Book Review: Field Notes Spring 2016 Issue John Nolen, Landscape

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Book Review: Field Notes Spring 2016 Issue John Nolen, Landscape Architect and City Planner by R. Bruce Stephenson. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, in association with the Library of American Landscape History (LALH), 2015, 312 pages. Among enthusiasts of landscape and urban design, John Nolan (1869-1937) is a respected figure, but he has never become a household name, except perhaps in those households located in communities that he designed or improved. Madison, Wisconsin, for instance, named a boulevard for him. Kingsport, TN, Venice, FL, the Myers Park neighborhood of Charlotte, NC, and the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, MO are other communities whose reputations derive from the quality of his planning. Mariemont, near Cincinnati, OH has been designated a National Historic Landmark. The American Society of Landscape Architects and the Library of American Landscape History teamed up in 2005 to reprint Nolan’s book, New Towns for Old: Achievements in Civic Improvement in Some American Small Towns and Neighborhoods, originally published in 1927. This includes a list of his firm’s more than 450 completed projects, among which are plans for 29 cities and 27 new towns. Now the LALH has followed up with a full-scale biography. Its author, R. Bruce Stephenson, director of the Department of Environmental Studies and Sustainable Urbanism at Rollins College, deftly weaves Nolan’s career and personal life together with the rise of the professions of landscape architecture and urban planning. Nolan was born in Philadelphia and qualified for admission to Girard College, a distinguished school for orphan boys there, because his father had been shot during an election dispute little more than a year after his birth. He graduated first in his class, and following a degree from the Wharton School he became a professor of adult education. He turned to landscape studies after reading the biography Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect, and entered Harvard in 1903 when he was already 34 and had a wife and two children. There he studied with Frederick Law Olmsted, Junior, who was a year younger than himself. His first important commission, with the Charlotte park system, came through the recommendation of Harvard President Charles W. Eliot, the father of Charles Eliot and author of his biography. In Charlotte, Nolen encountered racist attitudes and institutions that became a troubling factor in his work in the south, particularly in his extensive town planning in Florida, where he struggled to avoid using zoning to enforce racial segregation. Stephenson’s forthright treatment of these issues is a distinctive feature of this book. Nolan was one of the first in this country to promote the new ideas of town planning that were emanating from England, which he visited many times. He saw Letchworth, the first British “new town,” in 1906, just three years after its founding. His efforts to integrate new town concepts into planning for existing cities made the title of his 1927 book especially apt. Stephenson’s engaging style, along with the well-chosen and beautifully printed illustrations, many in color, make this volume a good introduction to the early-20th-century history of planning as well as to the man himself. .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Written Historical and Descriptive Data Hals Ca-131
THE GEORGE WHITE AND ANNA GUNN MARSTON HOUSE, HALS CA-131 GARDENS HALS CA-131 3525 Seventh Avenue San Diego San Diego County California WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA HISTORIC AMERICAN LANDSCAPES SURVEY National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior 1849 C Street NW Washington, DC 20240-0001 HISTORIC AMERICAN LANDSCAPES SURVEY THE GEORGE WHITE AND ANNA GUNN MARSTON HOUSE, GARDENS (The Marston Garden) HALS NO. CA-131 Location: 3525 Seventh Avenue, San Diego, San Diego County, California Bounded by Seventh Avenue and Upas Street, adjoining the northwest boundary of Balboa Park in the City of San Diego, California 32.741689, -117.157756 (Center of main house, Google Earth, WGS84) Significance: The George Marston Gardens represent the lasting legacy of one of San Diego’s most important civic patrons, George Marston. The intact home and grounds reflect the genteel taste of the Marston Family as a whole who in the early 20th century elevated landscape settings, by example, toward city beautification in the dusty, semi-arid, coastal desert of San Diego. The Period of Significance encompasses the full occupancy of the Marston Family from 1905-1987, which reflects the completion of the house construction in 1905 to the death of daughter Mary Marston in 1987. George White Marston (1850-1946) and daughter Mary Marston (1879-1987) are the two notable family members most associated with the design and implementation of the Marston House Gardens, et al. The George W. Marston House (George White and Anna Gunn Marston House) was historically designated by the City of San Diego on 4 December 1970, Historic Site #40.
