 | |
| Author | Witold Rybczynski |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Biography |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | Scribner |
Publication date | 1999 |
| Pages | 480 |
| ISBN | 9780684824635 |
A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and North America in the Nineteenth Century is a biography of 19th-century landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, published in 1999, by Canadian architect, professor and writer Witold Rybczynski.
It was short-listed for the Charles Taylor Prize in 2000. [1]
Frederick Law Olmsted was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co-designing many well-known urban parks with his partner Calvert Vaux. Olmsted and Vaux's first project was Central Park, which led to many other urban park designs, including Prospect Park in what was then the City of Brooklyn and Cadwalader Park in Trenton, New Jersey. He headed the preeminent landscape architecture and planning consultancy of late nineteenth-century America, which was carried on and expanded by his sons, Frederick Jr. and John C., under the name Olmsted Brothers.
The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of introducing beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. It was a part of the progressive social reform movement in North America under the leadership of the upper-middle class concerned with poor living conditions in all major cities. The movement, which was originally associated mainly with Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City and Washington, D.C., promoted beauty not only for its own sake, but also to create moral and civic virtue among urban populations. Advocates of the philosophy believed that such beautification could promote a harmonious social order that would increase the quality of life, while critics would complain that the movement was overly concerned with aesthetics at the expense of social reform; Jane Jacobs referred to the movement as an "architectural design cult."
Charles Eliot was an American landscape architect. Known for pioneering principles of regional planning, naturalistic systems approach to landscape architecture, and laying the groundwork for conservancies across the world. Instrumental in the formation of The Trustees of Reservations, the world's first land trust, playing a central role in shaping the Boston Metropolitan Park System, designing a number of public and private landscapes, and wrote prolifically on a variety of topics.
Witold Rybczynski is a Canadian American architect, professor and writer. He is currently the Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor Emeritus of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania.
The Olmsted Brothers company was a landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.
The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is a professional association for landscape architects in the United States. The ASLA's mission is to advance landscape architecture through advocacy, communication, education, and fellowship.
Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site is a United States National Historic Site located in Brookline, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903) is recognized as the founder of American landscape architecture and the nation's foremost parkmaker of the 19th century. In 1883, Olmsted moved his home to suburban Boston and established "Fairsted", the world's first full-scale professional office for the practice of landscape design. Over the course of the next century, his sons and successors expanded and perpetuated Olmsted's design ideals, philosophy, and influence.
The University of Rochester Arboretum is an arboretum located across the River Campus of the University of Rochester, 612 Wilson Boulevard, Rochester, New York.
Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. was an American landscape architect and city planner known for his wildlife conservation efforts. He had a lifetime commitment to national parks, and worked on projects in Acadia, the Everglades and Yosemite National Park. He gained national recognition by filling in for his father on the Park Improvement Commission for the District of Columbia beginning in 1901, and by contributing to the famous McMillan Commission Plan for redesigning Washington according to a revised version of the original L’Enfant plan. Olmsted Point in Yosemite and Olmsted Island at Great Falls of the Potomac River in Maryland are named after him.
John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920), was an American landscape architect. The nephew and adopted son of Frederick Law Olmsted, he worked with his father and his younger brother, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., in their father's firm. After their father retired, the brothers took over leadership and founded Olmsted Brothers as a landscape design firm. The firm became well known for designing many urban parks, college campuses, and other public places. John Olmsted's body of work from over 40 years as a landscape architect has left its mark on the American urban landscape.
Shelburne Farms is a nonprofit education center for sustainability, 1,400 acres (570 ha) working farm, and National Historic Landmark on the shores of Lake Champlain in Shelburne, Vermont. The property is nationally significant as a well-preserved example of a Gilded Age "ornamental farm", developed in the late 19th century with architecture by Robert Henderson Robertson and landscaping by Frederick Law Olmsted.
Olmsted Point is a viewing area off Tioga Pass Road in Yosemite National Park which offers a view south into Tenaya Canyon, giving, in particular, a view of the northern side of Half Dome, Clouds Rest, and a view of Tenaya Lake to the east. The granite slopes immediately south and southwest of the parking lot feature numerous glacial erratics scattered about, as well as a short 0.125 mi (0.2 km) trail leading south - through a small grove of trees - to the top of a small granite dome where the view of Clouds Rest and Half Dome is clearest.
Frederick Law Olmsted, the executive director of the United States Sanitary Commission, set up a system of hospital ships for wounded and sick soldiers during the American Civil War. The USSC was a private agency that cooperated closely with the U.S. Army.
The National Museum of American Illustration (NMAI), founded in 1998, is the first national museum to be devoted exclusively to American illustration artwork. The NMAI is located on Newport, Rhode Island's historic Bellevue Avenue in the mansion Vernon Court, designed by the noted Gilded Age architecture firm Carrère and Hastings. The museum's collection contains over 2,000 original works by noted American illustrators such as Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish, J. C. Leyendecker, N.C. Wyeth, and others.
Sudbrook Park is a historic neighborhood near Pikesville, Maryland located just northwest of the Baltimore City limits in Baltimore County.
Ignatz Anton Pilát was an Austrian-born gardener who migrated to the United States to work on the design and planting of New York City's Central Park.
Rider–Hopkins Farm and Olmsted Camp is a historic farm and summer camp located at Sardinia in Erie County, New York. It consists of a 188.4-acre (0.762 km2) property containing a Greek Revival style brick farmhouse dating to the 1840s known as the James and Abigail Hopkins House. The property retains its original boundaries as purchased from the Holland Land Company in 1828. The property is also the site of the Olmsted Camp; a turn of the 20th century family summer camp in the Adirondack "Great Camp" tradition. The camp buildings are in the Arts and Crafts style and grounds are laid out in a naturalistic manner. The camp was designed by Harold LeRoy Olmsted (1886–1972); a locally prominent architect, landscape architect, and artist, who was also a distant relative of Frederick Law Olmsted.
The Architecture of Buffalo, New York, particularly the buildings constructed between the American Civil War and the Great Depression, is said to have created a new, distinctly American form of architecture and to have influenced design throughout the world.
Seaside Park, located in Bridgeport, Connecticut, is a 2.5-mile (4.0 km) long crescent-shaped park bordering Bridgeport Harbor, Long Island Sound, and Black Rock Harbor. The park lies within Bridgeport's South End neighborhood.
Woods of Arden is an abandoned Staten Island Railway station in the neighborhood of Annadale, Staten Island, New York. The station opened in 1886 with a cost of $112.55. The station closed after 1894. This station was located in between the Annadale and Eltingville stops.
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