2005-04-06 P & R Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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APPEND IX B EXERPTS FROM READINGS ABOUT HORACE CLEVELAND AND FREDRICK LAW OLMSTED The following excerpts are meant to l1elp tile reader betJer lInderstand tile plzilosopl1ies and UJeories that were used in the forma.tion of tile park"master plan and site design, Horace William Shaler Cleveland (Detember 16, 1814 - D~ember 5. 1900) belonged to that remarkable generation of landscape architects which produced Fredrick Law Olmsted, Robert Morris Copeland, and Charles Elliot. These worthy successors to Andrew Jackson Downing were genuine radicals who proposed fundamental innovations in the form and structure of cities, Not only did they lay the foundations fOf" the municipal park systems of today, but they created a new image of the city as an urban-rural continuum,.pioneeret! in the development of city and regional planning, instigated a revolt against the tyranny of the gridiron subdivision, and directed attention to the neet! fof' coordinated physical and social planning inthe modem metropol1s. Cleveland designed the park systems of MinneapOlis as well as Como park, Moniton Island. and Lake Elmo Park in St. Paul. None exceeded Cleveland's missionary zeal, his efforts to educate the Midwest to the importance of creative landscape architecture for its homes and cities. None exceeded his conscience of the landscape architect's social role and responsibility in an era when railroads and speculators were producing towns wholesale in the West, engaging in a form of pseUdo-planning wherein mechanical regularity substituted for the adaptation of sites to topography, function, and long-term community needs. Cleveland always insistet! that the landscape architect, whether involved in the home- building or city-building process, satisfiet! a primary and not mereiy a secondary, decorative purpose. -Landscape Architecture in the art of arranging land so as to adapt it most conveniently, economically and gracefUlly, to any of the variet! wants of civilization.' No amount of detorative elaboration could compensate for a poorly conceived original design of arrangement. wbich ultimately determined the intrinsic expression_~f a place. Cleveland conceived of the city as an artifact which best served human biological and social needs when it both incorporated and improved upon nature. He aspired JO create an organic unity between the man-made and natural environments, or a continuum in which man experienced the advantages of both. The development of a comprehensive, integratet! park-boulevard system was pivotal to this end. and their efforts to create m~nicipal park systems constituted an important root of modern-day city and regional planning. Park development on a large scale required long-range planning; cities had to aquire land in advance of need, before aquisition costs became prohibitive and choice locations were usurped for private subdivision.