THE URBAN GARDEN:
PORT ALLIANCE, TEXAS
BY
ISAAC HALL MANNING
MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE, 1985
VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
AND STATE UNIVERSTIY
BACHELOR OF ARTS, 1981
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
Submitted to the Department of Architecture
fulfillment of the requirements for
in partial
the degree of
MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ARCHITECTURE STUDIES
at the
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
June 1990
@ Isaac Hall Manning, 1990
All rights reserved
The author hereby grants to M.I.T.
permission to reproduce and distribute publicly
copies of this thesis document in whole or in part.
Signature of Author__
Isaac Hall Manning
Department of Architecture
May 11, 1990
Certified by
Julian Beinart
Profe4sor of Architecture
Thesis Supervisor
Accepted by
Julian
einart
Chairman
Departmental Committee for
Graduate Students
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OF TECWII noGY
MFAY 3 0 1990
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THE URBAN GARDEN:
PORT ALLIANCE, TEXAS
by
ISAAC HALL MANNING
Submitted to the Department of Architecture
on May 11, 1990
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the Degree of
Master of Science in Architecture Studies
ABSTRACT
This thesis focuses on of three urban parks; Central Park
in New York, the Fens to Franklin Park in Boston, and Rock
Creek Park in Washington, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted
and the growth of the cities around them. Imbedded in the
histories of the parks and their cities are strategies for
the development of a new town on the plains of north Texas
around an airport named Alliance.
A regional park system organized along the creek bottoms
and flood plains surrounding Alliance can be a strong
organizing element for growth in the last undeveloped
quadrant of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Not unlike the
area around Alliance, Olmsted's parks were in the path of
urban growth , yet each of the parks has been bounded by a
diverse range of built responses from the cities that now
surround them.
This thesis examines the evolution of the
urban edge where Olmsted's parks and their cities meet.
The built domain that bounds the parks is called the Urban
Garden. The Urban Garden is a metaphorical set of ideas
about how the urban edge of the city and the park interact.
The variations in the Urban Gardens of New York, Boston,
and Washington provide vivid examples of how cities build
at the edge of urban parks. These variations of the urban
edge suggest some possible futures for the parks and the
city that will develop around Alliance.
Thesis Advisor: Julian Beinart
Title: Professor of Architecture
4
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
thesis
This
Kamphoefner,
Emeritus,
Dean
memory
School
of
Henry left
Carolina State University.
Mabel on
the
to
dedicated
is
Valentines Day, 1990.
mentor and friend.
Henry
of
Design,
L.
North
us to join his wife
He was a
great educator,
He is missed.
I would also like to thank the following people: My advisor
Julian
Beinart
for his
interest,
his
insights and
his
guidence throughout the course of my MIT career; my readers
for keeping the thesis on
Elizabeth Meyer and Peter Droege
track, focused, and for their expertise in their respective
fields; my classmates, professors, and other members of the
for making the time
MIT community
and for broadening
parents and
my perception of the
family for
encouragement; Ross
for
giving me
spent here challenging,
world forever; my
their continual love,
rest of the
and the
an opportunity
to pursue
support and
Texas contingent
the vision;
and
finally, Libby for her patience, love, and friendship, also
for opening
her mind to my
wherever it leads us.
world and wanting to
share it
6
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT.............................................p.... 3
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS......................................p....5
TABLE OF CONTENTS.....................................p... .7
INTRODUCTION.........................................p....9
CHAPTER I: ALLIANCE AND THE URBAN CONDITIONS.........p...21
CHAPTER II: URBAN METAPHORS: THE URBAN GARDEN.........p...41
CHAPTER III: OLMSTED AND THE URBAN GARDEN.............p.. .55
CHAPTER IV: THE PARKS AND THEIR CITIES...............p...65
CHAPTER V: THE WALLS OF THE URBAN GARDEN.............p...85
CHAPTER VI: THE URBAN GARDEN FOR ALLIANCE............p..123
CONCLUSION....................
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. p.. 157
FOOTNOTES............................................p..159
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS................................p..165
BIBLIOGRAPHY.........................................p..171
...
INTRODUCTION
This thesis is like a novel; it has central characters
and events.
These characters
in chronological order
vehicle
void in
the way that
insight
stories of people, institutions,
hand, architectural
the
physical legacy
explores the
the growth
of
the
thesis is searching for the
apparent
is documented.
of cities
and events.
historians seem
beyond
ideas
into
the growth of cities
historians portray
The
an
this insight
Part of
themselves.
They are the
or in neat packages.
provides
that
and events are not portrayed
only to
through the
On the other
sift through
buildings themselves.
This
characters and the forces that
are in the netherland between the events and the buildings.
This
netherland is
the urban
edge.
In
this thesis
the
urban edge is defined as an area of study that lies between
the specific
architecture of
buildings and realm
of city
planning.
I This
thesis is
urban edge.
written from
They are places and
impact on
our lives at
discrete chapters.
are about
this
This
framework
called
conditions reflect
The story
unfolds in
They begin and end with the new city of
the
north Texas.
transformation of
metamorphosis
revealed.
people that have all had an
some level.
the plains of
Alliance, on
through
of the
The characters in this original story are very
familiar.
between
the perspective
transformation
the
urban
that
is
the
The
cities.
It
conditions.
through
The
is
are
characters
examined
ideas about cities and
chapters in
a
urban
the forces that
shape
their urban
There is
edges.
patriarch of
the
a
family, Frederick Law Olmsted, who metaphorically conceived
up his family.
three very different
urban parks that make
These offspring live
in three American cities.
lives
of
and
these children
their
It is the
relationship to
the
cities around them that this thesis is interested in. s
progeny,
Olmsted's
in Washington have left
legacy of existence,
in
the
today, elements of their history
at
Alliance.
Their
powerful aspects
past
of the
the
behind a physical
and a tenuous history
respective cities.
their
York,
Franklin Park) in Boston, and
Emerald Necklace(The Fens to
Rock Creek Park
New
Park in
Central
of their lives
for
Extrapolated
use
and legacy can be applied
represents some
future for another
of
the
most
generation of
characters.
The father of the clan
is Frederick Law Olmsted.
He
designed the parks and is often credited with fathering the
profession of landscape architecture
His life was a continual journey
a seaman, to
Staten Island
traveler studying
in the United States.
that took him to China as
as a farmer,
to England
agriculture and parks, across
as a
the south
as a writer documenting the economic conditions of slavery,
to Washington as a member of the Sanitary Commission during
the
Civil
War,
Yosemite Valley,
Europe
as
experience
a
to
California to
and then all
landscape
would evolve
manage
over the United
architect.
into his
architecture.(1) His progeny are
10
mines
This
in
States and
diversity
life's work,
the
of
landscape
all over the country, but
the three
central characters that this
story will address
live today in New York, Boston, and Washington.
Central Park, the Emerald Necklace, and Rock Creek Park
were
all just
cities
have
parks at
each
evolved
developed their own
them have not been
over
types,
time.
of refuge
have
cities around them
The parks themselves
to adapt
and
patterns,
development
responses by
a range of
to their own
for the inhabitants
different
generated
have
which
unique ecosystems.
functions from purifying
to controlling flood waters,
the air,
parks
amorphous masses.
serve a variety of
As parks they
The
their
built domains around
parks represent
natural systems
parks and
The
settlement
The
strategies.
The
edges, as have the
boundaries
become
building
time.
to park's presence.
in response
have
one
to providing places
of the city,
to preserving
fragile ecosystems.
The parks each have their own boundaries and layers of
that
spaces
have
degrees of public
hierarchies differentiated
and private spaces.
The
by
varying
parks are both
extensions and reflections of the cities around them.
as nature's foils
have stood
cities.
They
have felt
the
of their
to the development
physical
They
pressures of
the
expanding cities and have dealt with man's threats to their
very
existence.
elements which
Like
the cities
act as barriers and
around them,
they have
thresholds.
As parks,
they represent the natural elements in the urban form.
urban
edge
that develops
in
response
to these
elements inspired the metaphor of the Urban Garden.
11
The
natural
ARLINGTON
the
framework
of
the
that lies between
urban
arrangement
the scale
building and maps
Each of the four urban
planners.
Oasis, the Urban
Urban Garden, is a metaphor
for a conceptual
The
a framework the metaphors
evolved from personal observations
of the urban conditions
cities.
As
urban
conditions
pieces of cities
visualizing large
their own
each with
within cities
of spaces
discernable characteristics.
about
urban
Urban Theatre, the Urban
conditions; the
Wall and the
city at
the architecture of a
of the city and regional
The
conditions.
to describe the
a tool
conditions are
make up
of four metaphors that
Garden is one
The Urban
are
a
way
of
level of
with a great
detail.
This
of
level
detail
comprehend the scale
Alliance.
sixteen
On the
is
of the city that
plains of
thousand acres
of
to
necessary
begin
to
will develop around
Texas north
of Fort
noncontiguous
Worth,
land have
been
assembled.
The first airport devoted solely to industry in
the United
States is
its center
piece.
That
airport is
appropriately named Alliance in honor of the public-private
partnership
that
around Alliance
expected to
forged
its development.
the new extension
the next
develop in
On
the
of an existing
twenty or
land
city is
thirty years.
The planners have already designated the land-use patterns.
They
have drawn
layering of
planning
the city.
maps
landscape that
there
have begun
roads and
in the
with the colors
Intermixed
is
a very
the future
real
has its own physical
three
of the
dimensional
layers of boundaries.
There are creeks and flood plains in the existing landscape
Figure 2.
Figure 3.
Figure 4.
Figure 5.
DENTON
I
z
til
~11'
ARLINGTON
gure 6.
There
that have allowed trees to grow in the bottom lands.
Texas climate.
the harshness of the
There are differences
lives and
determines what
water that
salinity of
in the
only
adapt themselves to
grasses and trees to
certain types of
allowed
that have
types
soil
in the
changes
are
dies in the landscape.
Nature
has already
The natural systems to be
about the form of this new city.
set aside have already been laid out.
creek bottoms
which run
new
The
town.
schematically laid out
The flood plains and
and knit
throughout this region,
creating the first layers of
together the vast acreage are
this
clues
first, dominant
the
given
already
has
Garden
Urban
by nature, but what
been
does that mean
to the form of the future city, and what does it have to do
Once
system.
to create
only serves
flood plains
set aside,
these
boundary that will form an edge
parks?
three urban
his
of linear parks along
Creating a series
and
and
Law Olmsted
Frederick
with
parks
the creek bottoms
a possible
park
will establish
a
What will
to be built to.
of the parks
be the relationship
between the natural edge
and the edge of the
built domain that will eventually grow
to it?
Olmsted's parks
strategies for
the creation
spaces and parks
built
edge that
Park, the
provide numerous design
,
elements and
of Alliance's system
of open
as well as for alternative forms for the
will eventually
Emerald Necklace, and
become
inseparable elements
exist.
They have
surround them.
Central
Rock Creek Park
have all
of the
cities in
their own stories to tell,
17
which they
but they can
also help
to tell the
Texas
as
foundation
a new
for
continue on
story will
vision their
With
history of the cities
generation
another
of
human
becomes
of
the
settlement.
will be carried forward: there
are also new elements available
his work.
the plains
open spaces
generation of
Elements of Olmsted's parks
around them.
today that will build upon
Where are the opportunities to merge the lessons
from Olmsted and his progeny with the promise of the future
at
Alliance?
explore.
That
is
question that
this
thesis
will
19
Figure 7.
Figure 8.
CHAPTER I:
ALLIANCE AND THE URBAN
CONDITIONS
Alliance, the airport, is only one piece of a regional
development
airport exist on
in conjunction with the Federal
city of Fort Worth, Texas,
is
single
industrial city that has
fly today
orbiter and
has
direct
and materials.
The ninety-two
capacity to
land everything
has the
access,
runway
In addition to
land that
Alliance
Alliance the
point of
far does
uniquely
This location makes
an intermodal facility
the analogy go
that can
forms of transportation.
the port of the future,
Alliance has been characterized as
but how
also
is
main line of
advantage of the three
take full
low earth
Interstate 1-35 and the
Fe Railroad.
potential focal
of the
with the exception
the space shuttle.
situated adjacent to
the Sante
a new
been envisioned to take advantage
of goods
foot runway
that will
foundation of
a
manufacturing on air transportation for
of the reliance of
hundred
owned by
hundred acres
is the
Alliance
landholder.
the distribution
Surrounding the runways and apron
thirty-eight
an additional
the
owned by the
two hundred and forty acres
Aviation Administration.
of
boundaries
physical
The
project.
towards building
a city
around it?
Aside
from its
Alliance has been
the
area's future
will this
as the
port
described as the engine
economic development,
economic development
under cultivation?
the Santa
analogy
The first
Fe railroad which
of the
future,
that will drive
but what
bring to the
impact
plains still
tenant around the airport is
has built a
car distribution
avoo
AMUNG8EAMu
Figure
9.
Figure
10.
Honda and Ford
regional distribution point for
serve as a
the dealerships
across the
trucked to
in by rail and
cars will be shipped
where new
This facility will
western edge of property.
yard on the
tenant is
The second
region.
American Airlines which is building a wide body maintenance
The Drug
facility on two hundred acres with runway access.
Enforcement Agency will be building a facility to house the
And
access.
with runway
of its southern
air wing, also
rounding out the
list of initial
ninety planes
tenants is
the Ishida Corporation of Japan that will be developing the
interstate access;
the airport,
of
take advantage
will
These diverse uses
its tilt wing aircraft.
prototype for
indicative of
industries are
if these
and
rail, air
the
be the resulting form of the
the future tenants, what will
airport and the town that will be built to support it?
Is Alliance the new industrial community of the future,
food
distribution hub
for
departure
grows around
that
rural
legacy left
environment
land?
that can
What efforts
insure a
behind
for the
in
for
be a
of this
new
relationship to
the
can be made in the
planning stages to
proper environmental accounting that
the growth of
and
the new
Will there
dwellers
man's
Will
new standards
set
development?
explain
United States
the world?
Alliance
environmentally responsible
the
from
major
of arrival
the point
that is
food products
become a
Alliance
produce grown around
return for
city
Will
manufacturers?
tomorrow's
today and
time inventory" demands of
to "just in
the key
Will Alliance be
industries?
based on clean non-polluting
this new city to be offset
will enable
by programs that
I®
@
ARLNGTON
11
are
questions
is the
future
possible
about one
attitude
but
off,
years
many
represent
they
that understands
city
that
not mutually
and the environment are
economic development
an
This
for Alliance.
future
environmental
answers to these
The
lost natural resources?
replace the
exclusive objectives.
along the thirty miles of
In addition to the airport,
thousand seven
twelve
parcels of
different
residential program
north
are
for
beltway
nine
parcels
of
the
Hillwood thirty-five
of Park Glen and Hillwood are
bisected by
which are
Fort
phases
first
the
at Park Glen and
hundred acres
twenty-five
with the
Beginning
land.
To the north
hundred acres.
spread across
acres
hundred
Worth
Fort
to
closest
Denton there are
between Fort Worth and
the 1-35 corridor
State
Worth,
the new
Highway(SH)
170.
Within sight from the future interchange of SH 170 and 1-35
over
of
the crest
of
runway
a hill,
into
Alliance comes
thirty-eight hundred acres.
SH 114,
view,
surrounded by
the Town
that abut
foot
its
Above Alliance to the north of
and seventeen
of sixteen hundred
are two parcels
hundred acres
ninety-two hundred
the
of Justin,
Texas.
The
last parcel of land in the 1-35 corridor is the thirty-four
hundred
acres of
the old
McHutcheon ranch,
just to
the
present
an
south of Denton, Texas.
These
noncontiguous
interesting challenge at a
have
a direct
counties,
eight
impact
on
land
holdings
regional scale.
an area
that
municipalities, three
The properties
consists of
school
two
districts,
numerous watersheds, a range of geographical features, soil
25
Figure 12.
Figure 13.
Figure 14.
Figure 15.
Figure 16.
30
Figure 17.
types, water qualities, and a multitude of flora and fauna.
What all of this diversity implies is that Alliance and its
associated projects
developments that exist
number
of
physically,
and
socially,
Because of the diversity in the region it is
economically.
to become
in the
immersed
minutia
and
of details
This minutia distracts the public focus
special interests.
way from
levels,
different
in a
its respective communities at
Each parcel impacts
vacuum.
easy
are not
the long term
issues that will
seriously impact
the regional development of the area.
As a region, this part
by a
single authority
entire region.
can
to make
decisions that
There are, however, regional
begin to
regional
of north Texas is not empowered
become spatial
scale.
systems that
organizers for
Infrastructure
such as
affect the
growth on
highways,
a
mass
transportation, sewer, and water would be a probable series
of hierarchical
elements that
It
that there
is doubtful
become a
strong enough
the others.
an element
area.
Nature
is a
the region.
single element
organizing element
The land itself
that can
could organize
that can
independent of
has provided strong clues for
shape the
future development
has created areas that
of the
are considered flood
plains along creeks that permeate the region.
Water is the
common thread that runs throughout
It is also a
life
sustainer in
harshness of
were
in place
a
the Fort
harsh natural
environment.
In
the
Worth climate, the
natural systems
the political
boundaries were
long before
established by man.
the area.
4I~I~
'a'
GRAPEVINE
EAGLE
ARLINGTON
ARLINGTON
ISO
Figure 18.
ARLINGTON
to establish a hierarchy for
property boundaries can begin
environment around Alliance.
the built
Are the
form
to and
amorphous mass.
a spectrum
form.
To
around?