[Show full text]
Prologue to Urban Renewal: the Problem of Downtown Lancaster, 1945-1960
- - 75 Prologue to Urban Renewal: The Problem of Downtown Lancaster, 1945-1960 David Schuyler Franklin &Marshall College Nostalgiafor the picturesque characterof Lancasterdoes not retain the tax-payingpopula- tion nor increase the taxable values of the city. Michael Baker, Jr., 1945 In the aftermath of World War II, Lancaster, Pennsylvania faced a series of problems ranging from an aging building stock, traffic congestion, and inadequate parking to sig- nificant population loss and the flight of effective buying income to adjacent suburbs. The impact of the automobile on urban areas large and small was dramatic, but in an older city such as Lancaster the density of building and narrow streets made efforts to accommodate large number of cars especially difficult. As traffic worsened and the shortage of parking spaces discouraged shoppers from driving downtown, the compact retail district, which extended two or three blocks outward from a central square, began to experience increas- ing competition from suburban strip malls. Confronted with a declining economy and signs of imminent commercial blight, elected officials worked with businessmen in a con- certed effort to solidify the retail underpinnings of what traditionally had been the desti- nation of choice for shoppers. How they defined the problem of downtown, what strate- gies they considered in their efforts to reinvigorate the central business district, would shape the city's approach to urban renewal in the 1960s. Although the problems the city confronted were similar to those experienced in urban areas across the nation, Lancaster's response differed from that of other cities because the debate over the future of downtown in the 1950s did not produce a pro-growth coalition which championed revitalization through clearance and new construction.' As a whole, owners of downtown stores were unprepared for the new competition from suburban retailers.
[Show full text]
Two Views of John Nolen Reprints and Permission: Sagepub.Com/Journalspermissions.Nav Journals.Sagepub.Com/Home/Jph
Book Review Journal of Planning History 2017, Vol. 16(1) 80-84 ª 2016 The Author(s) Two Views of John Nolen Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav journals.sagepub.com/home/jph Jody Beck. 2013. John Nolen and the Metropolitan Landscape. New York, NY: Routledge. 169 pp. $53.95, ISBN 978-0-415-66485-1. R. Bruce Stephenson. 2015. John Nolen, Landscape Architect and City Planner. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press. 294 pp. $39.95, ISBN 978-1-62534-079-5. Reviewed by: Frederick E. Lutt, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA DOI: 10.1177/1538513216680462 John Nolen (1869–1937) is the quintessential American pioneer planner. From his humble begin- nings in Philadelphia, he became an internationally renowned city planner by 1920. His climb to the top of the newly created field of city planning reads like a Horatio Alger story. Both books are well written and backed by much scholarly research. Beck and Stephenson have both combed Nolen’s numerous writings to create compelling narratives. The two books under review here look at Nolen’s life and work from two very different perspectives. Stephenson offers a richly developed biographical portrait of Nolen interwoven with a detailed discussion of his numerous planning projects. In contrast, Beck offers less of a bio- graphical portrait of Nolen, focuses on fewer of his planning projects, and emphasizes the political and social aspects of his work. Beck concludes that Nolen was ineffective in many instances because he treated planning problems as technical issues and did not directly address the inher- ently political nature of all planning problems.
[Show full text]
Prepared for Opportunity
PREPARED FOR OPPORTUNITY: THE CRITICAL ELEMENT OF DELIBERATE REGIONAL PLANNING AND COORDINATION TOWARD INCREASING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMPETITIVENESS, EXECUTION AND EFFECTIVENESS. PATRICIA C. OLDHAM, M.S.P., A.I.C.P. SUBMITTED TOWARD THE SATISFACTION OF THE CAPSTONE REQUIREMENT FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE, CENTER FOR INDUSTRIAL SERVICES, INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE, TENNESSEE CERTIFIED ECONOMIC DEVELOPER PROGRAM AUGUST 20, 2017 Page Intentionally Blank ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to the following individuals for their commitment and generous time spent providing support for these efforts toward the University of Tennessee Certified Economic Developer capstone report process: Gary Farlow, President and CEO, Cleveland/Bradley County Chamber of Commerce Martha L. Kelley, University of Tennessee Center for Industrial Services, Capstone Coordinator Dr. Dave Kolzow, President, Team Kolzow, Inc. One of the greatest satisfactions in doing any sound work for an institution, a town, or a city, or for the nation is that good work done for the public lasts, endures through the generations, at the little bit of work that any individual of the passing generation is enabled to do gains through association with such collective activities an immortality of its own. Charles W. Eliot Source: Sieur de Monts (Acadia National Park) National Monument: Address Upon Its Opening, August 22, 1916, quoted in The Asheville City Plan, (1925) John Nolen, Ph.B, Sc.D. A Valley and Its People: a look back to look forward The State of Tennessee, historically, has been at the national forefront of planning and regional economic development from engaging the nationally respected attorney Alfred Bettman, who developed the state’s enabling legislation, to the creation of a regional economic development and planning model that became a global model for river valley development.
