estate prices).

Oh yah, and about the porches in Seaside, Florida being out of usage. Have you ever been to Seaside? Last time I checked it was a pretty vibrant community. Not to mention, have you ever visited Florida during the Summer? The Humidity will Kill you! I wouldn't be out on my porch either if it was during Summer.

Community is not Architecture.......2001-03-02

I grew up in what new urbanists would probably call a paradise. It was a real community in which neighbours were really neighbours. People did sit on their verandahs and converse with their neighbours on the street. There was an understanding that one could borrow things if the owner wasn't using them. It was considered polite to tell the owner if he was there but if he was away one could just borrow the thing and tell him when he came home if one was still using it. In short it was everything new urbanism wants. This was in a moderately large city in Canada.

There were two things wrong with this paradise:

a) it was not about verandahs, facing the street etc. It was about control and conformity. The neighbourhood protected itself by frowning on unexpected behavior. There was an expected range of interests and an expected range of activity. If someone went out of this range, one could expect social sanctions unfailingly. The dark side of Jacobs 'eyes-on-the-street' is Foucault's 'gaze.' The neighbourhood worked as an exercise in power. The verandahs and street life were instruments of that power. Heaven help anyone who had non-standard interests.

b) the neighbourhood was unsustaining. With the growth of the personal rights ethos, the ability of the neighbourhood to control its inhabitants fell away. No longer could the neighbourhood fathers take action to control petty teenage misbehaviour. Instead personal rights and social policy took these controls away from the neighbourhood and gave them to government agencies. As a result the neighbourhood is now perhaps not unsafe but definitely uncomfortable. No one leaves tools or equipment out now in case a neighbour needs to borrow it. Everything is locked up. The doors are firmly closed and neighbours now complain to the police instead of discussing thier joint problems.

New urbanism seems to miss this point. Neighbourhoods are about local power. For some people this produces a comfortable paradise. For those slightly different it creates a jail of conformity. Some people thrive in it. Some peole will be stifled. Neighboourhoods are an exercise in hopefully beneficent control. Architecture does not create this control. It can destroy it certainly and make it impossible but it cannot create it.

Every library in the country should have this book!.......1999-08-13

I have only had the book a day and already it has given me great pleasure and joy. I love the fantastic pictures and diagrams. The computer digitalizations on a few existing towns today and what they could be like were truely fasinating. I couldn't help not liking the indepth descriptions of numourous cities, towns, and villages from around the country and canada as well. This book had colorful photos and diagrams, this book to me is pure genus!

how to design urban spaces in small communities.......1999-01-08

A very good appraisal of design examples of new communities with also a consistent theoretical approach to New Urbanism concepts. This is a necessary reading to those that want to be updated with the best design practices of integrated urban spaces.

New Urbanism: This is how/where I want to live.......1998-12-12

The basic principles presented in this book are the stuff that dreams are made of. I have shared the ideas presented in this book with many of my friends and they all want to live in communities such as this. We've been strip-malled, mega-malled and automobilized to near-death. New Urbanism as presented here is like a million breaths of fresh air.

It is best to read the basic principles presented in the front of the book first. It may look like dry reading at first but as you get into it, your interest will be piqued at first, then grabbed, and you won't want to put it down till you've read it all. Having read this part you will be armed with the knowledge that, to date, no development or developer has had the guts to follow the principles completely. All of the projects presented include some elements of New Urbanism but none of them have it right. One of the other customer reviewers of this book, Ken Wing, missed this entirely. Hey Ken, there is no people in the Seaside pictures because they want the reader to see the architecture! Those who don't get it, or are afraid of change, tend to trivialze New Urbanism and mis-represent it.

Book Description

Daniel Urban Kiley is generally considered to be America's foremost postwar landscape architect. Yet the work from the first two decades of his career is little known, despite both its inherent interest and its importance as a testing ground for his well-known later work.
?This book focuses on Kiley's most provocative projects from 1940 to 1960. Contributors present analytical investigations of Kiley's rarely studied early housing projects and garden prototypes, his garden plans for the Hollin Hills subdivision in Washington, and, in new ways, his best-known work, the Irwin Miller Garden.