It has layers
of issues
constraints on
the growth
concerns
the
urban form
evolution of
over
time, with
each
school
time the
water
are addressed,
It also becomes
set of decisions and
decision having
of the
districts,
and State of Texas
future of the entire city.
an
the urban
By the
of the city.
becomes anything but amorphous.
of a dynamic
is not
of decisions that deal with
more than a set of metaphors about the city.
is result
for urban
environment is only one
cities,
commissions, utilities,
the city
The
outside the
begin with, the
of
of cities?
strong enough elements
natural systems
to grow
how effective
But
influencing the growth
systems at
are natural
and private
transcend political
systems that
Natural
an
The city form
actions made
impact on
the
A casual line with a pen across
a plan today will have an irrevocable impact on the part of
the city that will develop around it in the coming years.
Because complete ownership of the region is financially
and politically impractical and
this time there
unfeasible, and because at
enabled with any
is no regional authority
power to see that the
region develops as a coherent whole,
an alternative strategy is to find organizing elements that
can
knit
together.
hands of
all
of
the diverse
ownerships
and
interests
The decision making power currently rests in the
so many different groups,
school boards, that
from municipalities to
a consensus on any
to achieve, especially relating
35
issue is difficult
to decisions affecting the
area
surrounding Alliance.
Governments
has
development of
power to
an
The
North
Texas Council
overiding planning
the region but
carry out
it is not enabled
its planning
this lack of a coordinating
interest
decisions.
in
of
the
with any
In
light of
agency, an alternative must be
found for Alliance.
The
northwest
quadrant
of
the
Dallas-Fort
Worth
Metroplex where Alliance is located is the last quadrant to
undergo significant development in
more interesting
local explanations
growth and interest
the location
Worth.
One of the
for the past
in development in this area
of the stockyards
lack of
is due to
on the north side
of Fort
In the days before cattle and hogs were slaughtered
in package plants
raised, they
on, or near the ranches
used to
be shipped to
slaughtered and processed.
year, the
land to
virtually uninhabitable.
bringing the
where they were
the Stockyards
to be
Because of the predominant wind
direction that blows from south
the
the region.
the
to north ninety percent of
north of
the Stockyards
The perception of the
odors to north
was
vile wind
has lingered longer
than the
Stockyards themselves.
All
local color
aside, this
Worth Metroplex
is an
cities, because
it is not a
area of
interesting case
the Dallas-Fort
in the
new town in the
growth of
sense of the
British New Towns, or of the American New Towns of Columbia
and
Reston.
The
British
New
Towns
developed
autonomous control
over an entire
not
or Reston
in the
United States
developers controlled
all of
the land.
like Columbia
single
land area.
It
with
is also
where
The land
a single owner is equivalent in
area that is controlled by
total
area,
but
a regional
as
warrants
a
the
strategy because
development
response and
different
it
project
parcels are not contiguous spaces.
Because it is unlikely
will be created to assume
that a single governing agency
the planning control of the land
be explored.
region, other alternatives must
in the
of
absence
a
process for
the region
that
impact
will
forces
entity
coordinating
into smaller more
a
greater
This
planning
the
discreet pieces
whole(the
region).
For
instance, a regional system of parks instead of being under
the auspices
of one
municipality becomes the
links a number of towns
and counties together in a network
way Olmsted's Emerald
of natural spaces,
in much the same
Necklace connected
a system of parks
parks and
thread that
parkways convey the
and parkways.
image of a
These
single element,
when in fact they are a group of noncontiguous parks.
strategy
could
be
applied
so
that
the
region
This
around
Alliance could be spatially linked in the same way
Once
Alliance
the parks
their
development.
there
will be
and parkways
edges
will
certain
responses on
to
be
bounded
by
area becomes
the elements
edges of
those
center surrounded by housing,
a mirco-neighborhood
of the
conditions can become a
growth at the scale of
the
For example, if there is going to be
a shopping center or village
all of
begin
around
As these boundaries continue to be introduced
boundaries over time.
then that
are established
urban conditions.
that applies
The urban
form of development guidelines for
the neighborhood, and the region as
37
development occurs.
The use
of the urban
conditions can
help to explain and control what the area will look like in
the future.
Because
the
land
around
Alliance
cultivation, anything urban seems
terms.
is
still
under
to be a contradiction of
This is exactly the time, before the real onslaught
of development begins, before
constituencies, to
These systems are
growth
the no growth movements form
propose the possible
regional systems.
intended to provide a
framework for the
around Alliance
cohesiveness as the
that will
bear some
semblance of
region eventually develops.
Olmsted's
parks provide clear examples of strategies for establishing
natural spaces that can shape the path of development.
The
emphasis on the natural systems stems from their visual and
environmental
larger
impact
on
systems provide
will compensate
the existing
a framework
for the lack
landscape.
These
for development
that
of a physical plan
like the
ones imposed on New York and Washington.
On
the plains
creek bottoms
the
Texas the
and the occasional
hedge rows
otherwise
of North
are the
horizontal
vegetation on
line of trees
only real
landscape.
that form
vertical relief
The
the
climate
on an
is
not
conducive to the lush eastern vegetation of Olmsted's parks
even
with
irrigation.
The
characteristics, the rainfall is
temperature
water is
The
extremes are
hazardous to many
creeks are
times of
also
soils
limiting
limited and seasonal, the
severe,
and
the saline
types of trees
subject to
the year causing
have
much of
ground
and plants.(1)
flooding during
various
the bottom land
to be
in
located
the
FEMA
(Federal
Emergency
Authority)designated
flood plain.
Because
plain
building
is
limited
these
areas
designation,
entirely,
rendering
Management
of the
or
perfect
flood
excluded
for
park
designation.(2) What these swaths of flood plain provide is
a natural
system
of linear
parks
that
weave their
way
through the countryside.
In the much
Frederick Law Olmsted's
the same way that
east coast parks
in their time,
were on the urban fringes
this system of parks will be considered rural today because
of its
example
nearest towns and
relationship to the
describing
the
park's
and
Olmsted's time follows: "Because of
land,
Central Park
was located
built area of Manhattan... By the
leadership of Olmsted and
their
cities.
An
proximity
in
the high cost of urban
far to
the north
of the
end of century, under the
his colleague Charles Eliot, the
park system became a comprehensive metropolitan solution to
the recreational needs of the modern city.(3)
A park system for Alliance can serve more than just the
recreational needs of this evolving city.
the development
become even
absence of a
to
channel
patterns of the
formal plan there needs to
growth
conceptualize that
conditions come in.
built
edge
urban edge the
more powerful as organizing
the
that
in the
By understanding
parks can
elements.
In the
be some framework
Being
region.
able
to
growth is where metaphors
of the urban
The relationship of the
parks to the
surrounds
them
can
be
employing the metaphor of the Urban Garden.
clarified
by
CHAPTER II:
URBAN METAPHORS:
of the Urban
The development
four
came
urban conditions
Garden as a one
from
enclosure
the Urban
boundary of
Central Park, with
provide
that
Garden.
a
comprise
different
image
is one
Fens, Muddy
Necklace
The jewels
of
in
the
Boston
Emerald
a functioning sanitary and storm
Necklace were designed as
water retention
system, that takes on
as
a regional
elements in
spatial
and the other parks and
the Emerald
form.
of the
Back Bay
The
River, Jamaica Pond, Olmsted Park,
parkways
the
relationship of the
were glimpses of the
canyon like
of the
observations about
city's urban form to its natural areas.
its
GARDEN
Boston, New York, and Washington.
mature eastern cities of
The observations
THE URBAN
the added dimension
park system.(1)
Finally, Rock
Creek Park in Washington, because of its unique topography,
provides an
all together
stream valley
different image.
with steep slopes that
separation between
Rock
Creek is
marks the geographic
the tidewater and the
piedmont regions
of the area surrounding Washington.(2)
The fall
regions
is
line that marks
much
like
the
boundaries that define the
The urban conditions
help tell
part ends.
where one
the edge of
edge
that
part of the
that evolved from a desire
dilineates
the
limits of the urban conditions.
are a way of looking
The Urban Garden
two geographic
at cities which
city begins
and another
is one of the four conditions
to understand cities at a scale
beyond the limits of the individual buildings.
41
The
premise
Theatre,
behind
the Urban
Oasis, the
Garden, which make
are made
the four
individual
building.
places in cities
These
and the
Urban
is that cities
elements are
than an
arrangements of
that can be conceptualized
they break the
Urban
address a scale larger
scale is not overwhelming.
is that
Urban Wall
up the urban conditions
of elements that
the
metaphors:
so that their
The key to the urban conditions
city down into
discernable pieces
that have characteristics which can be visualized.
For
example,
courtyards,
the
architectural
corridors, thresholds)
elements(walls,
at the
building scale
can be applied to the urban scale of the block( as streets,
sidewalks,
fabric
alleys,
of the
understood in
city.
wish
to
cross
it,
is a
but
arrange
the city
the
can be
to the individual
is the definition of space
and boundary at
busy street
to
complexity of
The common link
both bound
example, a
The
which begin
terms that are applicable
dwelling unit.
as being
parks),
the same
boundary to
the street
is
time.
For
pedestrians who
bounded
by
the
sidewalks and the buildings that form on either side of the
it.
The
street
is
buildings around it,
a
bounded
space,
and it is also a
defined
by
the
boundary that helps
to define where the building stops and starts.(3)
The concept of spaces defined by a number of boundaries
is a way to bridge a conceptual gap between the spaces that
are bound at the scale of a room or a house, and the spaces
that are
bound at the
room bounded by
scale of the
city.
for walls may be easy for
The idea
of a
an architect to
grasp, but it is a leap of understanding to realize that an
44
/
-N
JN"PAXY
Figure 21.
~'-~
5QfUh2
fence
on one
another and
a
side,
creek on
road as the
a farm
different kinds of edges
a hedgerow
on
A stone
final boundary.
they are
a space,
that define
are elements
another,
as easily as a chain link fence.
fence can be a wall, just
Both
as a
diverse elements
bound by such
could be
open field
merely
that create different perceptions
about the bounding edge.
The urban
buildings
conditions evolved from
and
elements
boundary conditions.
in
They
rules about cities.
cities
easily
that
have
are not a hard and
different
fast set of
They are instead a way using metaphors
as organizing elements for types
certain
observations about
characteristics.
adapted to
of urban places that have
These
a particular
characteristics
situation or
urban conditions look at the city
can
place.
be
The
as a series of layers of
boundaries, that form degrees of public and private spaces,
in much the same way that
a house
there
are
public
areas of houses are defined.
places for
company
and
In
then
private places for the family.
At the scale
public and what
is seen
of the city the same ideas
is private still apply.
as types of
edges around
Urban Garden there are
and private spaces
that are defined by
bound
An example
the parks.
urban edge is
Park in New
The Urban Garden
different spaces that form
the natural areas within
metaphor of the
of the
cities.
the built
Within the
degrees and public
the buildings that
most densely
the edge that defines the
York.
about what is
Behind the idea of the
built
limits of Central
Urban Garden is
the realization that nature in the form of parks is bounded
by
different
built
of
densities
and
degrees
domain.
Whether it is a road across the plains, or a line of houses
in
in comparison to the one
employs a less developed approach
houses that back
by individual
is loosely defined
Rock Creek Park
edge of
of topography the urban
Because
surrounding Central Park.
Park
Rock Creek
around
edge
The built
Washington.
bounded
can vary by its location, like
The range of density
edge.
form of
always some
there is
a field,
abutting
having the park
onto the park instead of
as a primary entrance and focus.
A key to understanding the idea behind all of the urban
conditions is
positive
spaces(in the
sense
negative
urban spaces
made up
parks.
and
relationship
negative
the
but
nature
black
entirely
or
of
the
white.
interesting because they ignore
Figure-ground diagrams are
the finer
the
sidewalks, or
of streets,
spaces,
never
is
figure-ground) and
of
there are different relationships of
At each scale
positive
buildings, as
between the
the relationship
grained areas of cities.
They represent either
all areas with buildings, or all areas without buildings.
There is
a grey
in between,
area of
between the architecture and the
level of detail.
of finer
one
that netherland
planning that has its own
Each of the urban conditions is comprised
levels of
condition from
architectural detail
the
next.
Within
that distinguish
the Urban
Theatre
blocks can bounded at their bases by arcades that allow the
streets
and the
bounded
by the
spaces of
sidewalks
buildings.
the street and
to eclipse
The
the area
arcade allows
sidewalk to bleed over
45
normally
the public
into the
flGLi~- -Gy~OLThV~
7/
//
1
Figure 21.
,~
/
UL WAN
~
//i~
I
I
THEATJE
-7
AmmJ2
1I-0Tfi ENv
~AN(
UKAN WA-1Figure 22.
domain
of
arcades that
Bologna,
building.
individual
the
link a series
of diverse buildings
Italy's
with the
common element of the arcade is the genesis of the idea.(4)
The
fine
grained
articulation
elements sets up a range
to- get
from
thresholds
the
to be
the
also mark the transition from
densely
conditions
urban
of
transition from
either public
areas
and private occurs
constitute
there
a series
the
The transition
once the threshold of
The
of
They
In
typical
is virtually
building facade.
or private.
number
public to private space.
Theatre
street to
act as
The
a range of security.
that
the Urban
building.
crossed
filters and layers, that define
the
architectural
of transitions that one must make
street to
that have
of
no
space is
between public
the building has
been crossed.
In
the
metaphor of
the
Urban
variations that come to mind.
there
provides its own
is little
street, yet
or no
in the
are
many
In Boston, there are levels
of articulation that vary from one
next, each
Wall there
part of the city to the
character.
transition from
Back Bay the
In the
North End
the buildings
range of
to
thresholds has
more elements; the sidewalk, a small front yard, steps, and
then the building.
For the
the buildings themselves.
Urban Oasis the thresholds are
The interior courtyards provide
an added dimension to the range of public and private space
within the
Urban Oasis.
The courtyard
and other European cities where
of the
blocks give the
and focus.
In the
buildings of Paris
the views to the interiors
Urban Oasis another type
of space
conditions surrounding the Urban Garden
C~VT~AL r7AV-f~
74J
~
95
Figure 23.
26i 6-
the range of transition
and composition can be tremendous.
There could be a front yard and a sidewalk, then a strip of
land that is
of
the
separated by a parkway like
Emerald
Necklace
or something
in certain areas
as
simple
as
a
terrace and a garden that backs out into the landscape like
in Washington.
The
use
of
arrangements
the
urban conditions
of spaces
is one
scale around Alliance.
way to
approach the
vast
a way of
urban form that goes a step
preliminary land use
mapping approach.
on the
native landscape and
its environmental
to
boundaries
for
beyond a
By relying
features
metaphors
The urban conditions are
imaging the potential of a new
in scale
as
introduce
the
region
hierarchically in
will generate a
a regional
can
structure
begin
to
be
to imaginable spaces.
of
natural
broken
down
These boundaries
built edge that will evolve
into an Urban
Garden for Alliance, but what form will that edge take?
At
would
Alliance the
be from
Transportation
organizing
can become
rural to
progression
urban as
corridors
elements
transform the
natural
of urban
the land
have traditionally
creating
growth
rural environment into an
progressively more dense and
edge
is developed.
been
strong
corridors
which
environment which
urban.
New York,
Boston, and Washington all developed along street car lines
from the 1870's forward, but their settlement patterns have
created very different urban edges.
In the absence of mass
transportation corridors and because the length of the 1-35
corridor
from
Fort
Worth
to
Denton,
encompasses such an expansive area,
50
(thirty
miles),
how can the pattern of
Can
strip shopping centers and car dealerships be altered?
a park system be a strong enough element to make better use
of the land surrounding Alliance's Urban Garden?
direction from
are
there
natural
without the imposition of
organizing elements
environment even
begins to
built form
The
may
city
In
the
physical and man made
evolve.
Settlements
eventually a town becomes a
develop, communities begin and
city.
a grid.
presence of
in the
From these
grid(i.e.San Francisco).
boundaries the
the
on
built form adjusts itself
traditional settlement patterns,
the natural
imposed
boundaries
The natural boundaries can become strong
land(i.e.Boston).
to
city's development when
the beginning of a
only
a clear
with having
to do
strategy has
One possible
become
even
a
metropolis
or
a
metroplex, with all the possible complexities and varieties
of built forms.
over the
Man intervenes and places organizing forms
natural landscape, just as
D.C. and the Commissioners of
baroque grid over Washington
New York
laid the grid
L'Enfant overlaid the
growth adapts
on Manhattan, urban
itself to patterns whether the
patterns are natural or man
made.
Yet, within
that pattern of development
there are no
clues or assurances about the eventual form of the city, or
the
composition of
form of
a city
human body
its blocks.
is like
from a
North Carolina were
Understanding the
trying to guess
foot print.
Philadelphia
laid out with similar
city has evolved differently.
51
the form
final
of the
and Raleigh,
plans, yet each
A conceptual
model for
Alliance must address
city can evolve, while avoiding
the results of many of its
neighbors
to the
east(e.g.
the endless
Dallas).
In the
absence of
an endless
miles of amorphous built form,
can
begin
Alliance.
to
The
introduce
sprawl of
North
grid structuring
a regional network of parks
a structure
form of that
how the
for
growth
growth can look to
around
the urban
conditions for a range of its images in response to varying
boundary conditions.
Central Park,
will provide
In addition, the three Olmsted parks,
the Emerald
Necklace, and Rock
ideas about what
Garden could generate.
form the edge of
Creek Park,
the Urban
53
54
CHAPTER III:
The clues to
OLMSTED AND THE URBAN GARDEN
the possible futures for
Alliance lie in
the work of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. The evolution of the
has become an area of interest
urban edge around his parks
the conditions of the Urban
and study for me, particularly
Having lived in both Boston and Washington, I have
Garden.
the legacy
been enriched
envisioned for the parks.
that is
are a refuge from the city
They
where the inhabitant of the
My
and is exactly what he
appreciation of Olmsted's parks was
engulfed by nature.
gardens.
of Olmsted's urban
city can go to feel completely
These great urban parks have a history
linked to the
cities that developed
around them.
