Transcripts For CSPAN2 Hugh 20240704 : vimarsana.com

CSPAN2 Hugh July 4, 2024

Support our nonprofit operations. Shop now or anytime at cspan shop. Org. Welcome everyone to the fifth installment of her conversation with olmsted series i presidency of the National Association for olmsted parks, the managing partner of the olmsted 220 tempe. We have at last arrived 2022, failure of olmsted, and we invite everyone from coast to coast to participate in a vast array of programs, coverages, tours, and more around the country. Tplease visit olmsted 200. Org o learn more. Today going to start a mr. Olmsteds neighborhood, the community of brookline, massachusetts, somewhere neighborhoods hold a unique place in history because they were held to an extraordinary confluence of talented individuals. And that is surely the case in the green home neighborhood in massachusetts to Frederick Law Olmsted and Rick Richardson and Charles Sprague sargent and others worked in close proximity shaping 19th and early 20th century architecture and Landscape Design in ways that continue to reverberate today. Thats why the National Association for olmsted parks and other organizations across the country fought hard to oppose proposed plans that surfaced in 2020 to destroy henry hobson richardsons home and properties associated with john charles olmsted, the stepson of Frederick Law Olmsted and partner in the olmsted firm. And as we start the new year i have good news. We are grateful to the brookline preservation commission, brookline preservation staff come Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic site, friends of fairsted, richardson and olmsted scholars, and many others who advocated for the preservation of the Richardson House and to properties associated with john charles, tickle thanks to the brookline town meeting which has approved the creation of a local Historic District that will help preserve these Important Properties for posterity. Having said that, our goal today is not to focus on brookline, the we could surely do so. Our goal today is to take this remarkable neighborhood and the collaboration it engendered as a jumping off point. What can we learn from these collaborations . At a time when america was rapidly turning into an urban and industrial society, they reimagine public spaces this seems a particularly timely examination and we find ourselves today engaged in an important a continuing conversation about public spaces and about equitable access to green and open spaces for all americans. What can we learn from the work of these individuals over 100 years ago . We founds these issues four extraordinary individuals who will explore these ideas this afternoon after conversation with them we will take questions from the audience, please let us know where youre from in the chat box, but submit any questions you have through the q a box. We will answer as many audience questions as possible and and our program and in our. With that let me introduce our panelist or our moderator keith morgan isct Professor Emeritus f history of art and architecture Boston University where he taught from 19802016. Keefe served as a directorng preservation studies, the director of american in intermingled studies in the treatment of the art history department. His books include community by design, the olmsted firm and development of brookline, massachusetts. Rosetta elkin is aso Research Associate at the Harvard University as well as associate professor at mcgill university. Rosetta is a designer and scholar focusing on how societies represent respect and cultivate the earth she was the recipient of the garden club of america prize fellowship in 2017. Hugh howard is author of more than 20 acclaimed books about architecture and landscape, president s and paintings. His newest his newest book is out today, architects of an american landscape, which explores Frederick Law Olmsted and henry hobson richardson. Are a way to get right now and i highly recommend it. And we are pleased to dan marriott associate professor of Landscape Architecture at penn state. Dan is a licensed landscapend architect and principal and founder of Paul Daniel Marriott and associates at the intersection of landscape transportation, preservation and planning. Dan is also a member of the board of the National Association for olmsted parks. I will turn over to you and let you set the stage but thanks to one and all. W thank you, dd, and welcome to give everyone. My task this afternoon is to facilitate a conversation between three specialists that will look at liberals the three leading figures in the design field in the 1880s who happened to be living next door to each other in brookline, massachusetts, the Real Estate Investment the roles they played in reimagine the landscape and other examples could be brought forward for contemporary problems. Could have the first slide please . Critical homestead that e on the left hand side of this trinity is somebody im sure its well known to everyone in the audience the man who defined the field of Landscape Architecture in the United States in the second half of the 19th century in the middle dressed in monks robe to contain is enormous girth is the architect henry Hudson Richardson who in the same years came to dominate the practice of architecture in the United States until his death in 1886 and finally on the right charles springs sergeant a man who became the nations leading authority on north american trees these all three came to live in the green hill neighborhood of brookline if i get out the next slide, please where they were jason to each other at a walking distance. That