Olmsted's America : an "unpractical" man and his vision of civilization / Lee Hall.
Material type: TextPublication details: Boston : Little, Brown, ©1995.Edition: 1st edDescription: ix, 270 pages : illustrations (some color), maps (some color) ; 27 cmISBN:- 0821219987
- 9780821219980
- SB470.O5 H34 1995
Item type | Current library | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lending Books | Elisabeth C. Miller Library Tall Shelves | SB470.O5 H25 1995 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 39352800167033 |
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SB470.O5 B57 2022 Experiencing Olmsted : the enduring legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted's North American landscapes / | SB470.O5 D52 2022 Olmsted and Yosemite : Civil War, Abolition, and the National Park idea / | SB470.O5 D72 2021 The power of scenery : Frederick Law Olmsted and the origin of national parks / | SB470.O5 H25 1995 Olmsted's America : an "unpractical" man and his vision of civilization / | SB470.O5 K69 2013 The best planned city in the world : Olmsted, Vaux, and the Buffalo park system / | SB470.O5 L26 1996 Viewing Olmsted / | SB470.O5 O56 1997 Civilizing American cities : writings on city landscapes / |
"A Bulfinch Press book."
Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-263) and index.
While Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) stands among America's great innovators, his story is one of both enormous achievement and miserable failure, of public acclaim and official derision. Known as the Father of American Landscape Architecture, he is best recognized for his collaborative work with Calvert Vaux. Together they designed and built some of the greatest parks and public spaces in America, including Central Park in Manhattan and Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Among Olmsted's numerous solo projects are Boston's Emerald Necklace, the grounds of the United States Capitol and the Washington Monument, and the extensive grounds at Biltmore, the Vanderbilt mansion in North Carolina.
But Olmsted was a restless individual who pursued a number of careers, among them "scientific" farmer, journalist, and commissioner of the Union's Sanitary Commission during the Civil War. He was author of several books, director of the Mariposa gold mines in California, instrumental in the preservation of Yosemite and Niagara Falls - and, by extension, the founding of the National Park Service - and designer of Riverside, Illinois, the first planned suburb. Perhaps his most significant legacy to Western civilization, however, stems from his ideas and plans concerning the importance of integrating everyday life with nature. In Olmsted's America, Lee Hall presents not just a biography per se but an examination of how Olmsted's particular ideas affected the United States during his time and the important significance these concepts hold for today's world, especially as they relate to nature and the environment.