The initial commonality of the three parks is the fact that
they were all
linked directly to the work
of Olmsted, but
their similarities are much deeper.
Olmsted and subsequently
shaping each
design
was
with whom
of these great public
a
Calvert Vaux
his firm had a
collaboration with
who would
parks.
Emerald Necklace was
carried
out by
firm.
part of the
its actual
architect
partner and
his greatest
firm's plan for
conceived of by
Rock Creek
Olmsted's many consultations during
practice, but
English
to do some of
The Olmsted
and the
his
the
Central Park's
eventually become his
Olmsted would go on
large urban
parks.
direct hand in
design and
Park
the Fens
Olmsted and
was one
of
the later years of his
place in
great regional parks system
history as
of Washington was
insured by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., after the retirement
and eventual death of his father. (1)
55
Olmsted's conception of the urban parks was rooted in a
strong
democratic
and
bringing nature, in
the citizenry of
Frederick Law
the
tradition
its purest form, into the
the growing urban cities.
landscape, one
urban
life of all
as possible a
consciously designed
environment,
by
of
"It became in
Olmsted's work, as completely
naturalistic
out
transcendentalist
subordinating
to shut
all
the
necessary structures to the realization of broad reaches of
scenery
and to provide
,
that, he
the
felt,,met the
residents of
the elements of a
rural setting
psychological and social
the city.(2)
outlets for the recreation of
The parks
needs of
themselves were
the urban residents of their
generation, but at the inception of each of the parks it is
doubtful that few members of
foreseen the use
and the impact that the
on the development
them.
All of
fringes
of
of the cities the
the three
the
urban
growth.(3)
the community.
integral to
been
The
their conception,
growth
on the
of
an outside limit
cities, the parks became
considered as
as parks
the
relationship of the parks to
Instead of being
the life
parks would have
people who inhabited
were perceived
individual cities changed the
growth of the
the general public could have
of the cities.
outrageously
but they have
to the
elements that were
The parks
remote are
may have
the time
evolved into the
of
last of
the great, seemingly natural, urban refuges.
Few in Olmsted's day
of growth
the
later
could have foreseen the onslaught
in the cities that
half of
created by an
the
set aside land for
1800's.
When Central
act of the New York Legislature
parks in
Park
was
in 1853, it
was a
response to the
lower end of
people of
Manhattan.
also a less than
were
commerce.
When
Park's
on either
of the
development and
with swamps
site was riddled
cultivation, or
set aside
it was
the park
land around
reveal the
under
time the
of the
outcroppings.(4) Drawings and photographs
and rock
era
Central
Central
valuable for
Central Park
The
park.
it was not
was more
where land
York.
desirable site at the
chosen because
of the
outlet for the
city of New
for the
appropriated
location was
rivers
There was no real
the rapidly growing
Park was
funds
overcrowding and congestion
squatter settlements.
inhabited by
for use
either still
to be
as a
park, Central
Park
appeared to be on the outer edges of civilized society.(5)
Boston
had
The city
Public Gardens.
Common could bear as a
there were
forward
of a
development
came to
grand
Bay Fens
Jamaica
of landscape
how to
was the
an
was
Pond were
Roxbury, West
the
the
Not
settle on the
the time
When
Law Olmsted
was the
architecture.(6) The
problem
weave a
together in
open sewer,
series of
the
The
Muddy River
and
the villages
Brookline, while
of the
None of these
57
disparate,
form.
a coherent
boundary between
Roxbury and
outer fringe
West Roxbury.
for Boston.
for the parks.
system Frederick
design the
noncontiguous elements
Back
drawn for
and plans
park system
regional
Olmsted was
before
From the 1870's
public open space.
discussions
and
that the
the limits
had taxed
and the designer
old man
the Common
around
did the City Commissioners
until the 1880's
land area
grown
long since
seam between
of
Franklin Park
Dorchester and
smaller towns in
those days
was urbanized.
beginning at
For Boston,
the time of
the suburbanization
the park system's
was just
conception as
the Emerald Necklace.
The site
selection for
1860's after the
site
for the
surround it.
were
Civil War as a search
new
White
House and
Park began
in the
for an alternative
a
300
acre park
to
The Potomac flats where the Mall exists today
unbearable
in the
further compounded
present day
Rock Creek
summer
months.
by the open
site of
The stench
sewer that existed
Constitution Avenue.
Rock
was
on the
Creek was
for the most part undevelopable on its edges because of the
steepness of the slopes
that surround the creek valley.(7)
The creek had been primarily
1800's.(8) After the
Civil War, the area that
Creek was becoming bounded
Dickens
used for milling in the early
"characterized
avenues, that begin in
miles long, that only
is now Rock
by paper subdivisions.
the
city in
terms
of
Charles
'spacious
nothing, and lead nowhere; streets,
want houses, roads, and inhabitants;
public buildings that need but a public to be complete, and
ornaments
to great
thoroughfares, which
thoroughfares to ornament'."(9) At
by the Congress of the United
lack only
the time of its
great
funding
States in 1890, the park was
still outside the major developed portions of the city.
The
development
patterns
constitute the boundary of the
of
the
urban
edges
that
Urban Garden around each of
the three parks are equally fascinating as studies in their
own right.
has
Each
been impacted
cities.
New York
has its own unique history,
by historical
and Washington
58
events that
grew out
and yet each
overlap the
of structured
plans whereas Boston evolved on the drive of capitalism and
the limits of the topography surrounding the city.
In
New York
the physical
development around
Central
Park had been dictated almost fifty years before in 1811 by
the Commissioners
of the
New York
grid to the entire island
when they
of Manhattan up to 150th street.
Central Park
began at 59th
only went to
106th street to the north, 5th
street and in its
east side and 8th Avenue on
the west.
out was the creation of east
neighborhoods.
The housing types
side
park
the
are
as
early years
Avenue on the
What evolved as the
grid was built
of
applied the
and west side
that developed on either
different
in
nature
as
neighborhoods themselves.
At the time of the
had
just
Boston
There
added the
was growing
was only
creation of the park system, Boston
Back
Bay
to its
so much
land area
across the
corridors
Fens from
south, Roxbury,
All of
to
the west
the existing land mass of Boston.
towards
the south
that would
element.(10)
and west.
New York or Washington, Boston
the topography
its
to the
In the absence of a plan
transportation lines that were
of
Brookline
natural extensions of
expanded along
strength
out.
available to
to Dorchester
these suburban villages were
the street car lines.
area.
Growth of the suburbs along
Roxbury to
in the traditional sense of
the inside
that was
the Back Bay,
and West
developable
suburbs from
Boston inside its city limits.
transportation
to its
allow the easiest
dictated by
expansion of
Boston continued to build around the
topography
as
a
regional
organizing
Figure 25.
Figure 26.
In contrast,
Washington's growth was
limited outside
of the boundaries of L'Enfant's original plan well into the
1880's.
The
areas bounded
on the
Avenue(Boundary Street)and the west
Creek and
Georgetown were the
north west
by Florida
by the ravines of Rock
limits of the
City.
After
the infrastructure building boom from Boss Shepherd's reign
in the 1870's, Washington was growing into its grid.(11) In
the
areas to
began
to
the
emerge
subdivisions.
north of
on
Florida Avenue
paper
as
east of
speculators
Kalorama, Washington
Mount Pleasant, Brightwood and
the Rock Creek,
neighborhoods
laid
out
Heights, Adams Morgan,
Shepherd's Park, all to the
and the western border
the neighborhoods of Georgetown,
formed by
Cleveland Park, and Chevy
Chase to the north, all emerged after Shepherd's tenure.
The
three
cities
that
surrounded
Olmsted's
parks
developed around the parks' edges but not solely because of
the
parks
attraction
themselves.
for the
primary concern.
transportation
suburbanization
Instead
new urban
The urban edge grew
corridors,
of New
hypothesis that the
naive;
the
and
not
parks
them.
were
a
the
was a
parks.
and Washington
parks in those cities.
secondary
The
was
My
turns out to
factor
in
the
The role of the parks
mirror for the development of the
The
parks
development that became an urbanized
around them.
the
cities grew to the parks
is really one of being a
around
parks being
primarily along the
to
York, Boston,
expansion of the cities at the time.
cities
the
edge, transportation
paralleling the creation of the
be
of
formed
a
boundary
to
edge as the city grew
It
is
also
urbanization
important
of the
to keep
cities was
in
mind
coming in
that
the age
this
where
individual transportation meant horseback or on foot.
that was as
far from the city center, as
Land
all of the parks
were at the time, was simply not that attractive as housing
before the
introduction of
boundaries of
transit lines.
The civilized
area before the
the metropolitan
advent of
the transit lines were usually limited to a three mile area
or
the distance
that
problem
for
primary
metropolis' of
the day
could
the
be walked
in
inhabitant
of
was the
that existed in walking distance
themselves
decentralized
cities
innovation opened
made
the
once
from
of
the flood
remote
the
the
the
eastern
housing options
allowed the cities to
walking
day.(12)
gates of urban
extra-urban
element in the growth of the city.
The
from home to the place of
Transportation advances
employment.
transform
range of
a hour.
parks
city
to
the
Transportation
expansion and
an
organizing
64
CHAPTER IV: THE PARKS AND THEIR CITIES
Understanding the
evolution of
the urban
gardens in
New York, Boston, and Washington requires an examination of
the
cities
and their
relationship
historically and spatially.
to
their parks
The parks at the time of their
The creation of
conception were extra-urban by definition.
these parks
both
as the
concerns, as well
stemmed from health
realities of the times that
social, economic and political
occurred in the face of the rapid rate of urbanization.
urban conditions and
Acknowledgment of worsening
the importance of open spaces in fostering public
health and recreation, as well as concern for the
nation's
self-esteem
as
republic
a
and
its
intellectual and moral improvement, led Americans
of various religions
the
establishment
cities.
of
public
of
the
of natural
psychological
scenery,
address the realities of
combined
parks
in
their
...Thus the reformulated agrarianism, an
appreciation
benefits
and occupations to advocate
in the
form by bring the
park, then,
and
and
social
the need
to
urban growth and change
attempt to
create a
new urban
country into the city.
embodied the new urban
...The
symbolism
the curvilinity of the natural landscape --
--
stood
in sharp contrast to the straight lines and rigid
angles of
the gridiron, a
to the urban environment.(1)
pastoral counterpoint
From
Olmsted's perspective
there
fundamental issue at work behind
parks.
"Above
all,
Olmsted
was
an even
more
the creation of the urban
reasoned,
the
park
must
preserve within the urban environment a rural enclave, free
from the tyranny of the
the sights
resident
and sounds of
of the
concern
of
apt:
Olmsted's
for
nature might soothe
city."(2)
Olmsted's theory is
aspect
inexorable gridiron, a place where
David
Schuyler's analysis
of
"Indeed the single most important
theory
creating
the harried
of landscape
pastoral
design
scenery,
and
was
a
whenever
possible in Central Park he and Vaux planted broad expanses
of lawn to
of
achieve 'the antithesis of
the town'.
Olmsted believed
scenery would
would induce
The contemplation
urban life".
healthful relief
the parks
Washington is an example
by the public.
the
Washington.
of
the
created.
upon the mind
of the faculties,'
from the
pressures of
in New
York, Boston
What began
with the acquisition of Central
out throughout the
culminating in the acquisition
Necklace
and
of political will being expressed
1853 was carried
Emerald
park
(3)
creation of
the century,
type of
of such a sweeping lawn
in visitors an 'unbending
thereby providing
Park in
that this
have an unconscious influence
of the visitor.
The
the confined spaces
in
Boston
and
remainder of
and design of
Rock
Creek
in
The creation of the parks is important because
process and
the
perception
Early in the creation
by which
they
were
of Central Park, the goals
of the park were more humanitarian, and as the years passed
the success
of the
urban parks changed
the focus
of the
parks
to
sources of
capitalism.
recreation
Each of
history of
the
and
parks has
as a
had
design and development since
the purpose
of this
to set
paper is
component
its own
of
unique
its creation, but
the parks
aside as
mirrors of the changes in the urban edge around them rather
than to focus on the changes to the parks themselves.
and
1845
Between
and the parks movement experienced
the
of
face
city :
the park
the urban
space, an
an escape
as more than
expression of
sees
Schulyer
the
from the
transformation of
integral part of the
"it was an
York
a new enthusiasm in the
unparalleled growth. (4)
acquisition of
New
full swing,
city uptown was in
march of the
doubled, the
of
the population
1855
and a
urban optimism,
means of raising the level of civilization in the city."(5)
It was
also a
politically expedient solution
because the
enable the local politicians to
creation of the park would
give hundreds of patronage jobs.
Woods on
the East River
was closer to New York's
trees, and
included
challenged
park were Jones'
for the New York's new
The two sites
population, had a river front and
would offer immediate returns.
of
the feasibility
it
could
The opposition
Jackson
Dowling,
who
using this
land for
park
Andrew
horticulturist
purposes because
"Jones' Woods
and Central Park.
be used for
commercial docking
and because a shore site was healthful and pleasurable with
out
a planned
proposed
as
park
an
cross-ventilation,
on
it.
The
Central
that
alternative
access
conversion to a park than
from
two
Park area
would
sides,
and
was
offer
easier
Jones' Woods, which had too many
67
V X.
..u
....
....
si
h~uu
fitJ
LAST
Figure 2 7.
68
RMIV
trees for open
park
came
site
countercharges in
purely
that it
commercial docking
In
not offer
charges and
but the
York State Senate
1853 suggest
interests, especially
terms."
Woods did
that Jones'
the New
reports for
selection of the
economic
seem farsighted,
space might
majority
to
down
the argument
retrospect
enough
space."(6) In the end the
minority and
was financial
operations, that
won the day."(7)
Once the location of the
an extension
of
The first plan
creating a plan.
on surveying the land and
was
park was selected, work began
the topographic
survey supplied
by
Egbert L. Viele who was to be Olmsted's first supervisor as
manager
Park.
of Central
3,
"On June
first
1856, the
Central Park commissioners,.. .adopted a plan of development
unstable at best, as
New York was
who
were all
new
politicians
1857, in one
August of
Central Park
design and
Olmsted
the first Commissioners
were fired
and replaced.
group of
than
and Calvert
lawyers and
politicians---rejected
announced a public competition
Vaux won
"In
acts, the
of their first official
Commissioners-- a
rather
businessmen
political climate in
Viele."(8) The
Egbert L.
prepared by
Viele's
for a plan."(9)
the competition
with their
collaborative "Greensward Plan" and Olmsted was sworn in as
Architect -in-Chief
and Superintendent of Central
Park on
May 18, 1858.
Olmsted and Vaux recognized
the impact of urban growth
on the park from the very beginning."In the 1850's the park
was located so
suburbs'
far to the north in
that the
the city's 'struggling
epithet 'central'
was a
misnomer, yet
I
Figure 28.
70
I
shaped
rocky
the picturesquely-varied,
and when
be done,
will have
the island
formations of
for rows of monotonous
into foundations
time
the grading and
will be built up, when all
'when New York
of a
the requirements
to meet
their design
filling will
Park'...Practically they
enclosed Central
will have
town
the
years hence,
that 'twenty
they recognized
Shrewdly,
of urban growth.
had grasped the reality
Olmsted and Vaux
been converted
straight streets,
and piles of erect angular buildings'."(10)
began early
park movement
Boston's
petitioned
by citizens
27, 1870
same year.
On
May
Legislature
passed
the
Park
acceptance
by
the
Boston."(ll)
legislation in
of
thirds
two
1870,
subject
to
the
legal
voters
of
introduce
made to
were
Attempts
Massachusetts
the
of
Act
the
park
both attempts
in 1873, but
1870 and again
"The Park Act, which
votes.
failed to garner the required
1875, followed the amended order very
was passed in May of
closely.
public
Two public hearings were held in November
parks in Boston.
of
establishment of
the
for
Council was
1869 City
October of
"In
taxed.
citizenry
of the city were being
realized that the natural resources
completely
as the
the approval
It required
of a
simple majority
rather than the two thirds plurality of the legal voters of
Boston,
and
this
approval
election held June 9,
Frederick
1875."
Law Olmsted
Commissioners who sought
was
a
special
(12)
was
associated
with the
his advice as early
took the commissioners until 1878
would be the
at
obtained
as 1875.
Park
It
to acquire the land that
basis of the future park
system.
Instead of
Figure 29.
72
immediately they held a
hiring Olmsted
were less than
prize
the competition
results of
design.(13) The
the park
for
public competition
adequate and within a few
the commission
was given
Olmsted
was awarded,
months after the
to
begin work on the Emerald Necklace.(14)
Olmsted's design and construction
in 1880 and was
which began
retirement in
for a
park.
completed by the time
1895, was more
"The rationale
than just a
basin for
storage
the
very far
as a park, as Olmsted so
was
design
the main
improvement,
sanitary
the
explained;
of his
design solution
behind the plan was
from what was commonly understood
painstakingly
of the Back Bay Fens
of
feature
storm waters
primarily
a
which was
a
Stony Brook.
of
A
the salt marshes to its original
second aim was to restore
condition."(15)
Olmsted undertook
Necklace as
Emerald
implemented.
of the jewels
the remaining
they were
in the
be designed
ready to
and
In 1882 the Arnold Arboretum was added to the
of Boston from
was purchased by the City
necklace when it
Harvard University.(16) "Grading began on the main drive in
Road building, the major construction
the Spring of 1883.
work
in
the
complete."(17)
Arboretum,
Franklin Park
appropriation for
in
1881,
and
took
was added
the five hundred acre
Olmsted
began
years
to
still later,
the
ten
about
his work
park was approved
in
1884,
to
be
completed in 1885.(18)
The final two elements in the completion of the Emerald
Necklace were the
integration of
improvements to the Muddy
Jamaica Pond into the
River and the
necklace.
The Muddy
A
*
Figure 30.
