For Monday, October 22
 

Mid Term Examination Due

Read: in Schuyler,

Chapter IV: The Ideology of the Public Park pp. 59-76

We're not used to thinking of parks in ideological terms. You'll need to consider what Schuyler means by an ideology, and you'll quickly see that ideology becomes the justification for taking sections of the urban landscape into public control and modifying them at public expense. The shapers of this ideology were not primarily the architects and landscape designers which created them: rather, it was the opinion leaders of the day--ministers, newspaper editors, and literary figures which argued passionately for public parks. In preparing for this class identify the predominant arguments they used, and the relationship between those ideas and American democratic ideals.

For Wednesday, October 25

Read: in Schuyler,
Chapter V: The Naturalistic Landscape: Central Park pp. 77 - 100
in Lopate,
"Passages in the Life of an Unpractical Man," F. L. Olmsted pp. 241-249

Central Park is arguably America's greatest urban park. Chapter 6 in Schuyler details the process by which it came into being, complete with rather marvelous photographs of designs and the construction process. Lest we think of the park in too ideal terms, we can rely upon the selection from Lopate as a counterweight. Frederick Law Olmsted was the great designer of Central Park. The essay assigned gives us a little sense of how he received the commission and what the building of the park meant to practical men.

For Friday, October 27

Read in Schuyler,

Chapter vi: Cities and Parks: The Lessons of Central Park pp. 101 - 125

Central Park was of great importance for New Yorkers, but its influence extended far beyond the limits of those cities. This chapter looks to other places which drew on the lessons learned in New York, applying or modifying them as the situation merited. Perhaps the story of Brooklyn's Prospect Park is most important to master. In each of the other examples presented by Schuyler the park served as a centerpiece for an independent urban center like Philadelphia or Baltimore. He could have chosen many other examples as well: Boston, or Providence, perhaps. Brooklyn was not an independent entity, however, and Prospect Park needed to be designed in such a way that it was not in competition with Central Park. Be sure to understand how this park differed conceptually.