meant that goes great interaction between the three this was an elite area of bostons most affluent. Suburb sergeant who grew up in this neighborhood in 150 acre estate called home leah the consumes much of the bottom of this map was appointed in 1872 the director of the harvard Botanical Garden and the following year became the director of the new Arnold Arboretum a Research Center of Harvard University. That was also an early component of the boston park system designed by olmsted with the assistance occasionally of richardson as well richardson and olmstead who live on the periphery of the home lee a property richardson to the left and umstead of above. Um, were both friends from the 1850s where they were neighbors in staten island, long island and freaking collaborators thereafter. When opportunities in boston came their way they began to relocate first richardson in 1874 and then richards and then olmsted in 1883 to suburban brookline where they opened offices as act junks other suburban residences all three of these were nationally important sites from which major decisions were made and now we want to focus less on what happened in the 1880s in brookline, but bring it forward to learn what their innovative and radical solutions couldnt pose as examples for the problems of our own days. So ill turn to our panelists with a general question to begin with here. We are in 2022 the 200th anniversary of homesteads birth honoring olmsted legacy. How did you get interested in olmsted . Why do you think the work of homestead in his colleagues matter today and perhaps of member of the naop board we should turn to dan first. So keith. Thank you very much for the introduction of a pleasure a pleasure to represent the nao people board in addition to deedee didi mentioned at the start of this the idea of this this confluence in this neighborhood in brookline and what drew me to olmsted in my career and this whole period of history is this idea of confluence connection collaboration, and i think this is an extraordinally important thing to keep in mind as we begin this conversation today is whats happening among these people and the energy interdisciplinary relationships that they have with one another. This is a rich period in American History with the version of opinions ideas and talents coming together to problem solve in a large way first slide, please this is an image of Mount Auburn Cemetery in cambridge, massachusetts. Many of you probably know this is a great historic landscape. This is also result of Public Health removing Burial Grounds from city centers and looking at the idea of Burial Ground being a park a snake place to go touring and as an arboretum, so these idea of multipurposis coming together and solving problems next slide, please. Its easy to look back on these gaussy level images of the past where that current one of today and forget about the fact that these gentlemen this period the population were up against tremendous challenges because of technology. This is hydraulic mining during the California Gold wash now your typical image of the the minor pain for gold and a clear stream massive environmental destruction. Right after that next slide, please. The American Civil War the first modern war were we realized we were truly capable of destroying the environment in our landscape. Next slide please. So to me, its all the more remarkable that these individuals are thinking and planning big ideas. Connecting parks such as we see as one of the brooklyn parkways. Also, this is multimodal. Horseback riding carriage riding bicycling promenade. Theyre thinking ahead globally for all populations and connecting ecosystems through larger Green Corridors next slide, please. We see this even greater with copelands vision for boston and look at the big ideas here taking parts of the existing city of boston and returning them to green space and connecting everything by these leafy Green Corridors. Its a magnificent broad longrange futuristic vision of what boston could be now a lot of this never happened, but nevertheless have planted the ideas next slide, please. But you see later a regional plan by the end of the century for boston with Charles Elliott leading the call for this the bits and green are existing parks. The orange are proposed parklands. Now if you look at the end said i have on the right you can see the emerald necklace a tiny tiny part of this grand vision. Now this predates the automobile this predates much of what areas people never considered be developed, but this is idea of the future thinking out hundreds of years in advance and planning for the ecology for Public Health. For Public Engagement for civic space and last slide, please. This is the infrastructure connecting this all through this massive investment and land and talent and people and today well be looking at through these very very talented individuals and how these intersections came together in brookline in this area and globally so im very pleased to be here and look forward to the conversation. You may pass the baton to you next to respond to that same question. Yes. Well truthfully i came to write about olmsted. Im kind of through the back door in that. I proposed to write a book about henry hobson richardson. Who was from my money one of the three most important american architects up there with right and jefferson. In fact, right . Who was a man very close to credit anybody else with anything that he did really in my richardson and did did credit him from time to time in any case i pitched the idea for this book to my editor and he said well, thats fine. You may want to resurrect