.4N
IU 0,
in 1881, subsequently revised and
River Plan was submitted
the Back Bay
Fens because little was done
to the existing
other two.
The string that
landscape in comparison to the
linked
the
Olmsted.
"Although
parkways in
the concept
endorsed
commissioner's
...the
surroundings
and architectural
natural
the varying
along the
route.
grandest
Olmsted's
of
one
is
parkway
Boston
the
sensitivity,
the parkway to
the design of
of
junctures
characteristic
plan... .With
Olmsted adapted
connecting
of
seen by comparing it to the
awkward
and
dimensions
refined by
superior refinement of
their 1876 report, the
Olmsted's design can easily be
pinched
Necklace
Park Commissioners
the first Board of
sympathetically
Emerald
designed and
parkway system
was the
the
of
parks
like
jewel
together
had
River and
plans for the Muddy
and differed from
in 1892,
Pond was accepted
The plan for Jamaica
approved in 1892.
conceptions."(19)
When
the legislation
was finally
1890, the idea for the creation
signed into
law in
of a park along Rock Creek
had been in the forefront of the enlightened members of the
community since
the
lobbying of
1867.
It took the
Washington's
threat of development,
most influential
senators,
political compromise on Capitol and Hill, and a champion to
grind the legislation through the Congress.
1890 set
aside the
ground for the
land for a
"public park
benefit and enjoyment of the
Legislation in
and pleasure
people of the
United States."(20) The push for the creation of Rock Creek
Park "Emerged out a tradition
reformers, and was designed
of the late 1850's by social
to counteract the urban growth
Figure 31.
-79
of
the
period.
Open
spaces
alleviating the urban ills of
were
Olmsted was the
as
was the case with the
the
parks of
urban
of the
of
the time that threatened the
disease ridden neighborhoods.(22) As
majority
conceived
Law
era, Frederick
conceptual leader of the
movement but the
actual design and development of the park was carried on by
The younger Olmsted wrote the
Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr..
influential report on
the scope of the
for
Plan
the
McMillian
in
city's park system
1901-1902
and
a
1918
comprehensive study for the development of the park.
The climate
becoming a park
Rock Creek
in Washington.(24)
the land for
movement to designate
success of
Park
areas of the east coast were
themselves
to manifest
in the
originated
that the
grew out of concerns
ills of the other major urban
beginning
interest in
the renewal of
that prompted
(23)
sector
private
The
Rock Creek
and was
lobbied
through Congress by the Washington's then powerful Board of
Trade
other
and
community.
prominent
members
the
of
of interest in the
"The renewal
Washington
creation of a
major urban park in Washington in the 1880's was product of
growing public health
concerns.
especially
typhoid,
diseases,
movement in all
1879
Creek
was
in
Gerogetown
Rock Creek.
a
considered
a
serious
developed up
Washington County.
14th
this decade.
to
In
Washington
the pollution
threat
reform
vigorous
and Northwest
By 1889
health."(25) The pollution threat
land
was
major American cities in
the sewers
emptied into
Eradication of waterborne
of Rock
the
public
continued to grow as the
street into
Brightwood and
into
"Conditions in Washington in the 1880's
reflected widespread urban public health problems.
only
of
one third
sewers.
Wells and
the city's
houses
War.
in use and
the creation of the park
to the years immediately
The Senate
"
to
(26)
The legislative background on
stemmed back
were connected
springs were still commonly
often became contaminated."
In 1881
following the Civil
was concern with
the location
of the
White House near the odiforous Washington Canal that was an
open sewerage
ditch."(27) The 1867 Michler
Report treated
the park and the new executive mansion as separate reports.
The report concerning the areas
on the
public.
been quoted
and
"The
engineer's romantic prose
by succeeding
historians
for the park had an impact
generations of
attempting
to
has often
civic activists
establish,
preserve,
and
foster public appreciation of the park."(28)
The next twenty
years the focus of
on the public works projects
of the Potomac
flats in 1882.
essentially created
end,
the
park if
a flood
legislation
creation of
in D.C.,
for
like the reclamation
The Corps
proof city
the park
the national zoo.
the national zoo
the government was
was
of Engineers had
by 1890.
linked
In the
to
the
Rock Creek would
become a
was downscaled in size
from its
original plan."the establishment of the National Zoological
Park proved vital
to the Rock Creek
Park campaign because
it focused public attention on the beauty of the region and
revealed the imminent threats of real estate development to
the valley.(29)
The final version of
John
Sherman(R-OH) and
the legislation was originated by
passed the
78
Senate on
January 28,
of the
park to the
"Columbus Memorial" Park to
revenues, and also
in an unusual turn
landholders that benefited
cost.
District of Columbia
would be deferred from
half the cost
of events, adjacent
financially would contribute to
The
focus of
the
forcing
land holders
adjacent
to the
origins
in
conflict
Senator
(30)
what would
and
Sherman,
subdivisions
Sherman,
near
while a
or
large
such
acquired
legislation's champion,
land
to
the
resident
as Meridian
Columbia
ownership
park.
in
"Senator
of Washington,
had
the periphery
and subdivided several
Hill
(1867),
Sherman's
Sherman
Heights(1882).
development
substantial
its
glaring
considered the
Sherman owned
and
Subdivision(1868),
also
adjacent
at
park had
new
real estate holding near
Creek Park.
tracts,
be
legislation aimed
sizable
his
long-term
acquired extensive
of Rock
today
between the
of interest
honor the
Columbus' Discovery of America,
forthcoming anniversary of
the
the designation
house made amendments changing
The
1890.
in
interests
Cleveland Park(1892).(31)
The
bill
houses of
establishing
Congress and
Benjamin Harrison on
limits of
the park at
was signed
Treasury.
established to
park.
The
The
2000 acres
Park Board of
into Law
The
passed
both
by President
law set the
with equals fund
up to
the District of Columbia and the
Rock
oversee the
final park
Park
September 27, 1890.
$1,200,000. to be paid by
U.S.
Rock Creek
Creek
Park
purchase of
was turned over
Control on January 1, 1895
Commission
the land
to the
for the
Rock Creek
and consisted of
1,605.976 acres and was purchased for $1,740,511.45.(32)
79
was
The
part
of
the
bill that
landholders did not fare
work had
adjacent
land, and the
additional funds
ended up in the Supreme
Court in 1898.
subsequent hearings by
the commission
decided in
that assessments
unimproved
at
The assessments to the adjacent park owners
were litigated and
"it was
aimed
as smoothly as the Commissioner's
in acquiring the
from Congress.
was
were unwarranted because the
state had
caused no
park in its
appreciable increases
in
adjoining land values.(33)
The planning and design process for Rock Creek Park has
a fairly convoluted
the
focus but
system
as it
McMillan
history.
a component
had
been
Report.
Washington is
of Washington's
1899:
anywhere
street or boulevard
became not
regional park
Olmsted
sentiment about
best summed up
Budapest, or
Creek Park
proposed by
Local
president, Noyes, in
or
Rock
Jr. in
the
parks
for
the
by resigning Board
There would not
"
in the
world,
than that which should
of Trade
be in Vienna
a grander
ring
take its start
on the westward grassy slopes of the capitol grounds, sweep
the Mall and Potomac Park and
Rock
Creek
National
up Rock Creek to the Zoo and
Park;
thence 'by
boulevard
to
the
Soldiers Home, and finally by boulevards and Anacostia Park
back to
dome
of
the eastern sward
the
Capitol....
permeates the original
the new
and shade trees
The
life, emulate
system
city is to pervade
Washington... Let us
building up the
park
and impressive
the breadth and
80
thus
in like fashion
of the Washington
nations city of the second
which
to-day, in
century of its
boldness in design
and the
I-
--
-
-
MAP OF ROCK
Figure 32.
81
PARK
vigor in execution
last
which were displayed at the
and
century
in
1800
by
the
end of the
of
founders
the
capital."(34)
Washington finally
of
Rock Creek
as a
got back around to
park, and
the Olmsted
commissioned
Brothers to
study for the future development
December in 1918.
Board of
prepare a
defined as its other
Changes in
the introduction of
the car and the parkway
set
planning
of the park, completed in
park predecessors.
different
Control
Rock Creek's role as an urban open space
been as clearly
has not
in 1917
the development
of
demands
two Olmsted
urban living
on
Rock
Creek
patterns and
have placed a
as
an
urban
pleasure ground and have clouded its course as a park.
The histories
and Rock Creek
times
parks
urbanization
cities.
Emerald Necklace,
Park all shed light on the
in which
was
of Central Park, the
they were
brought
and
The
its
parks
about
created.
by
pressure
were
The
the
on the
seen
urbanization but
they have evolved
place of refuge.
They
as
concerns of the
interest in
advent
of
populace
refuges
rapid
of
from
into much more
the
the
that
than a
have become inseparable elements in
the urban forms of New York, Boston, and Washington.
82
83
PA
CHAPTER V: THE WALLS OF THE URBAN GARDEN
natural
of
philosophies
development of the
in
spaces
urban
the
areas,
Gardens has emerged
walls of the Urban
The patterns
varied development patterns.
range of
in a
tied to Olmsted's
cities has been firmly
their respective
Gardens for
parks as Urban
creation of the
While the
that led to the creation of the cities around the parks are
built edge of the city
boundaries clearly established, the
the park.
does react to
and Washington
solely
because of
cities
and their
the
parks.
trends, such as
Evident
cities to
Garden
the
cities is
the movement of people
of the "walking city" to
located.
the parks
developed.
Each
to a
creation of
due to
larger
outside the bounds
the suburbs, where the parks were
in the history
the suburbs is
is linked
of which was the
growth of
of these
The growth
their existence.
parks
around the
not expand
did
edges around
The
of New York,
However, the cities
factors, only one
number of
designated and the
once the parks had been
the sense that
Boston,
is true only in
as a generator of urban form
of the parks
The role
I had once imagined.
not because of the parks as
the way
of the expansion
that edge of
the three
of
Boston, and
Washington, have
response to
the parks.
Each
the Urban
cities; New
exhibited a
of the
York,
different built
has its history and
its own
unique relationship of the park to its surrounding edge.
85
Figure 33.
New York:
urban edge around
the development of the
In New York,
urban land economics
a classic example of
Central Park is
Land values at the center of the city continue to
at work.
rise forcing land development further and further out until
and
land values
the
high enough
becomes
the demand
to
that already existed in
justify obliterating the buildings
order to make room for buildings which can accommodate more
edge around
as
anything other
the urban
to imagine
I find it hard
Central Park today
domain
built
the
Looking at
price.
warrant a higher
people and
the
than
towering
buildings serving as a backdrop and contrast to the natural
scenery of the park.
back in
time.
There
Central Park is like walking
Walking
are areas
park that
in the
are so
might well have been 1870 as
isolated that the time period
1990.
Central Park was on the fringe of the civilized city at
the time of
edge has
its conception.
taken many
transformations
island of
years and has
that have
Manhattan.
undergone a
paralleled the
series of
changes to
the growth of the
East Side in
the following terms:
The reasons for the later development of the Upper
East Side are twofold.
Central
Street
Park in
was
open
Until work was started in
1857, everything
country
except
north of
for
59th
scattered
villages like Yorkville and Harlem on the east and
Bloomingdale
and
Manhattanville
on
the
Goldstone and
Historians, Harmon H.
Martha Dalrymple, describe
of its built
The development
the
west.
Pictures of the region of
the future park in this
period show scrubby farms, squatters shanties, and
goats
roaming
along
Upper Fifth
Avenue.
Even
after the park was opened--and it was not extended
to 110th
Park
Street until
Avenue,
with
1863-- the open
its
noisy
trains, was a blighting
of
new building
Park
Avenue.
Upper
East
Side
thin fringe
explosive
as
a
neighborhood was the
dirty
steam
barrier for any expansion
beyond the
The
and
cut along
west of
development of
fashionable
the
residential
immediate consequence of the
electrification of the New
York Central Lines and
the decking over of Park Avenue in 1907.(1)
The taming of Central Park was analogous to the taming
of
the urban
century,
edge around
when New
York
it.
"Early
became the
in the
largest
nineteenth
city in
the
western hemisphere and when population pressure was forcing
the built up area northward on Manhattan Island, it was the
urban outcasts
Park, which
the way.
was near the
Frederick Law
eviction of
who led
the site
of Central
edge of the settlement
Olmsted and
hundreds of
On
Calvert Vaux
ragpickers,
in 1857,
had to
junkmen,
order the
and drivers
who had established squatter settlements there."(2) Olmsted
and Vaux may have succeeded
the
park
undeveloped
proper,
areas
but
to
the
the
in moving the squatters out of
squatters
east and
relocated
west
of
to
the
the
park.
Photographs from the period of the urban edge on both Fifth
Avenue, and Eighth Avenue(Central
settlements
on
either
side
Park West) show squatter
well into
the
1890's.
As
Figure 34.
Figure 35.
development
gradually
pushed
north
the
squatter's
shanties
and
the
land
reclaimed
replaced,
residences
on
the
Upper
East
was
Side
and
a
were
for
mixture
of
residences and apartments on the Upper West Side.
In
reconstructing
either side of
some
East
the
and finding
and
of
West
reasons
few similarities
Sides.
The
Upper
disadvantages, caused
the
1811,
in
conducive
urban edge
over
sloping
to development.
Only
on
to look for
behind the
topographical
grid
the
Central Park, the challenge is
consistency in
patterns
the growth
development
between the
Upper
West
faced
Side
by the
ground
imposition of
that
after the
was
Civil War
not
in
1865, did the Legislature order the Central Park Commission
to work
on grading the
developable.
Andrew Haswell
more
grade."(3)
than
In
a
Green, Comptroller
decade
to
1866 the West
encourage residential
north
west side to
make it
It would take Olmsted's adversary on the Park
Commission,
Park
land on the
of 59th
"improve
the
"but few
putting up houses on the
west
side
Side Association was formed to
development on the Upper
Street,
of Central
people
West Side,
even thought
of
Upper West Side, which remained a
remote bucolic region".(4)
Two urban events opened up the development of the Upper
West Side and made it
more attractive to development.
was
of the
the introduction
1878 and the
house as a
income
railroad)in
other was the socialization
of the apartment
socially acceptable place for
middle and upper
families to
means would
El(the elevated
One
live.
"Even
in 1880
scarcely consider living in
New Yorkers
of
an apartment, and
many considered apartment houses immoral.
It was then that
the
houses, or
idea of
club, was
the
co-operative apartment
introduced to
make apartment
socially acceptable."(5) Philip
in France, but who had lived
pioneer
behind
home
residences appear
Hubert, an architect, born
in the United States, was the
the co-operative
apartment's
popularity.
"Hubert's first co-op, built for a club of artists, was the
Rembrandt Studios in West 57th
a site
slightly to
the left
Street.
of what
Erected in 1880 on
would later
become
Carnagie Hall, it was a great success, even though one bath
served
as many
as
four
bedrooms"(6)
Another
pioneering
figure in the development of the Upper West Side was Edward
Severin Clark, the Singer
Sewing Machine founder.
vision
was one
"The
of the
new
West Side
section of
apartment buildings
rich and
the
city,
of economic
he said,
diversity.
would
with single family dwellings
poor, 'Some
Clark's
combine
to house
splendidly, many elegantly,
and all
comfortably... the architecture should be ornate, solid and
permanent,
and... the
principle
of
economic
combination
should be employed to the greatest possible extent.'."(7)
When the
El opened in
1878 two things
happened.
The
Upper West Side became readily accessible, and Edward Clark
bet on the El as future of the Upper West Side.
In 1880 he
commissioned Henry Janeway Hardenberg to build twenty-seven
town houses on the "north
from Eighth
Avenue".(8) The
and was New York's first
Dakota
had
side of 73rd Street running west
nine Otis
apartments per
floor.
Dakota was completed
in 1884
true luxury apartment hotel.
elevators,
each
The opening of
serving just
The
two
the Dakota signaled
the beginning of the apartment
house north of 59th street:
yet the
itself is
Dakota like
development
of
the park
the
West
Upper
a mirror
Side.(9)
of the
"Vacant
lots
accounted for
more than half
Side in 1892.
Between 59th and 96th Streets, where all but
a few streets
and thoroughfares
small majority
of the
the total on the
Upper West
remained unpaved,
lots were occupied,
only a
although 72nd,
86th, and other streets were heavily built up; between 96th
and 110th
nearly two
out of three
lots were
vacant, but
eight lots on the south side of 95th Street between Central
Park West and Columbus Avenue
of
$12,000
each--four
were sold in 1892 for upward
times
what
they
had
cost
in
1883."(10)
While development was occurring on the Upper West Side
in the 1880 and 1890's, the
go to
reach an
neighborhood had a long way to
urbanized state.
facing Central Park look out
pigsties
of
squatters,
the Dakota
on shacks, chicken coops, and
who
eviction notices that they fed
neighborhood was
"Tenants of
still largely
were
periodically
to their goats.
handed
But if the
a shantytown area
of open
cesspools, blacksmith shops, and saloons it was because the
high price of lots discouraged developers."(11)
In 1904 the Upper West
to
development by
Rapid Transit,
keys to
the
the
Side was opened up even further
introduction
the subway.
opened,
railroads carried
New
Interborough
Transportation was
Manhattan's expansion.
subway
of the
"In 1903,
York's
one of the
the year before
surface
more paying passengers than
and
elevated
did all the
steam railroads of North and South American combined."
94
(12)
Figure 38.
Figure 39.
ti
-as
fl-a
-
The
subway
Because the
West
changed
the
living
subway ran only
Side above
patterns
in
Manhattan.
on Manhattan and only
42nd street,
the West
on the
Side became
more
accessible.(13)
The physical difference between the Upper East and West
Sides
seems
to lie
in
the
nature of
their
respective
residents.
