Creating Central Park - Softcover

Heckscher, Morrison H.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0300136692 ISBN 13: 9780300136692

Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008

Synopsis

The year 2008 marks the 150th anniversary of the design of Central Park, the first and arguably the most famous of America’s urban landscape parks. In October 1857 the new park’s board of commissioners announced a public design competition, and the following April the imaginative yet practicable Greensward” plan submitted by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted was selected.

 

This book tells the fascinating story of how an extraordinary work of public art emerged from the crucible of New York City politics. From William Cullen Bryant’s 1844 editorial calling for a pleasure ground of shade and recreation” to the completion of construction in 1870, the history of Central Park is an urban epic a tale not only of animosity, political intrigue, and desire but also of idealism, sacrifice, and genius.

About this title

About the Author:

Morrison H. Heckscher is Lawrence A. Fleischman Chairman of the American Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Review:

"A detailed narrative of the politics, aesthetics, and planning involved in the park's creation, accompanied by a rich trove of illustrations. . . . [No other book on Central Park] can match the combination of narrative and graphic detail."—Y. Phleet,  Bloomsbury Review (Y. Phleet Bloomsbury Review 2008-08-01)

About this edition

• Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0300136692
• ISBN 13: 9780300136692
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 76