A Publication of the Foundation for Landscape Studies A Journal of Place Volume ııı | Number ıı | Spring 2008 Essays: After Industry: Transforming Landscapes 3 Elizabeth Barlow Rogers: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and other Great American Cities Elizabeth K. Meyer: Recycling: Landscape Architecture’s New Frontier Ethan Carr: The Hudson River Waterfront: Experience and Transformation Kenneth I. Helphand: Promenades and Promenading: San Francisco’s Crissy Field and Portland’s Eastbank Esplanade Julie Ann Grimm: The Santa Fe Railyard: Changing Place, Keeping Space Book Reviews 15 Galen Cranz: Large Parks Edited by Julia Czerniak and George Hargreaves Leslie Rose Close: A Genius for Place: American Landscapes of the Country Place Era By Robin Karson David Schuyler: City Trees: A Historical Geography from the Renaissance through the Nineteenth Century By Henry W. Lawrence Robin Karson: Jacob Weidenmann: Pioneer Landscape Architect By Rudy J. Favretti Awards 22 Calendar 23 Contributors 23 Letter from the Editor oday the profes- The question is how best to entertainments designed Helphand and Ethan Carr presumption that the native workforces be dis- sional frontier for take advantage of vacancy to attract tourists are a com- point out in this issue. conversion of brownfield to counted. Further, one should landscape archi- and location. The noticeable mon form of waterfront Other kinds of brown- green field is inherently reckon as a cost the loss of tects has become trend toward making cities recycling. The creation of fields are more problem- beneficial. To be sure, our historical memory caused by urban brownfields, greener by enlarging their new parkland is another. atic. Converting abandoned expanded consciousness eradicating the industrial Tscarred and treeless sites park systems is one answer. Besides the natural attrac- industrial property and about the perils of environ- landscape as material cul- that are the opposite of Maritime commerce is tion of the water itself, decommissioned landfills mental contamination and ture, a testament to national greenfields, developable land nowadays mainly restricted waterfronts offer opportuni- into parkland often entails acceptance, confirmed by and urban histories, a theme that has not been polluted. to a few major seaports with ties to create linear land- decontaminating the site by legislation, of the need to that Elizabeth Meyer touches Whereas scenic potential was docking facilities for con- scapes serving popular forms removing toxic wastes and clean our land, water, and air upon in her essay. formerly a consideration in tainerships, military carriers, of contemporary recreation other dangerousresidues of has been one of the great The problems of simulta- the selection of land for oil tankers, and large vessels such as running and biking. past pollution. This neces- salutary cultural shifts of the neously sustaining both a parks, today the availability carrying raw materials for Being continuous and fre- sity has pointed landscape last fifty years. However, as healthy world economy and of a growing inventory of manufacture elsewhere. The quently adjacent to residen- architects in the direction of sociologist Galen Cranz a healthy natural world pre- obsolete landscapes is a shipping traffic that once tial areas – especially ones environmental science and remarks here, the consider- sent a far greater challenge more prevalent criterion. In plied rivers and canals has where old warehouses, now made their plans more able improvements that have than can be addressed by any many parts of the United been supplanted by overland abandoned like the water- process-oriented and open- been made in this country single profession. The recy- States and Western Europe, trucking. In addition, with front itself, are being con- ended than they were when and in Western Europe cling of postindustrial land- abandoned industrial plants, the general decline of basic verted into apartments – form and function were the should not be seen as any- scapes, however, is a task for factories, warehouses, and manufacturing in developed they also serve as neighbor- paramount considerations. thing but local victories which landscape architects commercial waterfronts countries, many waterfronts hood parks. Moreover, they Ecodesign and sustainability when the pollution that have a unique set of skills. along with decommissioned equipped for loading and are tourist attractions in an are relatively new terms accompanied the building of In this issue of Site/Lines, military bases and former unloading large vessels have age when cities are trying to in the professional parlance, industrial America has we look at some of their airfields have created a sup- become idle. The conversion revitalize