The Upper West Side along Eighth Avenue(Central
Park West)
developed from the beginning
hotels, yet
Fifth Avenue began as
which were later transformed
few luxury
when
residential town houses
into apartments.
apartment houses on
the railroad
as apartments and
"There were
the East Side
lines running
into Grand
until 1910,
Central were
electrified and some progress was made toward covering over
the
forty acres
Avenue(soon
of
to be
renamed
apartment building
White building
railroad yards
Park
track on
Avenue)."(14)
on Fifth Avenue
constructed in
and
The
was a McKim,
1910 on 81st
Fourth
first
Mead and
Street across
from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.(15) The photographs of
the period
corridor
reveal Fifth Avenue
of
mansions, well
up
to be a
seemingly endless
into
on
Fifth
for the
Urban
build out
would
the 90's
Avenue.
As
Garden
the development
occurred, a
probably have been
first
On the
an urban
edge
generation of
all that could be
edge of Central Park was
element.
of
expected.
The urban
not capable of remaining a static
East Side the second
generation of urban
edge began in 1910 and
continued on through the 1930's and
40's.
Avenue
The
Lexington
1918.(16) New York City
Subway
began
service
in
experienced an onslaught of people
11- - - --
Im - -
-
Figure 40.
Figure 41.
-- - -
at the
end of
the First World
War, several
years later.
The surplus of housing on the West Side that occurred after
1910 was quickly absorbed; but by 1921, the housing surplus
an extent that the Board of
had turned to shortage to such
Estimate ruled that"'all new buildings planned for dwelling
purposes' and started or completed between May 1, 1920, and
May
1, 1922,
were to
be exempted
until January 1932."(17)
On top of the
an attitudinal shift among New
town.
"But few
New
all taxes
shortage there was
Yorkers who were staying in
Yorkers wanted
1920s, and those few that
multiple-unit
from nearly
town
houses in
the
were built were soon turned into
dwellings.
The money
was
to
be made
in
apartment buildings, and there was no lack of developers to
put up more of them."(18)
Coupled with the increasing
boom in
hotel construction.
demand for apartments was
The boom
of the
seen "New York
land values increased by 75
decade between
1919 and 1929.
four-fifths of the
most
estate was
Side."(19) During the decade
of
the
Central
"new
estate taxes provided
on Manhattan's
independent
to
some of the
Upper West
eight new apartment buildings
on Central Park West.
Park West
percent in the
city's revenue in 1928 and
valuable real
were developed
Real
1920's had
subway
Also the completion
line,
Columbus Circle,
running
beneath
and then
beneath
Eighth Avenue past the western edge of the garment district
to
Chambers
Street,
would
make the
Central
Park
West
Apartments far more conveniently located."(20)
By 1939
was
the era of
rapidly coming
the private house on
to a
halt.
98
Property
Fifth Avenue
taxes on
Fifth
III-
---
-
Figure 42.
V:.
IM -
Pr
7
Figure 45.
100
"Mrs
foot.
a square
high as $42
running as
Avenue were
Cornelius Vanderbilt, whose enormous house at the corner of
Mrs Vanderbilt,
51st Street was assessed at $2.45 million.
per night in taxes for the
according to Fortune, paid $197
the
demand increased.
post war period of
The
Fifth Avenue from
the late 1940's
edge along
of the urban
saw the transformation
and 1950s
as residential
gaining momentum
Side was
Upper East
of
fashionable homes on
the older mansions and
demolition of
The march
that house."(21)
in
of sleeping
privilege
scale of the
a residential scale to the
high-rise apartment block.
Central Park
Urban
Avenue,
a
produced
potential of the wall
of the
second
West and
Park
Central
Park's
redevelopment of
have
Street
59th
is
urban
edge
which
As long
as there
is a
demand for
the views and location adjacent
Central
not stop
it did
generation
continually changing.
of
The
build out.
the
made
pattern
urban, but
rural to
first generation
with a
around
settlement
The
Garden.
edge
urban
York's
New
shows the full
transformation from
Fifth
of
development
The
to the park then the walls
edge
urban
will
continue
to
be
transformed.
Boston:
If
New York
work, then
capitalism.
classic case
is a
Boston is a
In
the
Boston's growth in the
of land
case of development
absence
of a
economics at
by individual
structured
plan
for
period from 1870-1900, planning was
101
Figure 46.
1 0?
replaced by topographical
countryside.
accessibility to the surrounding
along the valleys between
This accessibility
car routes, which in turn led
Boston's hills led to street
development of the "streetcar
to the
suburbs".
The built
domain of Boston's Urban Garden, "the Emerald Necklace" (The
Franklin Park) is
Fens to
same way
Boston is
reconstruct.
poor.
land
difficult to
Boston is
development of
that the
in the
difficult to understand
many
are too
There
people trying to live in the same place, vying for the same
resources.
Boston's strongest urban design tool for the city has
long been
its natural environment.
geography
had inhibited
the
and
they have filled marshes
Bay was
enabled by the
such a monumental
The filling of
endeavor that
Legislature in May 1857,
in May of 1859.(23) The newly
for land
and leveled hills
to create more buildable area for the city.
the Back
pedestrian
of
paths
have been starved
communication."(22) Bostonians
to extent that
Marshes, rivers
easy expansion.
restricted
ocean
1850 Boston's
"Before
it was
and filling began
created land in the Back Bay
was completely consumed by 1900.
The Emerald Necklace in Boston was much like Rock Creek
Park in Washington in the sense that elements of it posed a
While the slopes
natural barrier
to development.
Muddy River are
not in the form of gorges,
Olmsted had to
the areas that
work with were the left over
seams between the
new suburban towns, of
West
Roxbury, and
west,
and Roxbury,
east.
Olmsted's design solution for
103
of the
spaces in the
Brookline to the
Dorchester to
the
the Back Bay Fens was
104
NIN
I iwh
Figure 48.
105
-t
e
,
widely heralded for its sanitary engineering as much as for
of a park.
its artful creation
flats in
tidal
unbearable.
the
Yet
Suburbs, is
Sam B.
developing with
Warner,
of
a
organized the
development statutes.
West Roxbury
book
Streetcar
of the
and all
great deal of thought
towns
three
of
Dorchester were built by strict
structures
century conditions
their builders
and
were as rigid as
in their way,
patterns which
traditional
out that the evolution
discipline of nineteenth
discipline, a
withstanding,
out any
"The
be
faced with the
in his
masterplan.
Roxbury, West Roxbury, and
which
Jr.,
came with a
discipline
said to
boundaries not
quick to point
Boston suburbs
the
was
1880s
of the Emerald Necklace was
difficulty of
plan.
in the
The geographic
the urban edge
added
Fens
rising off the
The stench
into
any modern
The 22,500 new dwellings of Roxbury,
were the product
and Dorchester
of separate
decisions made by 9000 individual builders."(24)
Warner argues that transportation advances were the key
to
opening
up the
counterparts
differed is
in
in New
York
of
Washington.
and
sense of
Where
the grid.
of the
the topography
successive changes in land
Despite
uses and transportation methods
towns.
branching of
north-south traffic
of
took their
landscape.
the land continued to shape
valleys and
Boston
"The suburbs
the contours of
...This
their
missing, the structure
along transportation routes, which
direction from
main
like
Boston, just
that the structure was
the traditional
Boston grew
suburbs
the growth of
uplands of
roads described at
West Roxbury,
movement, the location of
106
once the
the principle
most of the
Figure 49.
1 n7
eighteenth and
nineteenth century farms and
streetcar lines, the
villages, the
railroad route, and the
main line of
suburban development."(25)
The topography
imposed a
structure that
was further
defined by the real estate market necessity of the day, the
creation
of frontage
lots.
frontage lot system of
"Under the
grid street
and
land division natural contours were
thrown away for the short term advantages of easy marketing
and
cheap
utility
simplest terms,
where the land
and
street
construction."(26)
both farmers and suburbanites
was handy and then worked out
"In
began first
to back lots
and high stony plots."(27)
This attitude,
the practice of the
making the planning decisions, had
areas
around the
Necklace up as
of
Emerald
"The
grid plan
geometry which divided
depended
market
what
It
of the
set the
Emerald
introduce some kind
chopped up
development
suburbs did
not concern
It was an economically efficient
large parcels of land
The arrangement of the blocks
largely upon
at
Necklace.
an essentially
itself with public life.
on the market.
a serious impact on the
an urban organizer, to
hierarchy into
pattern.
individual parcels
what
time.
farm or
The
result
estate
was
as they came
of the grid
came on
not
the
integrated
communities arranged about common centers, but a historical
and accidental traffic pattern."(28)
The overall
lack of continuity in
the availability of
the land adjacent to the Emerald Necklace begins to explain
some of
Bay
the architecture of
Fens,
much
of
the
the urban edge.
architecture
108
In
responds
the Back
to
the
curvilinear nature of the roads that follow the undulations
of
then all
built, and
Garden were
that formed
frontage buildings
established, its
the Urban
a
It is as if the built edge for the
planned Royal Crescent.
Fens was
Fens were
the
almost as
It is
itself.
the Fens
the remaining
buildings and blocks not adjacent to the park were designed
to fit on their sites as best they could.
a black hole in an urban
The Emerald Necklace is also
and
the
never
Necklace and
the
of
parkways
are like
drains off
water
the land in
culverts
feeder side streets.
The side
seeking its
of the
Rock
gorge,
as if
bridge
to
be built
so
on
it
This
it could
that
a continuous
Fens, Olmsted
Park, Jamaica
the
waiting for
the
complete
itself.
also become islands
undercurrent of
traffic.
Pond, and Franklin
parks isolated like
side of
side of
the other
were naturally
surrounded by
all become
River.
stopped on one
the Emerald Necklace have
Sections of
point as
For example, before construction
started again
the Avenue
lowest
opposite of the majority of
bridge, Connecticut Avenue
Creek and
are
route to the Charles
blackhole effect is the direct
conditions in Washington.
The
like
Necklace
Emerald
go into
other side.
the
emerge on
collecting traffic from the
streets
streets seem to
The smaller
there continuation.
streets is
the major
Only on
up again.
never pick
the Necklace stop
that dead end to
Streets
design sense.
jewels set aside
The
Park have
from the
rest of their urban context because of the way that traffic
If Central Park were
has defined their boundaries.
intended to allow the visitor
109
the opportunity to block out
is,
y-1
Figure 51.
110
Franklin Park and the Arnold
the distractions of the city,
Arboretum allow the same feeling in certain places.
remainder of the Emerald
In the
Necklace's jewels, their settings
have been tarnished by overexposure to the city and traffic
which surrounds them.
The Emerald
a barrier
Necklace is
by the social and economic
people and architecture created
which form the urban edges.
diversity of the neighborhoods
of the
Because much
boundary of
and a
the Necklace
side of
land on either
rests in Brookline, or Roxbury, there are physical, as well
as
social and
Necklace.
the
sides of
the
There are varying densities of development along
on the
Necklace
interplay
in the
economic differences
two
edges as
between the
certain locations(The
others(Jamaica
Pond,
buildings(museums,
sides,
but
there is
subsides in
Fens, Olmsted Park) and
The
institutional
medical schools,
colleges,
an
increases in
the density
Franklin Park).
also
hospitals)
add an interesting density to the areas along the Necklace.
The variation
Necklace
of the
urban edge along
exists because
address the
buildings
the
roads that front the
parks.
the length
of the
forming the
edge
The architecture
of the edge comes from the parks and parkways, not from the
formal structure of the city around it.
grew
and
developed around
the
natural
In Boston the city
features of
its
topography, and the market necessity of frontage lots along
main transportation routes.
111
Washington:
Boston
individuals
developed
that led
based
to a
on
decisions
made
piecemeal settlement
by
pattern.
The land surrounding Rock
Creek Park, in Washington, D.C.,
is
close
best
described as
a
neighborhood developments,
knit group
each with its
and distinct personalities that are
of
common
urban
surrounding Rock
the Civil
and
events.
Creek was
War dating
infrastructure
all linked by a series
acquired and
improvements
different
own architecture
majority
back to the
boundaries, into what was
north of
The
of
of
the
subdivided after
1870's.
Transportation
outside
the
municipal
then Washington county, the land
Boundary Road(Florida
Avenue), were the
keys to
opening up the suburban communities around Rock Creek.
gorges
that border
land
the southern
edges of
the park
The
were
themselves barrier to development in the early years.
Bridging the creek valley
was an essential element in
the development of the western neighborhoods.
The P Street
bridge connected the Dupont Circle neighborhood to the well
established Georgetown
in 1871, which began
the onslaught
of the neighborhoods north and west of Georgetown that were
to
follow.
"The
blossoming
neighborhoods east of Rock Creek
development until the gorge
1886 and
and
at Calvert
west of
Dupont
Rock Creek
the
residential
marked the major trend of
was bridged-at Klingle Road in
Street in 1891."(29)
Kalorama, north
Circle, was
opened up
Massachusetts Avenue was extended
the
of
gorge in
1887.
112
further
when
from Florida Avenue over
The
initial iron
bridge
'1
&i
~wq~
Figure 54.
Figure 55.
115
built
in 1887
bridge in
was replaced
by a
1901.(30) In 1907 the
was completed
and allowed
Circle north to
more substantial
Connecticut Avenue bridge
for direct passage
Chevy Chase.
stone
Until the
bridge, Connecticut Avenue stopped
from Dupont
completion of the
on the southern edge of
the gorge and picked back up on the northern side.
The
advent
of
public transportation
opened
up
the
neighborhoods on both sides of Rock Creek.
The horse drawn
trolleys of
the early 1870's
the electrified
trolleys of
the late 1880's and
of
transportation
beginning
with
made
gave way to
the
Brightwood,
1890's.
inner,
The availability
eastern
1861; Mount
suburbs
Pleasant,
,
1865;
Dupont Circle, 1880; Kalorama 1887; Washington Heights, and
Lanier Heights, 1880's;(present day Adams Morgan)a physical
reality beyond their existence as platted suburbs.(31) With
the
construction
Valley came
and
of the
the western
Cleveland Park
bridges
Chase and
Calvert
street
Street
1894-1895.
Connecticut
Senator
and Klingle
on
Avenue in
Chase, 1890,
Francis Newlands,
possible by
Bridges,
and
Wisconson Avenue
1892.(32)
building the
by opening
up
1890 and
on
in
Chevy Chase
acted as
magnet that pulled people out to it over time.
there
was
a
vacuum
Creek
made the development of both
Cleveland Park
car service
the Rock
developments, Chevy
the developer of Chevy Chase,
Chevy
across
along Connecticut
a
In its wake
Avenue
that
was
eventually filled in as Cleveland Park developed.
The 1893 Highway Act and the revised 1898 version of the
Highway Act
1893 were
that grandfathered subdivisions
intended to correct
116
plated before
the problems that
the 1887
Annual Report
District Commissioners'
referred to
as the
streets that "go nowhere and connect with nothing."(33) The
1898
Act was
Highway
L'Enfant's plan
Acts did
outside of
two things: it
continuity
between
subdivisions, and
during
the
the rapidly developing
out into
Washington County
the 1792 plan.
it put
L'Enfant's
plan
a virtual freeze
while
the
of
areas of
The Highway
insured that there would
the
period
lines
extend the
to
intended
and
be some
the
new
on development
legislation
was
being
finalized.
Each of the neighborhoods that border the park have had
have over the course of
their own development patterns and
their histories
as they
neighborhoods
limited
by
evolved their own built
the
neighborhoods and the
in
like in
topography
park itself.
development nodes where there
of building,
the park
relate to
changes
urban edges.
To this
The
are physically
between
the
day the major
has been a second generation
New York
around Central
Park, have
been limited to areas where there are bridges or roads that
cut across the park.
development would
An example of this type of pattern of
be at the bridges
at Connecticut Avenue
and Calvert Street.
The primary
corridors of development have
been along
transportation routes like out Connecticut Avenue along its
entire length out to Chevy
Street, up
bordering
majority
Chase Circle, and out Sixteenth
Of all of
to Piney Branch.
Rock
of the
Creek
Park, Kalorama
high-rise
the neighborhoods
has
attracted
the
development, (remembering
the
120'-0" building height limit in the District of Columbia).
117
Figure 56.
118
Figure 57
119
The eastern edge of the park is more densely developed with
row houses
majority
in Mount Pleasant,
of
the
residences(many
northern edge
larger apartment
now
embassies)
of Piney Branch
Brightwood (on
bordered by
in
and
Kalorama.
the
Spring in
park is
residences which make
coast." On
larger
On
of 16th Street) the
affluent "gold
up black
the west
side of
the edge is a loose arrangement
Rock Creek the majority of
single family
buildings
with the
on out to Silver
the west side
single family
Washington's
of
and Adams Morgan,
residences and
apartment
an occasional
building where there is a cross access from the east to the
west
side
neighborhoods.
Further
north
from
the
Connecticut Avenue Bridge, up through Cleveland Park and on
into
Chevy
Chase, the
density
at
the park's
edge
has
remained loosely single family residential.
In summation,
York,
Boston, and
the walls of
Washington
their histories beyond their
walking cities
share a
New
in
They were all
that decentralized dramatically
end.
of New
common element
Olmsted parks.
the transportation advances in
similarities
the Urban Gardens
because of
the late 1880's; here their
York
has
not
remained
a
decentralized city, and its relationship to Central Park is
one of
extreme contrast,
towering walls
Franklin Park
urban
edge
necklace.
them, each
nature.
of the
the park juxtaposed
city surrounding
it.
portion of Boston's Emerald
as
varied
as the
individual
against the
The
Fens to
Necklace has an
parks
of
the
The parks reflect the neighborhoods which engulf
being a different
Finally
there
is
120
response of a built
Washington's
edge to
neighborhood
approach to the challenge of urbanizing on the steep slopes
of a valley.
