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Thursday, April 21, 2011

On Flowering Trees and The Olmstead Legacy

In Bloom
Photo by myself at 59th Street and Central Park South.

It was slightly misty, Wednesday morning. The tops of tall buildings in seemed to disappear into nothingness.

Flowering trees are planted at this rotary, near the Plaza Hotel. Behind me and to the right, is Central Park.

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Wednesday night, I came home late from work. Mark was watching a new documentary about Fredrick Law Olmstead.

The Olmstead Legacy tells the story of America's greatest landscape designer and his impact on America's cities.

I only got to catch the last 15 minutes of the 1-hour documentary, but the message was clear: survival was tough 150 years ago, Olmstead was a workaholic and he was a passionate landscape architect. In all, Olmstead's office completed over 500 projects.

It was nice to hear that Olmstead considered Prospect Park, in Brooklyn, his finest park (!). The Long Meadow in Prospect Park is also the longest unbroken green stretch in any American park. It is almost a mile long.

I learned a bunch during what little I saw of the documentary, which was done in the style of Ken Burns. I'm not sure how long this will be available, but you can actually watch the entire film on the Channel 13 site here.

For more about the The Olmstead Legacy, click here.
For the Times review, click here.

Related posts: All Abloom, in Battery Park, Off in the Distance, 59th Street and On Blooming Trees and New York Apps.


9 comments:

Olivier said...

magnifique ces arbres en ouverture de central park

Anonymous said...

beautiful, magnificent

Gerald (SK14) said...

What a gorgeous tree - and I couldn't help but notice a landau to the right - would love to ride in one again.

Joanne said...

Fabulous trees, perfect light!

dianasfaria.com said...

I never heard of this man before & then, including here, I read about him twice within the last 24 hours. Interesting how life works.
I can't wait to check out his documentary.
Great shot of Spring Kitty!

Kitty said...

Thanks everyone!

Moinak Dutta said...

wow! i like the trees at the back...

Christina said...

Sorry to say that every last one of these gorgeous pears on Grand Army Plaza were shattered in the freak October 29 snow storm that hit NYC, and they have all been cut down.

The Horse and Carriage Association of New York City has offered to help the Central Park Conservancy replace these particular trees with mature shade trees.

Kitty said...

Hi Christina,
Yes I know. It is horrible to walk there and find no trees at all. The area looks barren.

I was wondering whether they were salvagable but I suppose not, from your comment. What a loss!