richard. Its a reputation, but if nobody knows who we is then whos going to buy your book . At which point i did much for other research and discovered that he richardson was very close fan friends was a very close collaborator and i think they were kind of mutual inspirations for one another with frederick law olmstead, so i ended up deciding to write a dual biography, which ive done. The second question is you know, what was does olmsted matter today . And i can certainly stipulate that olmsted does matter as a long time new yorker. I know central park pretty well from previous books and research i know newest civil war writings, but in writing this book i came across any number of things. I didnt know about him and learned about the breadth of his vision. He designed suburban streets before we really knew we had suburbs before they really evolved into what we know them today. He helped save yosemite and niagara his very career was, you know significant as a sociologist as as a visionary something of a genius and shaping the city for as a democratic place forever. And rosata, can we ask you finally do respond to that as well . Sure. Well, ill ill sidestep the first question because its just no exaggeration to say that every Landscape Architect knows of Frederick Law Olmsted and its hard to pinpoint when one finds out having grown up in montreal with the montreal mountain and then visited a great deal very often new york and seeing central park because my mother is from there. I sort of grew up with olmsted in the dna of all city making but in terms of the second point. That you make or you know to speak of of the future in in terms of what olmsted was able to achieve in. His time is to understand how remarkable he was a cultivating relationships and thats not just with relationships with other individuals like sergeant but also relationships with the Natural World that he was then able to somehow embody and reproduce in a really meaningful way for a much larger public. He did so as a true visionary and i i can only say that i think still think despite having grown up next to a couple of his very well known public spaces that there are Arnold Arboretum one of the jewels in the emerald necklace remains of his most i suppose a formative landscapes for me both because it represents that health and wellbeing that dan was referring to as well as an incredible relationship both with sergeant one that i think most of the audience members know about but we can touch on later but also with the city of boston and Harvard University. Those are some hard relationships to negotiate right for those of you that dont know in 1882 the Arnold Arboretum and the city of boston reached an agreement on this kind of very unique Public Private collaboration. Harvard university donated the land of the arboretum um, the director ned always makes a joke. So ill just echo ned and say its the probably the first and last time harvard ever gave anything away in any case harvard donated the land to the city to have an incorporated into the developing boston park system and to open for the public. For public enjoyment and for education to make education public and in turn the city least the land back to the arboretum for the purposes of research and education and committed itself. To managing for public use the grounds through construction and maintenance of roads walls fences gates and to some extent sufficient security and its probably less known to many of our guests that the Arnold Arboretum doesnt receive funding of any kind from Harvard University. So the the fact that you know since this inception of an incredibly unique space, you know having you know 188 1879 or so was the original design all the way up until 2022 is truly a testament to the to that Relationship Building that homestead and sergeant developed. Thank you. Rosanna penn. I returned to hugh then and ask you to tell us how olmsted and richardson reimagine public spaces and what we can learn from them today using whatever example is appropriate. Im gonna take us to shovel town like you might call it the city of its a small city of northeastern, massachusetts when olmstead of richardson got engaged there. It was the the place where most of the shovels use in the world were manufactured. It was a mill town and the downtown look like just what was a great big. Eight place with workers housing and mill buildings and dead end streets a place that had evolved. Very randomly over a period of decades as the business had exploded. But the family that own those buildings that owned the factory their name is ames a m e s they decided to create a new town center. That was less Higgly Piggly and they hired olmsted and richardson to go about doing that. Lets go the slide here slide number one if you would place and i think the town hall is the place to start and this image in a sense almost tells the story by itself. The lighter pencil lines you see on here are the work of a draftsman and henry hobson richardsons architecture offices and you can see the building thats in there has a tower it has an arcade with low arches, you know, very typical of richardsons romanesque style. Which what would she became famous . Um, but literally this very drawing this piece of paper was handed to frederick law olstead after richardson decided what the building ought to look like in all of that olmstead could it into the landscape. And so the darker lines that you see on here, which i think are brown ink of some sort scholars believe and i occur. Were almost certainly the work of olmsteads own hand. As he decided how this building ought to si

© 2025 Vimarsana