Rock Creek has been bounded by
apartment
border
of
family
houses which
buildings, row
run the
gamut of
houses,
a loose knit
and
possible densities
which are rarely ever noticed from inside the park.
121
single
122
GARDEN FOR ALLIANCE
CHAPTER VI: AN URBAN
to merge the lessons from
Where are the opportunities
his progeny
Olmsted and
of the Olmsted progeny and
urban conditions, the histories
been
Alliance and
led
There
suggested.
me
are
to
for
futures
region, but this
thoughts,
specific
some
possible
many
its surrounding
already
directions have
linkages and
cities, some
their
of the
Alliance, the metaphors
introduction to
After the
the future?
promise of
with the
thesis has
and
observations,
conclusions about the relationship of parks to Alliance.
many is that the day of
The first of
space has not
Boston,
passed.
The great urban parks
Washington are
and
the great urban
of New York,
relics of
antiquated
not
a
period when the only role of the park was as the "lungs" of
the city.
has shown, the
As their history
are multidimensional
Olmsted parks
characters that play many
Their ability to act as an
park.
only one of them being a
organizing element of a plan,
roles with
to create an edge for growth
to occur along, and to build a public constituency of their
own, will
Olmsted's day
his parks
city
expanded
as
it
decentralized city
park system
city
at a
from
the
with suburbs.
regional scale
The
of Texas.
They must become
The real
is that
and at
parks must
city
walking
In
of the
became essential elements
around Alliance
simultaneously.
functions.
test on the plains
be put to the
to
the
challenge of a
it must
address the
the neighborhood
also perform
scale
two primary
an organizing element at both
the regional and neighborhood scales
123
as well as a regional
landmark
and
point
of
reference.
This
expanded
role
represents a tremendous challenge to a park system.
Around
possible futures
Alliance the
can be
broken
down into three components: The Parks as Plan, The Parks as
Boundary,
categories
and
The
Parks
will explore
as
Alliance.
elements of
of
the
Olmsted's parks
and
their applications for the Alliance region.
124
Each
(1)
THE PARKS AS PLAN
Can a park be a plan in itself?
If the nature of a plan is
like laying out
framework for structuring growth,
to be a
streets and vistas
in Washington or New York,
cannot
by
be
a plan
itself,
but
it
then a park
can be
a
strong
Planning through parks is an
organizing element of a plan.
In many ways the process resembles the
open-ended process.
children's experiment where a piece of string is put into a
and over
sugar water,
jar of
around the
string and
experiment
the
makes rock
outcome
is
sugar crystalizes
time the
candy.
certain,
but
Going
the
into the
resulting
formations of crystals are never the same.
Introducing parks into the region surrounding Alliance
is a similar process.
land
and ends
hierarchies
It is a process that begins with the
It
with it.
of spaces
as
allows man
dictated by
to use
nature's
topography as
the
structuring elements of the plan for the extension of a new
city.
The city will grow around the parks in time, but how
will its form crystalize?
Boston effectively grew around a
hierarchy of natural spaces
physical features.
unplanned
in the
dictated by its topography and
It was an essentially
sense
that
it did
not
unplanned city,
grow into
the
grid or some precise physical
structure of some prexisting
blueprint for growth.
Parks as an urban antidote:
In the
are few
Texas landscape that surrounds
vertical elements to
125
Alliance there
distract the eye.
The land
and sky
end.
spread out
across the horizon
never to
Within this land of the horizontal plane, there are a
few elements
they are
that add
some relief
the groves of
criss-cross
the region.
They define and
landscape
provide an
to the
landscape, and
trees surrounding the
These
equivalent of the baroque
the
and seem
swaths of
green are
the
boulevards of the European 'city.
focus the view and organize
into
creeks that
more
subtle areas.
indelible image to
the fabric of
In
short
the landscape by
they
making it
have limits and.boundaries.
To
the east
of Alliance
spread across the landscape
there are
communities that
with the same amorphousness as
the fields to the west.
These are man made landscapes that
have no
is nothing to
relief.
nothing subtle
There
about them
Where does Hurst begin and
break up
the view,
that translates into
an image.
Euless end, or is that Bedford?
On the open plains the fences provide the clues: and if the
property has been
around long enough, there
of trees that defines one
formed along
can be
field from the next.
creek bottoms that
the image that this
around.
that
the green
can
The parks
relate
to
Residents of New York speak
to Central Park.
Alliance
his
The parks,
already exist,
new area of the
can provide
man
is a hedgerow
region builds
an image
and association
location
in
the
world.
of where they live in relation
The future inhabitants of the land around
could define
themselves by
where they
lived in
relation to Elizabeth Creek.
In the vastness of the plains of North Texas, both the
natural landscape
and the built landscape
126
need an element
"44, ,
ARLINGTON
Figure 58.
127
that
provides a
there
to be
contrast.
Contrast allows
appreciated more.
The power
for what
of New
is
York's
skyline is impressive, but it is more impressive because it
can be
contrasted to
Away from the
one of
The parks
even
These
older more
New York, Boston,
parks can
another city until
visual antidote
to the
more critical
Central Park.
reveals the wooded areas
are the
are critical
cities of
areas of
Mall, Washington is just
the many bridges
Creek.
They
the natural
preserve
to the
city.
well defined
urban
and Washington; but
to developing
regions like
the image
of Rock
of
they are
Alliance.
the present
and
provide a glimpse of what the image of the future could be.
The parks would insure that
there would always be contrast
on the horizon, whether that horizon holds plowed fields or
new communities.
Transportation, parks as choices:
As
we have
seen in
each of
the cases
of New
York
Boston, and Washington, transportation corridors are always
strong influences
cities
on the
around Olmsted's
growth of
the city.
parks engulfed
The three
them because
the
parks were in the path of growth that was being extended by
transportation.
for the
Transportation innovations created choices
inhabitants of
extended the
from their
distances that
places of
possible to
Fifth Avenue,
it was the poor
city.
In New
Their
made it
alternative the
York, along
who lived next to
other choice.
128
could live
Transportation
the parks as an
of the walking
had no
The trolleys
the city dwellers
employment.
live next to
urbanized areas
because they
the walking cities.
the park
shanties formed
to
afford
live and build the homes
financial means to
it was the
Finally
edge.
and
Central Park)
out(to
move
could
rich who
was the
it
Then
edge.
first urban
the
the
had
who
of the second
decided to
choice of those who
live next to the park that
stay in Manhattan and wanted to
created the demand for the third generation urban edge.
Transportation
beyond
the walking
finely
knit
Washington.
the bounds
city;
transportation established
the
Boston
and
cities have grown beyond
Unfortunately as the
some
lost
has
city
of the
urban fabric
walking city, the
of the
decentralized
York,
New
of
fabrics
urban
move
form to
urban
the
has enabled
its
of
special
characteristics.
the ultimate personal freedom of
The car has afforded
radius of the
city as long as they are
cities.
central
people will
distance
The
than
in
travel is
in
are cheaper
prices
land
edges because
the
willing to pay the
Economists will say that cities expand
costs of commuting.
to
any
within
live
inhabitants can
city's
The
movement.
have to pay for the land,
relation to the amount that they
in conjunction with the price they have to pay to commute.
generators
density.
Nodes of
urban
major
roads intersect
where
buildings
are
Corner, Silver
become
roles
new
city.
In
built.
organizers
around off-ramps
events
Washington,
as
The
of
where
the places
have become
each other
spring up where major routes
Tyson's
have
highways
of
on
the decentralized
form in
of city
intersections
take
corridors
Transportation
mini-cities
intersect the beltway like at
Spring,
129
or
Rockville.
Areas
of
commerce, trade, and housing
duplicate the elements of the
walking city but are only accessible by car.
At
Alliance the
again be
reality is
the dominant form
that the
car will
of transportation and
once
with it
the form of the new city will continue to be decentralized:
here the parks will play a significant role.
Juxtaposed to
the concrete corridors of growth, there can be green swaths
across the landscape that
form and
a sense of
Washington,
growth
will give the decentralized mass
direction.
occurred
corridors not because of the
secondary
organizing
because
of
Boston, and
transportation
parks: but the parks became a
element
provided another choice
area surrounding
In New York,
within
the
city.
of how and where to
Alliance a
live.
system of parks
They
In the
and parkways
dedicated before the real growth takes root can provide the
future
inhabitants choices
they live.
New York,
the image of
set
up front
about how
Boston, and Washington could dictate
the bounded edge of the parks
aside, as
and where
could the
inhabitants of
once they were
the land
around
Alliance.
Parks as a section drawing of the city:
The
city.
parks provide
They
drawing.
a sense
act as a way
A section
of perspective
of seeing the city
cuts an object in half
about the
as a section
and allows the
viewer to observe the inner workings of the object.
In the
same sense
the parks allow
from a
distance.
Central
distance
Park affords
that allows
inside the city.
the cities
the skyline
the
viewer
to be
The parks allow for
130
to be seen
a sense
of
appreciated from
the introduction of
into
foreground
ability
our
perceive
to
city.
the
Ordinarily, on the street, pedestrians are too close to see
on top
are right
buildings that
beyond the
anything
of
them, but the parks let them stand back and see the changes
will also allow
At Alliance the park system
in the city.
the section change of the landscape to be witnessed because
of the changes in soil type, and vegetation that occur from
east to west across the region.
Boston, the
In
progression
Common out
from the
from the seams out instead of
Franklin Park shows the city
the other way around, from the fabric to the seam.
New
Central
York,
to the southern
59th street
the section
lower middle class edge of
"gold
affluent
Street.
Sixteenth
change
from
and Adams
affluent
Cleveland Park,
social
sees the
Morgan fade
to the
Mount Pleasant, and then become
of
coast"
black
section looking
The
Harlem at
walls of
section looking east
The
of Kalorama
affluent edges
the
from the mid-town
physical and
reveals different
the city.
segments of
the
In Washington along Rock Creek
110th Street to the north.
Park,
Even in
observer
city
the
watch the density change
opportunity to
image of
gives
Park
to
white
Washington
west
to
Georgetown,
the
middleclass
Chase.
and upper middleclass Chevy
changes in social composition of
shows
along
These
the edge are reflected in
the built form as well.
At this point in Alliance's
predict
the
economic
built edge
possibility
of
such ranges
differentiation, and
bordering the parks.
131
development it is hard to
how
they
Because
social
and
will affect
the
of
of the locations
of
the transportation
that
growth will
corridors, it
be out
from the
corridors cross
the concrete ones.
likely to begin
in the middle of the
SH(State Highway) 377 and SH 156.
transportation corridors
out into the
is likely
to assume
areas where
the green
The
urban centers are
corridors like 1-35,
The parks will weave the
together and then find
landscape to the east
their way
toward Grapevine Lake,
and to the west up stream to the headwaters of the creeks.
Grapevine Lake will be one
end of the system with the
parks following the creeks off
head waters
which divide the
watersheds.
The
ultimately to
Washington.
land into sections
sections across the Alliance
be very different
The
anchored at
into the countryside to the
parks
one end by
in
will be
possible
and an
the center,
arrangements along
There could
be a possible
Washington
are
have densities
there could
length
be a
number of
of the
section.
residential anchor to
the east
the west.
to the north and
The
headwaters of
west which make up
ends may remain agricultural with
definite finishing point at
Boston and
Around Alliance where the
the
industrial center to
the creeks
and
city centers which
that decrease towards the edges.
airport
region will
from those of
Boston
by their
the other
one of the ends having a
Grapevine Lake and the others,
going off to find their source in the landscape.
With
an
airport as
Alliance
will
strategy.
Because
overlay
be
its
following
center,
a
of the FAA height
zoning district
that
the region
different
around
development
restrictions and the
surrounds
the airport
and
limits the uses that can occur within the overlay district,
132
1%6
FORT WORTH
ARLINGTON
Figure 59
133
the
future
city
predominantly
urban
center
will
industrial.
development
remain
This
in the
low
density
changes the
region
by
and
pattern
forcing the
of
denser
"downtown" area and the housing into different places along
the section.
The section could look like this, residential
along shores of Grapevine Lake
and the creek deltas at the
lake's headwaters, commercial, and institutional between SH
377
and
1-35
and
alternatives in
only
be a
then
between.
way. of
industrial,
At
or
a
range
Alliance the parks
seeing the
region
of
will not
change across
its
section, but will also be a way of organizing the growth.
Off-ramp urbanism and the machine in the garden:
In the car oriented, decentralized city of today it is
difficult to obtain a clear image of a city or place.
are the places that are
metroplex?
Certainly
memorable in the Dallas-Fort Worth
there are
Dallas, and Fort Worth
what about
What
clear images
of Downtown
with their impressive skylines, but
the skylines of
Las Colinas and
the Galleria?
There are cities between Dallas and Fort Worth that have no
clear public identities beyond
seems to be
are
no
the activity that occurs
longer
photomontages
of
development like
Tyson's Corner.
off
interstates.
off-ramps is that
area
for
their exit signs.
cities
with
development,
Urbanism
at off-ramps.
images,
there
just malls
the Galleria, or Las
and
There
are
just
nodes
of
Colinas, Solona, or
These are towns that used to be just exits
What
distinguishes
them
the cross roads created
development,
better malls,
better housing.
134
from
other
a better market
better
apartments,
A LLF.-PAt,
I3I
rn-I-
U
ml'
'a
~KThIN~ ~OM
Figure 60.
1-35
IALI~~
lAtli
In a certain sense the
linear parks of Alliance could
also be a substitute for the
public part of the city.
lack of a town square, or the
There are no longer any images of
the public domain,
but is having a clear sense
public and what is
private still important?
runways at
Alliance are an
very large scale,
and the private
The
parks would be
in the landscape and
would become
the cohesive
That may be too
fabric of the
element in
contrast between what is
which is private.
at a
public airport begin
land around it begin?
that defines the
Certainly the
what is public
but where does the
an alternative element
city that
image of
of what is
the city
public and that
ambitious, perhaps the
best a system of linear parks could do would be to knit the
nodes at the
to
off-ramps together and give
something greater
than their
them a reference
exit number.
In Boston
where the development was primarily made by individual acts
of capitalism, the planned
element that the community grew
around and still links it are the parks and parkways of the
Emerald
Necklace.
In
Washington, there
is
no
greater
public space to find and lose the city than in the woods of
Rock Creek: and
York
finally if there is a single
where there
Central Park.
spaces
have
is the
possibility for
The parks in
to
carry
place in New
privacy, it
is
the sense that they are public
the
burden
of
contrast
to
the
homogeneity of the decentralized, suburban city.
There has
to
sense
be
a
commonality
element
to the
landscape,i.e.,
that
can
wash of
industrial,
give
other
office,
etc.
136
a
greater
type of
parks in
trailer,
of
the
amusement,
The range
of elements in the
hides behind the
uses asks,
decentralized city that
park image is disturbing.
what is the
This range of
inhabitant of
relationship of the
What happens
the new age industrial city to the landscape?
something that exists in contrast
when nature is no longer
to
the urban
form of
was to
individual
countryside,
as
a
place.
a
contrast
reached a
now
to
office buildings are
are
There
parks.
for
parks
in
the
an
the
rural and natural
Suburbanization
has
buildings are
factories and office
urban
became
lost
has been
urban.
The most
parks.
factories, and
own
what is
point where
put in
What
sense of what is
suburbanization is the
as
nature
public space,
The
of the
of
Instead
agrarianism.
shared
private
individual
a lawn.
a piece
to afford
be able
of
between what was
Suburbia meant a house and
urban and rural.
American dream
The suburbanization
blurring of the lines
America marked the
landscape
the city?
elements of
in their
all set out
houses,
cities,
parks
for
factories, parks for shopping, parks for working, and parks
the enjoyment of
The park for
for amusement.
almost disappeared
any traces of
along with
nature has
the original
rural landscape.
the his parks being natural
Olmsted was adamant about
areas within
But the opportunity
humanizing aspect
parks are
so pure
these days.
for public parks and open
spaces as a
Life is not
the city.
of the
city form still
still the melting
pots of society.
Park, the Emerald Necklace, and
are
still the
great
exists.
refuges of
137
Public
In Central
Rock Creek Park, the parks
the
urban public.
The
social
spectrum is
represented from
pseudo chic in Gucci running
parks within cities with
should there
can
spaces
public
to the
But these are eastern
tremendous space constraints; why
be lands set
parks compete
suits.
the homeless
aside for parks in
with the
where the
malls or
Texas?
sports stadiums
inhabitants
of
the region
How
as
can
gather?
Every
major
itself as
development
the
Metroplex
having landscaped amenities.
for landscape at
at
in
the scale
usually
the scale of the building,
of the
that
parkways,
comprise
road
the
is provided
or maybe even
"park" development.
landscaped
sidewalks
Space
The result
frontages
short
markets
and
jogging
is
the
trails.
Landscape as it relates to the suburbanized industrial city
is
a
piecemeal, lip
service
because it sells real estate.
parks and
parkways along
Worth along
many areas of
These areas are
region,
but
response
were
only
Dallas has a true system of
White Rock
Creek, as
the Trinity River
only two examples.
they
that exists
flood plain.
There are
post-development
does Fort
more in the
responses
not
pre-development planning tools.
Used as pre-development tools,
make the
"parks" that
boundaries more
enables a
are likely
effective as
to congregate
developments
beyond
themselves for
can
a
A park
relationship to something
a regional and local
"park"
on their
built developments.
development to have a
public, that has
the regional parks can
image.
relate themselves
change and
can
The private
to
something
become part
larger system of places that is readily identifiable.
138
of
(2)
THE PARKS AS BOUNDARY
be a revelation.
urban development should not
of the Urban Garden have
Boston, and Washington, the edges
different images;
Alliance's parks become?
on
the
of
image
the
first
generation
continues to
Central Park.
many
subtle
drive the
cities
where
has occurred and has stopped.
evolve as
the most
developed
edge as demand
three in terms of its urban
example of the
of
and Washington have taken
continue to
York will
the boundaries
can
what
Boston
development around the parks
New
In New York,
of a new city.
be used as the form generator
on
What should
idea of parks as boundaries can
be a revelation is how the
taken
boundary for
a natural
parks as
of the
The concept
edge overlooking
evolution of the
Beyond those broad categorizations there are
implications that
design
generated
can
by
looking at the development of an Urban Garden for Alliance.