[Show full text]
The Roots of the New Urbanism: John Nolen's Garden City Ethic
JOURNAL OF PLANNING HISTORY / May 2002 Stephenson / THE ROOTS OF THE NEW URBANISM The Roots of the New Urbanism: John Nolen’s Garden City Ethic Bruce Stephenson Rollins College The New Urbanism has invigorated city planning history by invoking the tradition of Americancivic designto solve the conundrumof suburbansprawl. Studies have docu - mented the similarities between the works of pioneer planner John Nolen and Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, but the ethic connecting past and present remains vague. This research presents the origins of the garden city ethic John Nolen introduced to the United States and its potential to foster a sustainable planning sys- tem capable of enlivening American civic culture. Keywords: Garden city, Florida city planning, John Nolen, New Urbanism, suburbansprawl. he New Urbanism has invigorated city planning history with rele- vance by invoking the tradition of American civic design to solve the Tconundrum of contemporary suburban sprawl.1 Eventhose most critical of the New Urbanism cannot deny the saliency of their agenda given the problems they seek to address: “disinvestments in central cities, the spread of placeless sprawl, increasing separation by race and income, envi- ronmental deterioration, loss of agricultural lands and wilderness, and the erosion of society’s built heritage as one interrelated community-building challenge.”2 As suburban growth has increasingly “become a pejorative”3 in state and local elections, the New Urbanism has moved from novelty to pol- icy. The challenge city planning historians face is not only to place the New Urbanism in context but, as Lewis Mumford wrote, “to bring to the fore- ground those things that have been left out of the current scheme of life and thought.”4 The plan by architects Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk (DPZ) for Seaside, Florida, revived the art of traditional town planning.
[Show full text]
Introduction to New Towns For
JOHN NOLEN AND THE NEW SYNTHESIS IN AMERICAN CITY PLANNING Charles D. Warren As the nineteenth century turned to the twentieth, civic leaders, businessmen, and intellectuals joined together in a complex effort to improve urban life in the United States. The Boston journalist Sylvester Baxter, writing in the Cen- tury magazine, called it the “Great Civic Awakening,” and he enumerated the major participants in the movement he described. These included village beautifiers, housing reformers, and park advocates aiming to ameliorate the de- grading effects of rapid growth and rampant industrializa- tion in American towns and cities. They came together in local and mostly voluntary organizations to improve and beautify the physical environment, but many also worked to address the underlying social, economic, and political causes of the chaos and misery of impoverished neighbor- hoods and congested streets. These reformers relied on the work of journalists, experts, and emerging professionals to inspire and abet their efforts to cleanse and revive the American city. Baxter’s title alludes to the hope for enlight- enment and communal redemption that had characterized earlier American awakenings and captures the evangelical fervor of the movement. The new century’s reformers were motivated by an urban darkness filled with nightmares of poverty, disease, and disorder, and they envisioned a new morning lighted with promise, energy, and more than a few dreams.1 xii INTRODUCTION In his first book, Replanning Small Cities (1912), John Nolen wrote: The form of this civic awakening that is most signif- icant and promising is the recognition of the need of comprehensive planning and replanning, especially of the smaller cities, where so much is practicable.
