Community by design : the Olmsted firm and the development of Brookline, Massachusetts / Keith N. Morgan, Elizabeth Hope Cushing, Roger G. Reed.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Morgan, Keith N., author.

Cushing, Elizabeth Hope, 1945- author.

Reed, Roger G., 1950- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Olmsted, Frederick Law, 1822-1903--Friends and associates.

Olmsted, Frederick Law.

City planning--Massachusetts--Brookline--History.

City planning.

Brookline (Mass.)--Buildings, structures, etc.

Brookline (Mass.).

Brookline (Mass.)--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (322 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amherst, [Massachusetts] ; Boston, [Massachusetts] : University of Massachusetts Press Amherst and Boston : in association with Library of American Landscape History, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In 1883, Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. moved from New York City to Brookline, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb that annointed itself the "richest town in the world." For the next half century, until his son Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. relocated to California in 1936, the Olmsted firm received over 150 local commissions, serving as the dominant force in the planned development of this community. From Fairsted, the Olmsteds' Brookline home and office, the firm collaborated with an impressive galaxy of suburban neighbors who were among the regional and national leaders in the fields of architecture and horticulture, among them Henry Hobson Richardson and Charles Sprague Sargent. Through plans for boulevards and parkways, residential subdivisions, institutional commissions, and private gardens, the Olmsted firm carefully guided the development of the town, as they designed cities and suburbs across America. While Olmsted Sr. used landscape architecture as his vehicle for development, his son and namesake saw Brookline as grounds for experiment in the new profession of city and regional planning, a field that he was helping to define and lead. Little has been published on the importance of Brookline as a laboratory and model for the Olmsted firm's work. This beautifully illustrated book provides important new perspective on the history of planning in the United States and illuminates an aspect of the Olmsted office that has not been well understood.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication Page

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Brookline before Olmsted

2. Olmsted before Brookline

3. Henry Hobson Richardson

4. The Design Community

5. Charles Sprague Sargent

6. The Planning Context

7. The Institutional Context

8. The Neighborhood Context

Conclusion: Landscape into Townscape

Appendix A: Olmsted Design Projects in Brookline

Appendix B: Architects and Landscape Architects in Brookline

Appendix C: Statement as to Professional Methods and Charges, 1902

Appendix D: Collaborative Projects of H. H. Richardson and F. L. Olmsted Sr.

Appendix E: Collaborative Commissions of the Olmsted Office in Brookline

Appendix F: Brookline Projects of Shepley, Rutan &amp

Coolidge

Appendix G: Brookline Projects of Peabody &amp

Stearns

Appendix H: The Brookline Commissions of Andrews, Jaques &amp

Rantoul

Appendix I: Town Green and Green Hill Properties with Olmsted Connections

Notes

Index

Back Cover.

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-289) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-61376-227-5

OCLC:

859687012