their failing old signalling an attempt to merely been shifted to now responses to this challenging ply of land ripe for redevel- of obsolete piers, plants, fac- economies. For this reason, a bring a brownfield site full rapidly industrializing new professional frontier. opment. Site selection in the tories, and warehouses and historic urban landscape circle from its technological- nations such as China. Nor case of such “found land- their related urban water- amenity, the promenade, is ly inscribed, denatured can the effects of the disloca- Good green wishes, scapes” is not so much a front real estate to new non- being revived, as Kenneth appearance to its presumed tions brought about by matter of choice as a given. industrial uses has become original state as meadow, global flows of capital on prevalent as cities seek new forest, or wetland. economic identities. Histori- The word disturbed is cally themed districts with heard a great deal in discus- Elizabeth Barlow Rogers shops, restaurants, and sions of former industrial Editor sites, and there is a general Important Message envelope and return to us. The Foundation for Landscape We are a donor-supported, Studies is shortening its mailing not-for-profit organization, and list in order to save on the the publication of Site/Lines hard-copy publication costs of depends on tax-deductible con- Site/Lines. If you prefer to tributions from our readers. read Site/Lines online or do If you do want to ensure its bian- On the Cover: not wish to continue to receive nual publication, please con- Overhead Crane for Stripping Ingots, it for any reason, please write sider placing your check in the c. 1930. Photograph by Luke Swank. your name and DO NOT SEND envelope instead. 2 on the inside of the enclosed After Industry: with bridges, fountains, and buildings of neo- classical architectural magnificence. Captains Transforming Landscapes of industry and their heirs became philan- thropists, established foundations, and The Life, Death, and Rebirth of Cleveland, Pittsburgh, bestowed on their own cities and others and other Great American Cities important cultural institutions housing great n America the founding of new cities and their subsequent collections of rare books, manuscripts, and industrialization is part of the epic story of the settlement by old-master art works. Although wealthy fami- Europeans of a historical frontier of continental dimensions. lies began to exchange their grand residences Today’s frontier, fueled by new technologies, is one of global in the heart of the city for ones in leafy sub- commerce and the large-scale industrialization of countries urban enclaves such as Shaker Heights and Isuch as China. The landscape consequences of shifts in how Sewickley, they still sustained, as many do raw materials are manufactured and transported are integral to today, the symphonies, museums, hospitals, the economic histories of all cities, particularly those of the and libraries their forebears founded. American Midwest. Cleveland and Pittsburgh, for example, are The Great Depression, which halted the palimpsests of their successive transformations from competi- country’s economic momentum, was felt with tive commercial hamlet to exuberant industrial metropolis particular severity in cities whose industrial to struggling post-industrial city. bases were undermined, with resulting mass For both these cities, geographical location was the para- unemployment and social unrest. During mount prerequisite for commercial success and the growth of World War II, American industry played a heavy industry. The mouth of the Cuyahoga River and Lake major role in bringing about the Allied Erie for Cleveland and the confluence of the Allegheny and the victory through the rapid production of ships, Monongahela in the case of Pittsburgh gave them important tanks, and other military equipment. transportation advantages. These water routes and the pres- Although industry remained strong in the decades immediate- ceased to operate, and com- Filling Molds with Molten Iron I, ence of nearby sources of coal made it logical for them to ly following the war as the pent-up demand for building mate- muters living in the sprawling 1934. Photograph by Luke Swank. become producers of steel after the discovery in 1866 of iron rials and consumer goods soared, demographic shifts spawned suburbs drove to work. ore in Minnesota’s Mesabi Range. The demand for steel at a serious urban problems. Immigration, which had always Competition from outlying shopping centers caused many critical moment in the nation’s history in order for other cities accounted for the bulk of these cities’ population growth, was fashionable center-city department stores to close, and seedi- to also construct large industrial