building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

With no bearing on either the logic of the construction chessboard or the dynamics
of the new agricultural lands, the new landscapes which were created led to the
subsequent, nineteenth century idealisation of nature. Christian Zapatka speaks of
the numerous experiences which followed this particular structure to plan for
suburban, residential neighbourhoods as intermediate areas between town and
country:
In the mid‐to‐late nineteenth century, projects for suburban
neighbourhoods such as Roland Park in Baltimore and Druid Hills Park in
Atlanta proposed curvilinear plans that not only took advantage of the
site conditions but introduced less rigid streets. The streets were much
less integrated with the houses than in urban cases. Early photographs
show individual foot bridges, for example, going from the crown of the
road to the sidewalk in front of each house. The suburban streets were
more highway‐like than urban. These neighbourhoods could be seen as
residential versions of the great city parks. The allure of a country house
within the boundaries of the city was one of the forces behind the
project. 97
Even more surprising is Wright’s indirect revision of the oval block scheme
implemented in Riverside by Olmsted. Wright was to remain substantially faithful to
the grid for decades, but at the same time he included some suggestions from the
world of landscape gardening. In fact, in some little known projects, Wright was to
programmatically combine the picturesque approach with that of the grid module.
Although Olmsted and Wright had no direct contact with each other, it has to be
said that the latter knew the Riverside project very well, since it was not very far
away from Oak Park. Furthermore, at the beginning of the twentieth century,
Wright was to get the opportunity to plan as part of the Olmsted project, both
Thomek House (1907) and various buildings on the Coonley Estate (1907‐09), fine
tuning the theme of the prairie houses. It was actually Coonley House, together with
Robie House, a masterpiece of the period, with its annexes and its ample garden,
which occupied nearly all the egg‐shaped space of one of the smallest blocks
planned by Olmsted close to the river.
97 ZAPATKA, CHRISTIAN The American landscape, New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 1995, p. 79
(Italian translation L’architettura del paesaggio americano, edited by Mirko Zardini, Milano, Electa,
1995, p. 79)
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