New York's Central Park

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the original motives behind the creation of New York's Central Park from the perspective of the two architect designers, Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmstead. The paper shows how New York's Central Park began as an extraordinary vision of an urban landscape in a bustling city, a place where city dwellers could escape the stresses of city life. The paper asserts that the park has achieved that goal and is a monument to landscape architecture and park planning.

From the Paper:

"Central Park was created as an urban oasis for a quickly growing city that had little open space. The size of the park was set in 1853, as a historian notes, "The site for the park, a 750-acre rectangle bounded by 59th Street on the south, 106th Street on the north, Fifth Avenue on the east, and Eighth Avenue (present Central Park West) on the west, had been fixed in 1853" (Kowsky 96). A plan had been submitted with ideas for developing the park, but English architect Calvert Vaux, visiting America, saw the plan and knew it needed revision. Eventually, he convinced city officials to hold a competition for the design of the park. When they agreed, Vaux and Olmstead began to work together to create a plan for the park. This Greensward Plan was eventually chosen as the winning plan for the park's design in 1858, and construction began."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bernstein, Joshua. "The Park and the People." Gotham Gazette. 2004. 20 Feb. 2008.<http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/fea/20040713/202/1031>
• Bloomberg, Michael. "Letter from Michael R. Bloomberg." NYC.gov. 2005. 20 Feb. 2008.<http://www.nyc.gov/html/thegates/html/letter.html>
• Editors. "150+ Years of Central Park History." CentralParkNYC.org. 2008. 20 Feb. 2008. <http://www.centralparknyc.org/site/PageNavigator/aboutpark_history_cp_history_150yrs>
• Kowsky, Francis R. Country, Park & City: The Architecture and Life of Calvert Vaux. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
• Rosenzweig, Roy and Blackman, Elizabeth. The Park and the People: A History of Central Park. New York: Cornell Paperbacks, 1998.

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