Customer Reviews:

good but not enough.......2002-03-26

this book is good,but i need to know about all of his other works. it stops at the miller house. he has done so much more then that.

The Politics of Urban Beauty: New York and Its Art Commission

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The Politics of Urban Beauty: New York and Its Art Commission
Michele H. Bogart
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0226063054

Book Description

Since its founding in 1898, the Art Commission of the City of New York (ACNY) has served as the city’s aesthetic gatekeeper, evaluating all works of art intended for display on city property. And over the years, the commission’s domain has expanded dramatically to include everything from parks and courthouses to trash cans and sidewalks. In The Politics of Urban Beauty, Michele H. Bogart argues that this unprecedented authority has made the commission host to some complex negotiations—involving artists, architects, business leaders, activists, and politicians—about not only the role of art in urban design, but also the shape and meaning of the city and its public spaces.

A former vice president of the ACNY, Bogart tells its story here from an insider’s perspective, tracing the commission’s history from its origins as an outgrowth of progressive reform to its role in New York’s reconstruction after 9/11. Drawing on archival correspondence, drawings, and photographs from commission collections, Bogart presents bracing examples of works—ranging from New Deal murals to Louis Kahn’s unbuilt Memorial to Six Million Jewish Martyrs—that illuminate the ACNY’s subtle yet powerful role in shaping New York’s identity.

The Politics of Urban Beauty is thus a fascinating history of a New York art world that paralleled—and sometimes unpredictably intersected with—the more familiar realm of prominent architects, painters, galleries, and museums. Bogart’s fresh view adds a critical dimension to our understanding of “the city beautiful” and makes an important and lively contribution to the study of art history, urban design, and New York City itself.

The New Landscape: Urbanization in the Third World

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The New Landscape: Urbanization in the Third World
Charles Correa
Manufacturer: Butterworth-Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Ken Smith Landscape Architect: Urban Projects (Source Books in Landscape Architecture)

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Ken Smith Landscape Architect: Urban Projects (Source Books in Landscape Architecture)

Manufacturer: Princeton Architectural Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 156898510X

Book Description

Ken Smith is unquestionably one of the most interesting voices in landscape architecture; his works reflect the intensity and energy of their surroundings and challenge the distinction between landscape and art form. Ken Smith Landscape Architects/Urban Projects focuses on three prominent works in New York City: his East River Project; his work for P.S. 19; and his MoMA rooftop garden. Through Smith's colorful, playful drawings and photographs, the book reveals how each project explores new expressions of landscape design in the city.

Book Description

Built in the 1930s on worn-out tobacco land between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., the planned community of Greenbelt, Maryland, was designed to provide homes for low-income families as well as jobs for its builders. In keeping with the spirit of the New Deal, the physical design of the town contributed to cooperation among its residents, and the government further encouraged cooperation by helping residents form business cooperatives and social organizations.

In Greenbelt, Maryland, Cathy D. Knepper offers the first comprehensive look at this important social experiment. Knepper describes the origins of Greenbelt, the ideology of its founders, and their struggle to create a cooperative planned community in the capitalist United States. She tells how the town, saved at one point by the intervention of Eleanor Roosevelt, struggled through the McCarthy years, when it was branded "socialistic" and even "communistic." In conclusion, she provides a timely analysis of those qualities that not only helped the town survive but also served as the model for currents in urban development that have once again come into vogue in such movements as the new urbanism and traditional neighborhood development.

Customer Reviews:

A lesson in community spirit.......2001-09-03

What a powerful story Dr. Knepper tells of this entirely planned community originally created as an experiment in socialism. In addition to a thorough description of historical details and events, each person is so vividly painted in their full complexities as to make this a fascinating and almost breezy read.
I was captivated by this town who brought a developer's greed all the way to the Supreme Court, and the Capraesque fashion in which this community dealt with the McCarthy era witch hunt. I cannot recommend this enough as a sociology or government text book, as well as a worthy addition to any personal library.

Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston

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Fascinating history
A Spectacular Work.
Gaining Ground
Encyclopedic, entertaining, extraordinary - simply the best!

Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston
Nancy S. Seasholes
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0262194945

Book Description

Fully one-sixth of Boston is built on made land. Although other waterfront cities also have substantial areas that are built on fill, Boston probably has more than any city in North America. In Gaining Ground historian Nancy Seasholes has given us the first complete account of when, why, and how this land was created.

The story of landmaking in Boston is presented geographically; each chapter traces landmaking in a different part of the city from its first permanent settlement to the present. Seasholes introduces findings from recent archaeological investigations in Boston, and relates landmaking to the major historical developments that shaped it. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, landmaking in Boston was spurred by the rapid growth that resulted from the burgeoning China trade. The influx of Irish immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century prompted several large projects to create residential land--not for the Irish, but to keep the taxpaying Yankees from fleeing to the suburbs. Many landmaking projects were undertaken to cover tidal flats that had been polluted by raw sewage discharged directly onto them, removing the "pestilential exhalations" thought to cause illness. Land was also added for port developments, public parks, and transportation facilities, including the largest landmaking project of all, the airport.

A separate chapter discusses the technology of landmaking in Boston, explaining the basic method used to make land and the changes in its various components over time. The book is copiously illustrated with maps that show the original shoreline in relation to today’s streets, details from historical maps that trace the progress of landmaking, and historical drawings and photographs.

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating history.......2007-08-13

If one lives and Boston and was curious about what the city looked like 100, 200, 300, or 400 years ago this is the book for you. I discovered that somewhere between 1837 and 1851 the street I lived in was filled and went from being underwater to land.
An incredibly well-researched history of how people altered the landscape of Boston.

A Spectacular Work. .......2007-04-01

Disclaimer: I was very fortunate to take the Harvard University class tought by the author, which uses this book as the class text.

This book is a spectacular work of research and writing. The author truly shows her passion for the subject.
The text presents a unique view of Boston history, with stunning detail and even intrigue. The historical and original maps are without equal, and the photographs and illustrations are superb selections.
Pardon the cliché, but truly I found myself unable to put this book down!

Her recent book Walking Tours of Boston's Made Land is also a must-have for anyone who wants to get close-up and personal with Boston history.

Gaining Ground.......2005-08-04

This is a wonderful book about how Boston changed in the last 200+ years. It is very readable, but I especially enjoyed the pictures and maps. It is an excellent book for anyone interested in the subject.

Encyclopedic, entertaining, extraordinary - simply the best!.......2003-10-13

Seasholes must have combed every archive and walked every inch of Boston to produce this monumental book. Not only is it exhaustive, but it is entertaining as well. Although this is a handsome book it is not a cooffe table enterprise. This is a book you will want to take with you as you walk the streets of Boston. This book is destined to become dog eared and underlined. It is simply a must for anyone interested in the history of this great city.

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New Public Spaces
Sarah Gaventa
Manufacturer: Mitchell Beazley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1845331346

Book Description

Attention to public spaces has become a worldwide phenomenon—from Chicago’s high-budget Millennium Park to Rotterdam’s Westblaak Skatepark to Japan’s Roppongi seating project. And this resurgence of interest has led to new relationships between artists, architects, designers, and local authorities. Behold some of the most innovative, interesting, and diverse examples, in this first book dedicated to the subject. There are squares and plazas, streetscapes and promenades, gardens and parks, and more—including a temporary Parisian beachside near the Seine, an English bus stop that actually sings to the people waiting, and a wasteland transformed into a “Mountain of Hope” in Soweto, South Africa. Many of the projects challenge accepted notions of how communal spaces should function and look, and taken together they provide an illuminating global overview.

Village Homes: A Community By Design (Landscape Architecture Foundation Land and Community Design Case Study Series)

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Village Homes: A Community By Design (Landscape Architecture Foundation Land and Community Design Case Study Series)
Mark Francis
Manufacturer: Island Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1559631112

Book Description

The Village Homes neighborhood in Davis, California is one of the few long-standing examples of sustainable community design. Mark Francis has been studying Village Homes for more than two decades and brings together existing research and writing on the community, studies about the children of Village Homes he conducted throughout the 1980s, and interviews with many parties involved with the project including designers, residents, gardeners, and maintenance people. Mark Francis takes a critical look at Village Homes, addressing its failures as well as its successes, and examines the question of why, despite its success, this development has not been replicated.

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