The urban doughnut:
One
of the
first things
the eye
that strikes
when
looking at maps of New York City is the gaping whole in its
Park is located.
center where Central
incredible city starts
and
then picks
happened.
up on
and stops at the edge
the other
From the development of
Side neighborhoods,
fabric of this
The
it is
side as
of the park,
if nothing
had
the Upper East and West
apparent that the
walled image
has not always been the same, nor are the walls symmetrical
images of each other.
They are somewhat symmetrical in the
139
ways that they taper off from
south to north, but they are
hardly similar at 59th Street and 110th Street.
The
important
aspect
development around Central
happen.
Density and
elements within
Central Park
high-rise
a
park are
and
around
by
developments
not mutually
The urban
edge around
open
The
so
the landscape
exclusive
of dense
natural
area.
Central Park
Nature
being
of
was allowed to
park because of its
it.
edge
about the relationship
of each other.
even more spectacular
bounding
Park is that it
gives clues
elements feed off
appreciated
the
reasonable limits.
buildings
buildings
of
in
is made an
contrast to the
the
limited.
two
city
In
is everywhere.
the
is
fully
suburban
There is
not
enough density
to make an arrangement
of buildings urban,
and
too many
make the
there are
buildings to
landscape
natural.
The idea that
needs to emerge out of
this example is
to be dense and urban when the opportunity presents itself.
Downtown Dallas
of downtowns
and Fort Worth present
from an
architectural perspective,
have yet to create any real
of Downtown
and there
are still
the
They
or nonexistent,
surface parking lots
intermixed with
are communities
sense of place.
lack the
downtowns
six o'clock in the evening.
housing is limited
high-rise buildings.
Galleria
but they
density of life that can carry
the Downtown neighborhood past
The stock
respectable images
Las
Colinas,
of buildings
Solona, and
with little
the
or no
These are examples of "off-ramp urbanism".
capacity
although they
to be
miniature replications
make the
140
attempt.
They
of
are too
ability to provide for enough
They also lack the
feeling.
suburban town center
scale to provide the
overwhelming in
them.
accentuate the nature around
contrast to
Nature is
introduced in the form of an irrigated median or a strip of
grass between the sidewalk and the building's edge.
urbanism" around Alliance
to be "off ramp
If there is
let it follow the New York
which there inevitably will be,
of the parks.
development occurs near one
model where the
Make the development as dense as the market will bear.
the
corridors and design
location.
at the
intersection of
There
hierarchy.
that
by the
secondary level
highways,
but is
by the parks.
At
also
the two
immediate
intersection
connected on
is
a
these development nodes
and do not waste the time
on the decorative attempts
development.
be
will
the
at
"place"
the
make the park the central focus,
and money
to the dense
Make them visually significant parts of the
regional
connected
advantage of their
parks to be juxtaposed
will occur
urban systems.
recognition
transportation
the main
them to take full
Design the
building that
larger
intersect
they
parks where
Use
at "landscaping" the
Build an urban place that has an identity and
a density, not just the
usual collection of Seven-Eleven's
and McDonalds.
degrees of development along the
There can be varying
parks,
but in
the places
occur, make it like Central
Rock Creek Park and the
city
and
the
presence of the
park
that
the density
to
Park, the Emerald Necklace, or
cities around them, where both the
are empowered
other.
is going
and
enriched
It will be important
141
by
the
to allow the
densities along the
enough
parks to change so that
there will be
contrasts along
the built
edge to
of contrasts,
that will
further accentuate
spectrum
create another
the
relationship between the built and the natural edges.
The park as a topographic sculpture:
Olmsted believed that when the city dwellers went into
one of his
by
parks, the park would consume
obliterating
the references
Central
Park
nowhere
can city
Creek
Park.
successful
and Franklin
Park
dwellers
in it.
Rock
In Rock
Creek
There is
city.
achieve
is
observing the park from one
one is
the
Areas
that goal,
lose themselves
Topography
element.
to
and cleanse them
Creek
Park
of
but
like in
Rock
Park's
most
one is
either
of the spectacular bridges, or
no real in between.
and Boston the pedestrian or
In New York
the driver can transverse the
park and see it without venturing into it.
The boundary of
New York, Boston, and Washington are such that the park can
be constantly observed from
topography, the
buildings that
To
its periphery.
rim of Rock
block the
paraphrase Tom
Because of its
Creek is walled by
houses or
unobstructed views to
the park.
Wolfe, you
are either
in the
park or
you're out of the park.
Washington
relationship.
and
In
Rock
enables it
is labyrinthine.
Down
references to the city that
a
very
coy
the other parks
Rock Creek is for the residents.
approach unless one is aware
it
have
Washington the Mall and
are for the tourists, but
Its topography
Creek
to be
seen, but
of its secrets.
in the
Once inside,
there are
few
is everywhere around you.
The
142
valley
impossible to
gorges are the only real clues
bridges that cross over the
location in the park.
as to your
self-referential.
allows it to be
Rock Creek's topography
There are always places
references back to another piece
outside the park to catch
share the park
The only people who really
of the valley.
are those on the edge, who have visual access.
The park as hide and go seek:
a park with many
Creek Park is
If Rock
island with nothing to hide.
Emerald Necklace is a traffic
The relationship of
the built edge of the
urban garden to
the parks of
Boston is constantly interrupted
of traffic.
The jewels of
the necklace are
necklace from the
Following the
reason that
The
varied.
parks strung
together on a
its
completely
the
is a group
Each
from
the
of the
and elicits
The Fens
apartments
blocks of
so
of neighborhood
buildings around it.
different feel
That is
necklace is
regional system.
and
institutions
Park is
The park to park
own characteristics
has its
response from the
its own
edge of
built
Emerald Necklace
individual parks
with
the
well hidden.
difficult to follow.
linkages by the parkways are
one
by a stream
Fens to Franklin
and go seek.
like playing a game of hide
secrets, the
large single
has
a
family
residences that surround Jamaica Pond.
Going
forward at
Alliance Boston's
similarities for the future
provides some strong potential
urban edge.
strong
In Boston
elements
at the
the individual parks themselves are
neighborhood
elements of regional system.
they
remain a
Emerald Necklace
diverse set
level
but also
as
Even as elements of a system,
of parks
143
that respond
to the
6E NTgfAL AX4
p
(
=MEMNON=ffim
FA4->JAY
ThF, ~~FiHS
4
Figure 61
FA4-Aky
144
most
physical
Creek and Central Park
level, Rock
they
Emerald
same
The
its lack
of
of
Following it is like being on a continual search
cohesion.
for its
definite
vary.
images
because
is remarkable
Necklace
another
At
with
city
how their
of
regardless
boundaries,
the
are successful because
the
in
green
of
swaths
are
Granted they
city.
the
of
economic strata
and
the
section of
cross
show the
and
suburban areas
idea about
downtown to its
of the city from its
reveal the evolution
the
across a region.
diverse spaces
linkage of
embody an
physically
and to
imagination
capture
to
concept
as a
ability
its
is
Necklace
Emerald
of the
The strength
around them.
neighborhoods
They
quality.
neighborhood
parks at Alliance
The
end.
reveal
could
jewels that
have
much the
could have
city,
the
and focus
a place
and
be
beyond
let the inhabitants know that
themselves; this focus would
they are part of something larger.
Parks or parkways?:
are two
There
Washington: think of the
York, Boston, and
and the
Central Park
and bounded.
the parks
looking at
ways of
of New
parks as bound
parks of
the Emerald
Necklace are really just big traffic islands because of the
impact that
streams
of
circulation has on
traffic.
traffic
This
elements that are carved out of
that circumvent
them.
The are
them.
sets
from the
It also creates
outside,
them up
to
but there
a physical barrier
The parks can be
are also
physical
thresholds that separate the pedestrian from the parks.
145
be
the city form by the roads
that separates the people from the parks.
observed
bounded by
The
concept
brings up
of
barriers and
some interesting issues.
the necessary
have to define
parks,
make up
example, what are
Is the
needs to
street and a
row of
trees, and a
wall like
degrees of thresholds that have
the surrounding buildings, opposite the
their
subtle differences
and give
separation
sufficient, like in the Fens, or
The varying
to be crossed from
of
that a park
itself as an element?
need a continuous
Central Park?
For
degrees of separation
sidewalk on the park side
does it
layers
own kind
in the edge
of
Urban Garden.
serve to set up
them a certain visual
approach.
These
the parks
The circulation
around the parks then begins to define and to differentiate
the edge condition.
The relationships of the buildings and
their layers of boundary and the number of thresholds could
be
applied
to Alliance
in
places
where parkways
could
eventually develop.
The opposite image
of the park as an
element that is
defined by a parkway, is the park when it becomes a parkway
like
in Rock
Creek Park.
The parkway
in Rock
Creek is
surrounded by nature to the
extent that it obliterates any
perception of the city.
Rock Creek the park becomes an
enclosing
edge
that
In
defines
the
view
and
makes
the
circulation corridor a unique
experience in urban driving.
It is
from Downtown
Washington to
without seeing a building
or perceiving
almost possible
suburban Maryland
to go
the boundaries of the park.
A combination of the two strategies of circulation can
be used at Alliance.
to
define the
limits
There will
of
be areas that can be used
the parks,
146
and
there will
be
opportunities to surround the parkways in nature to obscure
the limits of the
Both strategies will incorporate
parks.
it like in
the built edge around
different responses from
York and Boston and in Rock
the different responses in New
Creek in Washington.
Going against the grain:
All three of
cities around them, but interesting
been boundaries to the
there are access points in the
things begin to happen when
Paths cut across the
boundary.
the parks
where
grain of the parks provide
of development
the density
timing and
into the
insights
looked at have
the parks that have been
was designed
Central Park
are crossed.
with four major cross town connections at 65th , 81st, 86th
The result was that, the corner edges at
and 97th Streets.
each of
developed first.
these points
islands of development
around them.
the edge formed
before the rest of
most active
of the
still several
They are
became small
They
corners bordering the park.
In
Washington
park crossings
the
the top of the world.
gorges of Rock Creek seem like
sense of luxury that
the viewer the
the
most
The bridges that cross the
spectacular views of the park.
also give
afford
They
comes from
emerging from the city, and suddenly being suspended over a
canopy of nature below, and
the
other side.
Rock Creek Park.
to
where the
become
then of reentering the city on
are reference
The bridges
elements for
They define the inhabitant's relationship
inhabitant is
reference points
like the view from the
in the
that are
city.
At
visible to
times they
each other,
Calvert Street Bridge looking south
147
across the Connecticut Avenue
Bridge, to the Massachusetts
Avenue
Bridge.
become
points
of reference
floor.
From the valley floor there are so few visual clues
The bridges
about the city
when they
even
are seen
more vital
valley
from the
that surrounds the park.
as
The bridges hold
some of the only references to the city beyond the valley's
walls.
It is where the bridges connect with the land that the
most
significant development
park.
across
the park
development.
The
bridges
bordered
are
have
received
area surrounding
Massachusetts
Avenue
Embassy Row,
with the
by
at
Calvert
Bridge
apartments along
the rim
the
the
148
Street
apartments.
reflects
position
its
The
on
the Washington
At Connecticut Avenue and
views
of the
like backdrop to the park below.
intense
and R
P
added attraction of
Street
edge of
the most
the
high-rise
Mosque and apartment buildings.
also
on the
the bridges and other limited
The areas surrounding
points
occurs
of
the
park provide
hotels
and
a postcard
(3)
THE PARKS AS ALLIANCE
Alliance was chosen as the name of the airport because
meaning.
of it
Alliance has a
metaphorical quality about
it that can
carry over into all aspects
the region.
It could be
an alliance of large landholders,
is disparate groups that
basically it
parks,
but
unite behind common
connotation of the alliance can
The
goals and objectives.
even
cities, or
schools,
utilities,
public
of development in
become the basis of a strategy that formulates the creation
of
regional
a
parks
of
system
that
many
transcends
Because of the diverse nature of the
political boundaries.
political interests in the region, it will take an alliance
and maintain these parks
to designate, build,
if they are
things that have been described
to accomplish the range of
in this thesis.
Grass roots parks:
era
Olmsted's
expression of the public will at work.
issue that
become issues
parties.
system
passed without a
One of
around
constituency
Alliance
in each
of
elected
at any
Legislation
Parks
constituency.
a grass
the creation
to
is
develop
a
the neighborhoods,
149
They
the political
that go beyond
to
the keys
the
political boundaries.
transcends
in themselves
on
space are currently
preservation of open
and the
roots
not get
the
In the cases of New
bear
levels.
the appropriate
officials at
level does
to
influence
their
brought
are
there were private champions
York, Boston, and Washington,
who
parks
public
that
proved
of the
park
grass
roots
communities,
school districts, counties, at the
Congress.
effort
state level and then in
Grass roots support takes a tremendous amount of
and time
organize the
to
form opinions
support in
and
a direction
positions and
that can
to
get things
done, but first the seed of the idea has to be planted.
Leadership
places,
and support
like the
Corps of
overseeing the flood
River
Authority
treatment
in
is
responsible
region.
An
stream beds.
make
role in
or the Trinity
for
the
sewage
source
of
whose high tension
with easements at the bases of
great cross
Then there
strange
have a
additional
come from TU Electric
towers which
from some
Engineers who
lines that cross the region
their
come
plains in the region,
which
the
leadership could
can
are the
connections to
obvious open
the
space and
environmental groups who have been active in the region for
years.
The wild card in
community
which
amenities in
is
the past has been the development
working
each of
on
landscape
their separate projects
market is demanding it.
Alliance
all of these groups joined
base in
the
and
because the
would be truly unique if
together behind the common goal
of creating a regional park system.
power
programs
region that
The parks would have a
could
maintain a
highly
visible role in directing development in the area.
Introducing the reigns:
Once this
same
general
grass roots constituency is
direction
there
mechanism at the regional level.
One approach
might be an
has to
be
heading in the
a
controlling
This can take many forms.
elected or appointed
board that
can oversee the development of the park system.
As part of
150
the board's powers, it needs to be enabled to create, fund,
and administer the system.
its fullest
chaos to
board will have to manage
This
Olmsted examples
In the
potential.
the process of park creation and administration was done in
a clearly
of
process
defined
and maintenance.
design, construction,
Unfortunately for
out while he was working on
Olmsted the process was worked
Central Park.
appropriation,
location,
some twenty years later
Boston's experience
provides a good example of how to build a system over time.
Boston knew ultimately what pieces were needed but acquired
designed and
then
in stages,
them
as
the system
built
parcels became available and funds could be appropriated.
have to be included to provide
The one tool that will
an element of control is
the board with
lands in the targeted areas.
district that encompasses the
This
zoning
is
function
This zoning district will have
the parks is to provide
is
private development entirely.
land
flood plain
lies in
lands will provide another
areas
that are
which
will
responsibly.
allow
Parks
exclusive elements.
land anyway,
for
and
control of
these
layer enforcement to insure the
Regional parks target the
retained in
to be
exclude
to
Because much of the targeted
system.
success of the regional
not
quality,
a higher
of
natural systems at
sure that the development that
the regional scale, to make
there
the
development along the park's edge.
to oversee and plan for
occurs
in
element
important
an
region's development plans.
The purpose of
an overlay zoning
other
states,
their natural
areas
development
to
be
developed
are
not
mutually
They serve to enrich the other.
151
Buying the necklace:
At Alliance there
that
goes beyond
Boston
had
will have to be
the
to
challenge of
endure.
constraints of most local,
funds for park
parcel assembly
light
of
the
matching funds.
of money or
The
budgetary
in the form
land that is
leveraged by
real point should be that
of the
eventual build
system that will guide the
that
state, and federal governments,
appropriation will probably be
private donations,
common vision
In
an additional step
process.
adapt itself to the realities
out of
there is a
the regional
The process will then
of little or no budget.
idea is to see the necklace,and
The
then to acquire it a pearl
at a time.
Developing a regional park system one parcel at a time
will require
a different
maintenance of the
donated
or acquired
or an
state,
adjacent user
will evolve on
is
parks.
attitude towards the
To begin with the
will have
arrangement will
to remain
have to
for its maintenance.
a case by case
for the developer who
land that is
in its
be made
Much
basis.
design and
natural
with the
of this strategy
Another alternative
will eventually build adjacent to
the park, to work within a set of design guidelines similar
to those suggested in "The
the
developer ties
would be
it.
inclined to
Instead
amenity
an preexisting
landscaping
the
and
for
the level
of
be applied
value.
public-private
152
he
market dictates
money could
system creating double the
opportunity
amenity that
provide because the
being piecemeal,
the regional
this
of the
into
Parks as Boundary." In this way
the
to
To create
sharing
of
that
insure
have
would
authority
built
edge is
the
ability
the
developers and adjacent landholders
the
of
outcome
built
be established
out
properly.
The
to
negotiate
with
to determine the final
authority
This
edge.
the
of
and construction
parks development authority could
parks, a
to
maintenance
for
responsibility
would
be
directly responsible to the regional board.
A pearl at a time:
that differs from the
the pearls analogy
parks can vary
that the
along the route.
The beauty of
a piece at a time.
assembling the necklace
pearls is
be accomplished by
of the parks will
The acquisition
There will
image of matched
and dimension
in size
be times when owners will not
want to give up their land, but they will grant an easement
The important aspect
to in order to continue the corridor.
to keep in mind is that all the pieces, regardless of their
shape,
in creating
important
are
Each
importance.
easement, or
the linkages in
one of
of land
a parcel
something
step closer to completion.
brings the
of
the form
greater
of an
system another
This method of acquisition will
be drawn out but will continue to expand the imagability of
the
parks as
as a
natural valley
the flood plain areas, as
well as parks,
a whole.
storage area for
By doubling
these areas take on purpose beyond public recreation areas.
