#385 Frederick Law Olmsted and the Plan for Central Park

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Places & Travel

4.8 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2022

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Frederick Law Olmsted, America's preeminent landscape architect of the 19th century, designed dozens of parks, parkways and college campuses across the country. With Calvert Vaux, he created two of New York City's greatest parks -- Central Park and Prospect Park. Yet before Central Park, he had never worked on any significant landscape project and he wasn't formally trained in any kind of architecture.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The following show would sound better from inside a public park because today we are celebrating
0:08.7	the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, America's most influential landscape
0:16.1	architect.
0:17.1	Responsible for parks, parkways, and campuses across the country, from Brooklyn to Buffalo,
0:23.7	Chicago to Palo Alto.
0:26.3	He shaped the American landscape for public use by respecting and conforming to the ideals
0:32.5	of natural beauty.
0:34.3	Even when, in reality, they were being carefully manipulated by human imagination.
0:40.3	But today's story isn't of a great man at the height of his powers.
0:44.7	This is the origin story of Olmsted, at the start of his great career.
0:49.6	A man who had never managed more than a simple farm before developing what would become
0:55.0	the most influential park project in American history.
0:59.3	This is the story of the man who built a park and the park that made the man.
1:06.7	The Barry Boy's episode 385, Young Olmsted, and the plan for Central Park.
1:12.6	Hey, it's the Barry Boy's.
1:14.6	Hi there, welcome to the Barry Boy's.
1:31.2	This is Greg Young.
1:32.2	I'm alone again, but Tom will be back on the show for the next episode, where we'll be embarking
1:39.1	on another history road trip to a region outside the city limits.
1:44.6	In which direction do you think we'll go this year?
1:47.3	Upstate, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, tune in next episode and find out.
1:53.5	But for today, it's all about Frederick Law Olmsted.
	...

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