building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

Its vicinity to the Hudson valley with its magnificent estates and uncontaminated
landscapes had developed a cultural life in the light of the most interesting
experiments in the field of landscape. Nevertheless, New York had few, unbuilt,
green spaces mainly due to casual, accidental policies. The area of Battery Park, in
the part south of Manhattan, had been used for military purposes until the end of
hostilities with the English (1812), whereas the nearby Bowling Green and the socalled
City Hall Park to the north, although they appeared to be “happy
interludes” 254 as Norman T. Newton defined them, were simply undersized scraps
of land, compared to the dense structure of the city.
This delicate urban planning situation brought about a general awareness, geared
to develop and upgrade areas of public interest, intended as green spaces for
recreational purposes, in the wake of contemporary English experiments and of the
rural cemeteries. The main advocates for a press campaign in favour of urban parks,
also called the park movement, were Downing from the pages of the Horticulturist,
and William Cullen Bryant 255 (1794‐1878), a poet and journalist for the New York
Evening Post. Before Bryant took part, as Olmsted sustained, 256 nothing had been
done to prevent the chaotic atmosphere of the city and the string‐pulling of the
speculators. Bryant had highlighted how nature could become of primary interest
for technological civilisation and for civilised man. He explicitly asked for the
creation of a system of public parks and gardens in the centre of the island of
Manhattan. In 1851, via the Evening Post, he supported the election of the mayor,
Kingsland, who undertook to approve the First Park Act in the New York Legislature.
Once the administrative act had been approved, the Municipality of New York was
able to purchase an area named Jones’s Wood, on land between Third Avenue, the
East River, and between the 64th and 75th street. However, both Downing and
Bryant understood that the area identified by the politicians was not large enough
254 NEWTON, Norman T., Design on the Land. The Development of Landscape Architecture,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971, p. 268
255 William Cullen Bryant (1794‐1878) was interested in natural landscape. In 1872 and 1874 he
edited two volumes entitled Picturesque America, publications describing and illustrating the scenery
of America. These books are considered very important in the development of tourism and the
historic conservation movement in the United States.
256 NEWTON, Norman T., Design on the Land. The Development of Landscape Architecture,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971, p. 269
155