Not a matched set:
Another part of
along the
the strategy will be
necklace can
sections that
have varying
uses.
remain in cultivation; there
that the spaces
There
can be
could be areas
that are turned into environmental exhibits; there could be
153
areas for plane watching Alliance
of the runway at National
like the park at the end
Airport in Washington; and still
others that are
actively forested to generate
for the system.
Other pieces could be temporary exhibition
areas for events
For
the
parks
like World's Fairs or
to
extremely flexible
be
successful
a cash flow
the Olympic Games.
the
process
and the interpretation of
must
be
the park has
to be broadened to encompass a wide range of uses which are
dynamic, not static in their nature.
Olmsted would have expanded
use of
the parks
pragmatist as well
project goals
his interpretation of the
because he was
a manager
as a designer.
He
understood what his
were and was politically
sure that he accomplished
them.
and political
astute enough make
Olmsted was interested in
social interaction by all classes of people, and parks were
the places that he favored for the purpose.
mall culture of today
more and
become
parks.
scale,
and the continual suburbanization of
more rural area,
more
tolerant of
Olmsted also
but never
accessibility
of
on
the
Olmsted would have
placing
worked on
a
built
car.
The
had
154
are large
to confront
trolleys
his
in
the
transformed
and he adjusted to it, as
adjusted his thinking about
relationship to the automobile.
changed and
elements in
parks that
scale that
Olmsted's world in his lifetime,
he would have
Faced with the
parks and their
155
156
CONCLUSION
The process of thinking about
exact science.
Great cities are not recipes to be repeated
In the same way that the foot print
with the same results.
of
the
yield
not
site will
a
same building
two
with
Their
the same.
are never
architects, cities
different
city building is not an
fascination is the fact that they are each unique, and that
they
differences at
have common
Boston,
and Washington
differences
their
when
parks was examined.
The
the Emerald Necklace
have
north Texas,
plains of
any of
never duplicate
The greatest goal
because
of its
quality
of
qualities
its
are
differences between Central Park,
and their cities
but this city
the three
apply on
to
of information
originality
this thesis.
cities of
and innovation,
and places.
to
attributable
If
elements
be held up
and for
some
of
garnered
Olmsted's parks then this thesis has been worthwhile.
157
the
plains will
on the
that Alliance can have is to
people
Olmsted
their
relationship with
and Rock Creek Park
wealth
provided a
common
revealed their
each
have
New York,
every level.
the
those
from
158
FOOTNOTES
INTRODUCTION
(1) Roper, Laura Wood. FLO: A Biography of Frederick Law
Olmsted. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973
(Synthesis of Roper)
CHAPTER I:
(1)
ALLIANCE AND THE URBAN CONDITIONS
Interviews with F.
M. Carroll ASLA,
Albert Haalf
Engineers and Planners.
(2) Interview with Lynn Lovell, P.E., Albert Haalf
Engineers and Planners.
(3) Schuyler, David. The New Urban Landscape: The Redefinition
of City Form in Nineteenth- Century America. Baltimore and
London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986, p. 4
CHAPTER II: URBAN METAPHORS:
THE URBAN GARDEN
(1) Interviews with Elizabeth Meyer, Associate Professor,
Landscape Architecture, Graduate School of Design, Harvard
University.
(2) Ibid.
Cary-Cortona: A New Town as a
(3) Manning, Isaac H..
Master's
Development Model for the Research Triangle.
(Cary-Cortona was
Thesis. Blacksburg, Va: VPI&SU, 1985.
the project where the urban conditions were developed.)
CHAPTER III:
(1)
Roper,
Olmsted.
OLMSTED AND THE URBAN GARDEN
FLO: A Biography of Frederick Law
Laura Wood.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973
The
New Urban Landscape: The
(2) Schuyler, David.
Redefinition of City Form in Nineteenth- Century America.
Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986,
p. 5
(3) Cranz, Galen.
of Urban
Parks in
1982, p.
29
(4) Ibid., p.
The Politics
America.
of Park Design: A History
Cambridge,
Mass.:
MIT Press,
29-30.
(5) Photographs: Museum of the City of New York
(6) Zaitzevsky, Cynthia. Frederick Law Olmsted and the
Boston Park System. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1982
159
(7) Bushong, William. Historic Resources Study of Rock
Creek Park, District of Columbia. Denver: National Parks
Service, Denver Service Center, 1989 pp. 29-71.
(8)
Ibid.,
pp.
29-71.
(9) Schuyler, David.
The
New Urban Landscape: The
Redefinition of City Form in Nineteenth- Century America.
Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986,
p. 16.
Streetcar Suburbs: The
(10) Warner, Sam Bass, Jr..
New York:
Growth in Boston, 1870-1900.
Process of
Atheneum, 1969, pp. 37-43
Washington at Home: An
( 11) Smith, Kathryn Schneider ed..
Illustrated History of the Neighborhoods in the Nation's
Northridge, California: Windsor Publications,
Capital.
1988, pp. 11-12.
Frontier: The
Crabgrass
Kenneth T..
(12) Jackson,
Suburbanization of the United States. New York, Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1985, pp., 20-44
CHAPTER IV: THE PARKS AND THEIR CITIES
The
New Urban Landscape: The
(1) Schuyler, David.
Redefinition of City Form in Nineteenth- Century America.
Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986,
pp., 66-67.
(2) Ibid., p 93.
(3) Ibid.
(4) Ibid., p.
79.
(5) Ibid., p.
80.
(6) Cranz, Galen. The Politics of Park Design: A History
of Urban Parks in America. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press,
1982, p. 30.
(7) Ibid., p.
31.
(8) Schuyler, The New Urban Landscape, p.
81.
(9) Ibid.
(10) Ibid., p.
85.
(11) Zaitzevsky, Cynthia. Frederick Law Olmsted and the
Boston Park System. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1982,
p. 37.
(12) Ibid., p.
(13) Ibid., pp.
42.
43-47.
160
(14) Ibid., p.
54.
(15)
Ibid.,
pp.
(16)
Ibid.,
p.
63.
(17)
Ibid.,
p.
64.
(18)
Ibid.,
P.
66.
(19) Ibid., pp.
55-56.
93-94.
(20) Bushong, William. Historic Resources Study of Rock
Creek Park, District of Columbia. Denver: National Parks
Service, Denver Service Center, 1989, p. 83.
(21)
Ibid.,
p.
(22)
Ibid.,
p.
84.
85.
(23) Ibid., p. 86.
(24) Ibid., pp 86-90.
(25)
Ibid.,
p.
90.
(26)
Ibid.,
p.
92.
(27)
Ibid.,
p.
50-72.
(28)
Ibid.,
87.
(29)
Ibid.,
97.
(30)
Ibid.
(31)
Ibid.,
98.
(32)
Ibid.,
105.
(33)
Ibid.,
106.
(34)
Ibid.,
121.
CHAPTER V: THE WALLS OF THE URBAN GARDEN
(1) Gladstone,
Harmon H. and Dalrymple, Martha. History
Preserved: A Guide to New York City Landmarks and Historic
and Schuster, 1974, pp.
New York: Simon
Districts.
244-245
Frontier:
The
(2)
Jackson,
Kenneth
T. Crabgrass
Suburbanization of the United States. New York, Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1985, p. 18
161
(3) Trager, James. West of Fifth: The Rise and Fall of
Manhattan's West Side. New York: Atheneum, 1987, p.
9
(4) Ibid., p.
10.
(5) Ibid.
(6) Ibid., p.
11.
(7) Ibid., p.
13.
(8) Ibid., p.
16.
(9) Ibid., p.
17.
(10) Ibid., p.
23.
(11) Ibid.
(12) Ibid., p.
39.
(13) Ibid.
(14) Ibid., p.
61.
(15) Ibid.
(16) Ibid., p.
67.
(17) Ibid.
(18) Ibid., p.
70.
(19) Ibid., p.
75.
(20) Ibid., p.
81.
(21) Ibid., p.
87.
(22) Warner, Sam Bass, Jr..
Streetcar Suburbs:
Process of
Growth in Boston, 1870-1900.
New
Atheneum, 1969, p.
17.
The
York:
Whitehill, Walter Muir.
(23)
Boston:
A Topographical
History.
Second Edition.
Cambridge and London:
The
Belknap
Press of Harvard University
Press,
1968,
pp.
153-154.
(24) Warner, Streetcar Suburbs, p.
(25) Ibid., p.
39.
(26) Ibid., p.
158.
(27) Ibid., p.
39.
(28) Ibid., p.
158.
162
37.
(29) Gutheim, Frederick. Worthy of a Nation.
107.
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1977, p.
Washington:
Washington at Home: An
(30) Smith, Kathryn Schneider ed..
Illustrated History of the Neighborhoods in the Nation's
Windsor Publications,
Northridge, California:
Capital.
184.
1988, p.
(31) Ibid.,
pp.
(32) Ibid.,
p.
132, 111, 183, 230.
194.
(33) Gutheim, Worthy of a Nation, p.
163
109
164
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1. Map of Alliance
is 3.1 miles on each side.
region with grid imposed.
Grid
Map of New York City with the grid overlaid.
Figure 2.
The grid is 3.12 miles per side. Passoneau, Joseph R..
Cambridge, Mass: MIT
Urban Atlas: 20 American Cities.
Press, 1966.
Figure 3. Map of Boston with grid overlaid. Ibid.
Figure 4. Map of Washington, D.C. with grid overlaid.
Ibid.
Figure 5. Map of Alliance and surrounding parcels with grid
overlaid to provide a sense of the scale at Alliance.
Figure 6. Map of Alliance region with flood plain/park
areas in black.
Figure 7. Alliance Airport Development Plan.
Figure 8. Aerial view of Alliance from the South.
Figure 9. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex showing Alliance
region parcels.
Figure 10. Alliance from the future SH 170 interchange at
1-35.
Figure 11. Alliance Region Parcel Map.
Figure 12.
Parcel 1, Park Glen Aerial.
Figure 13.
Parcel 2, Hillwood Aerial.
Figure 14.
Parcel 3 and 4, SH
170 and Alliance Aerial.
Alliance was still under construction when this aerial was
taken.
Alliance opened for air traffic on December 15,
1989.
Figure 15. Parcel 5, East Justin Aerial.
Figure 16. Parcel 6, West Justin Aerial.
Figure 17. Parcel 7, McHutcheon Ranch Aerial
Figure 18. Alliance Region School Districts
Figure 19. Alliance Region Flood Plain Area
Figure 20. Diagram showing the conditions of being bound
and bounded.
Figure 21.
Top sketch is of a typical figure-ground
diagram showing only the buildings in black and the streets
165
and other non-building areas as white.
The lower drawing
shows the grey areas of the urban conditions.
Figure 22.
(top) Urban Theatre: the left side shows the
typical downtown streetscape with the building coming right
to the edge of the sidewalk, the right side shows the
introduction of
the arcade
as a
unifying element.
(Bottom)Urban Wall: the sketch on the left shows the
transitions in the North End, and the right contrasts the
transition elements in the Back Bay.
Figure 23. Edges of the Urban Garden.
Figure 24.
Commissioner's Plan of Manhattan 1811.Stokes,
I.N.
Phelps.
The Iconography of
Manhattan Island:
1498-1909, Volume 1.
New York: Arno Press, 1967 Plate 79
Map of the City of New York, 1811
Figure 25.
Colton's Map of Boston 1855.
Zaitzevsky,
Cynthia. Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System.
Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1982, p. 12.
Figure 26. L'Enfant Plan c 1791.
Caemmerer, Paul H.,
Ph.D.
A
Manual on
the Origin and
Development of
Washington.
Washington, D.C.: United States Government
Printing Office, 1939, p. 26.
Figure 27. Newspaper clipping of Central Park and Jones
Park. Pre-1870, Found in the clippings file on Central Park
from the Prints and Photographs Collection, Museum of the
City of New York.
Figure 28. Central Park Precinct Community Council Map of
Central Park.
Figure 29.
Boston Park Commissioner's Plan of future
parks, 1876.
Zaitzevsky, Cynthia. Frederick Law Olmsted
and the Boston Park System.
Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap
Press, 1982, p. 45.
Figure 30. Boston Park System Map showing the Fens to
Franklin Park. Creese, Walter L..
The Crowning of the
American Landscape: Eight Great Spaces and Their Buildings.
Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press , 1985,
p. 176. "The Chain of Parks, Including the Fens, Jamaica
Pond, the Harvard Aboretum, and Franklin Park, Connected by
Arborways as of 1894."
Figure 31. Washington, D.C. at the end of the Civil War.
Smith, Kathryn Schneider ed..
Washington at Home: An
Illustrated History of the Neighborhoods in the Nation's
Capital.
Northridge, California: Windsor Publications,
1988, p. 219.
Figure 32. Map of Rock Creek Park 1933. Caemmerer, Paul
H.,
Ph.D.
A Manual on the Origin and Development of
Washington.
Washington, D.C.: United States Government
Printing Office, 1939 p. 158.
166
Figure 33. New York, Passoneau, Urban Atlas.
Plate 173 "Upper Fifth Avenue, 1893. Halfway
Figure 34.
between Mount Morris Park and Central is this rocky
landscape onto which squatter's shacks seemed dropped as
Old New York in
haphazardly as the stone." Black, Mary ed.
Early Photographs:1853-1901, 196 Prints from the Collection
New York: Dover
of the New York Historical Society.
Publications, Inc., 1973, p. 203.
Figure 35.
Looking west
reservoir in
Jacob Rupert
structure in
into lots on
198.
Figure 36.
Atlas.
Plate 168 "Up in Central Park, c 1880.
Street and Park Avenue, the
from 95th
Central Park appears in the background. The
house is shown at the left, the major
an essentially rural area formerly divided
which small farms were operated." Ibid., p.
New York
and Central Park.
Passoneau, Urban
"Looking south from the Dakota
Plate 420.
Figure 37.
across shanties mainly occupied by Irish squatters, c
New York Photographs 1850-1950.
Blom, Benjamin.
1890."
New York: E. P. Dutton Inc., 1982, p. 243.
"photograph taken from the Plaza
Plate 353.
Figure 38.
Hotel. The Savoy Hotel at center; the Netherlands Hotel;
and the Metropolitan Club at the northeast corner of 60th
St., c 1902." Ibid., p. 216.
"Fifth Avenue view from Sixty-fifth Street"
Figure 39.
History
and Dalrymple, Martha.
Gladstone, Harmon H.
Preserved: A Guide to New York City Landmarks and Historic
Districts. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974, p. 311.
Figure 40. Plate 404. "Columbus Circle 58th to 60th Sts,
at
the junction of Broadway and Central Park West. Looking
Blom, New York
c 1906."
north along Central Park West,
Photographs, p. 236.
Figure 41. Plate 405. "Columbus Circle: Looking north
along Broadway(left) and Central Park West(right), 1912."
Ibid., p. 236.
"The Beresford, northwest corner
Plate 421.
Figure 42.
243.
of Central Park West and 81st St, 1920's." Ibid., p.
Figure 43. Plate 430. "Looking north from 62nd St, late
Apartment buildings dominate the Avenue." Ibid.,
1920's.
p. 249
"Aerial view
Plate 393.
Figure 44.
and Sixth Avenue looking northeast,
234.
167
from west 55th St.
1940's." Ibid., p.
Figure 45.
Plate 392. "Filling in the reservoir(now the
great lawn area)between 79th and 86th Sts. Aerial view from
Central Park West looking southeast, with Metropolitan
Museum at left center, 1931." Ibid.
Figure 46.
Map of Boston.
Figure 47. Map
Necklace. Ibid.
Passoneau.
of Boston
and the
Urban Atlas.
parks of
the Emerald
Figure 48.
Growth Diagram.
Warner, Sam
Streetcar Suburbs: The Process
of Growth
1870-1900. New York: Atheneum, 1969, p. 36.
Bass, Jr..
in Boston,
Figure 49, "Fens before construction, from Parker Hill in
Roxbury. Zaitzevsky, FLO and the Boston Park System, p.
185.
Figure 50.
"
Figure 51.
The Fens in 1990.
Figure 52.
Map of Washington.
Figure 53.
Map of Washington and Rock Creek.
The Fens From Parker Hill, 1910." Ibid.
Passoneau, Urban Atlas
Ibid.
Figure 54.
"Renowned railroad bridge architect George S.
Morrison designed the massive concrete arches of the Taft
Bridge, constructed in 1907 to carry Connecticut Avenue
across Rock Creek. Smith, Washington at Home, p. 185.
Figure 55.
"The Chevy Chase trolley rounds
Chevy Chase Circle and passes Western Avenue
south to Washington, 1913." Ibid., p. 201.
the treeless
on its route
Figure 56. "Sheridan Circle:
The Kalorama neighborhood is
to the right of Massachusetts Avenue. Cameron, Robert.
Above Washington.
San Francisco, California:
Cameron and
Company , 1980, p.
86.
Figure 57. c 1934 "At the lower left is the construction
site for National Airport. At this great height we see the
Y formed by the Potomac and the Anacostia in the fork of
which the city is shaped. 16th Streeet is visible to the
D.C. line. In the V formed by 16th Street and Connecticut
Avenue, Rock Creek stretches into Maryland." Ibid., p.
80.
Figure 58.
Alliance Region Parks.
Figure 59.
Alliance Region Flood Plains Areas and parcels.
Figure 60. Diagram of the Dallas Skyline from Dallas-Fort
Worth Airport showing
the three separate development
centers.
Figure 61.
Diagram of
their parkways.
the relationship
168
of the
parks to
16 ;
170
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