building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

estricted to his theoretical works. Downing was frequently called by rich, private
individuals to give landscaping and architectural advice, work in which he used his
vast repertory of solutions he had described in his texts. Almost nothing remains of
these interventions as a result of transformations over the years, 252 and his analysis
of the project for the layout of the Mall in Washington [Figures 115‐117].
Downing was invited by the President of the United States, Millard Fillmore (1800‐
1874) to prepare the general plan for a large L‐shaped area between the Capitol
Building and the White House, at the time known as the public grounds [Figure
116]. The intention was to design and draw up a proposal for a layout to be
developed on a large portion of the city, which had yet to be determined.
Washington was founded on the basis of guidelines prepared by Pierre Charles
L’Enfant in 1791 and attention at the time had focused on the geometric design of
the blocks. The ground plan had created a design featuring alternating streets on a
grid, with wide diagonal boulevards converging on the government buildings.
L’Enfant’s idea was that the area of the Mall should accommodate a scenic Grand
Avenue of extraordinary magnificence [Figure 115]. Downing’s proposal, however,
rejected this rigid geometric design and was set out as a picturesque utopia, a town
planning experiment aiming to mediate the relationship between the architecture
of power, the city and the countryside.
Downing’s project for the Mall in Washington was not merely a landscape project,
but rather it sparked the emerging problem of large scale town planning. So, for the
first time, landscaping played a part in a proposal to develop the city.
The solution to adopt a landscape plan, moreover, gave the opportunity to soften
some of the incongruent styles of the buildings overlooking the public grounds. The
construction of the headquarters of the Smithsonian Institution, nicknamed The
Castle as a result of the project designed by James Renwick Jr. (1818‐1895), had
undermined the uniform style of the area which was based on the Neo‐classical
codes of the federal (Greek) style.
252 Springside, Poughkeepsie, New York, (1850) remains the only surviving landscape work by Andrew
Jackson Downing, which he followed from creation to completion. The landscape of Springside
embraced the natural forests and environment and designed the architectures and the layout of
farm and cultivated grounds. At least two of Downing’s planned buildings were built (a barn and a
gardener’s cottage) and the main house planned remained only a drawing.
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