by Frederick Law Olmsted

In May 1895, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, best known for Central Park in New York, wrote in Engineering Magazine about city parks, or "pleasure-grounds." Here, Olmsted starts by offering suggestions on park siting and organization. In a second part of the article to follow, he discusses park design in more detail. — Editor

The aggregation of men in great cities practically necessitates the common or public ownership, or control, of streets, sewers, water pipes, and pleasure-grounds. Municipal pleasure-grounds comprise all such public open spaces as are acquired and arranged for the purpose of providing favorable opportunities for healthful recreation in the open air.

As there are many modes and means of open-air recreation, so there are many kinds of public pleasure-grounds. The formal promenade or plaza is perhaps the simplest type. Broad gravel-ways well shaded by trees afford pleasant out-of-door halls where crowds may mingle in an easy social life, the value of which is better understood in Southern Europe and in Spanish America than in the United States.

Agreeable and numerous open-air nurseries and playgrounds for small children present a more complex, but perhaps more necessary, type of public ground. Very few public open spaces suitably arranged for this special purpose are to be found in American cities, and yet it goes without saying that every crowded neighborhood ought to be provided with a place removed from the paved streets, in which mothers, babies, and small children may find opportunity to rest and sleep and play in the open air.   >>>

Discuss this article in the Architecture Forum...

SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux designed New York City's Central Park, an 840-acre (340-hectare) park in the center of Manhattan Island. The Gapstow Bridge (1896) is pictured, spanning The Pond. Image does not appear in book. Photo: Ed Yourdon Extra Large Image SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE According to The Trust for Public Land, Central Park is the most visited park in the United States, with an estimated 25 million visits per year. Image does not appear in book. Photo: Flickr user ZeroOne Extra Large Image   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.