In a wonderful bit of writing, Karrie Jacobs turns the mundane discovery of a manhole into an exploration of the greatness of Olmsted's Prospect Park. The story wraps around to talk to Christian Zimmerman who is helping keep the park faithful to the original Olmstedian vision. Finally, Jacobs revisits something Olmsted worked to explain to the city - is it an urban park or a rural landscape?
Olmsted’s answer, in short, is that it’s a “special type of rural
landscape,” one made specifically to be used by an unusually large
number of people—in 2017, about 10 million a year. As Olmsted argued,
“to permanently secure a high degree of rural charm in the public ground
of a large city, special preparations are required.” Indeed they are.
Take
a quick visit to Curbed to read the story.
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