[Show full text]
Remodeling the American Suburb, Obesity, Parklets and Social Media
Athens Journal of Architecture - Volume 4, Issue 1– Pages 85-114 Remodeling the American Suburb, Obesity, Parklets and Social Media By Michael O’ Brien Unlike most European countries, the United States is suffering through an epidemic of obesity, type II diabetes, and hypertension among its adults and children. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates over 35% of adults in the U.S. have obesity, and 17% of children suffer from the condition, which the American Heart Association has classed as a disease. Simultaneously, retail markets have undergone a significant centralization, the small neighborhood green grocers and fish markets are gone in most all neighborhoods, replaced with big box grocery stores selling less and less fresh foods as their supply chains stretch farther and farther across the country and the world. In a study of 13,102 adults, Rundle and Neckerman have found that walkable access to stores selling healthy foods is associated with a lower prevalence of obesity. Many other scientific studies have drawn similar conclusions, the combination of an auto-centric environment, and past generational models of centralized retail are slowly killing many Americans, and are a significant driver of societal health care costs. Americans didn’t used to be like this. Even those not associated with an agrarian or heavy industrial lifestyle were not routinely obese. Something changed in postwar planning, and postwar retail thinking and the interaction between these two factors is causing a significant reduction in the quality of life of American citizens. Yet, place an American citizen, in the early stages of the obesity in Paris, or Athens for a month, and their condition slowly begins to reverse.
[Show full text]
John Nolen and San Diego's Early Residential Planning in the Mission Hills Area
John Nolen and San Diego’s Early Residential Planning in the Mission Hills Area Winner of the 2004 Architect Marc Tarasuck Award Melanie Macchio At the turn of the twentieth century, San Diego had little resemblance to the large, overcrowded, polluted metropolitan centers that pockmarked the country. The area had been long inhabited, but the city itself had existed for little more than half a century. Moreover, the city’s population and development had been subject to constant fluctuation as it struggled to develop. Still, after 1900, building permit issuance had begun a steady rise and, more importantly, the city was gaining a solid circle of businessmen and investors. As entrepreneurs achieved authority in the city, they began a movement to transform San Diego into a legitimate cosmopolitan venue. The City of San Diego established the Civic Improvement Committee as part of that movement. In 1907, the committee hired landscape architect John Nolen to complete a comprehensive plan for San Diego’s development.1 Though the plan was never fully utilized, it had a significant effect on the development of San Diego’s planning policies and, very likely, influenced the layout of the Mission Hills Subdivision. The success of Nolen’s ideas is illustrated today by the continuing sustainability of the Mission Hills residential area. In order to understand San Diego’s early city planning, it is important to conceptualize the city planning movement on a higher level. City planning, like many fields, was born from necessity. The Industrial Revolution brought floods of workers into cities all over the world.
[Show full text]
Daffin Park Echoes That of the Surrounding Neighborhoods Cities by Bringing Beauty and Order Into Urban Areas
THE FIRST ONE HUNDRED YEARS -- - 2.!)07-2007 emvmced 7.Vit/Jin LJa££_ig _Pa_r£.· THE FIRST ONE HUNDRED YEARS By Tania June Sammons _Darri3J Pa/£one of Savannah's favorite community gathering His European-inspired plan focused on beauty, balance and symmetry. places, has served Savannah's recreational and leisure needs for a century. His ideas for the park evolved out of the early twentieth century's City Designed in 1907, the park plan took several decades to implement. The Beautiful Movement, which sought to remedy social ills in American evolution of Daffin Park echoes that of the surrounding neighborhoods cities by bringing beauty and order into urban areas. as well as the social and recreational development of the city during Savannah's City Council gave management responsibility for the park the twentieth century. Today, the park is vibrant with life, but the story to the newly-formed Park and Tree Commission, chaired by Philip of Daffin Park's first one hundred years includes high and low points, Dickinson (P. D.) Daffin. Shortly thereafter, the Council named the struggles and successes, conflicts and concurrences. new park "Daffin Athletic Field," to recognize the Jolm Nolen (1869-1937) local businessman and civic Born in Philadelphia, Jol.m leader. City Council had Nole77 began his mreer· stlldying economics rmd also considered naming public admini.1tration at the the site "Jeff Davis Recre Ur1 iversit)' ofPenmylvania. ation Grounds" in honor rlfter gmdtwting, he m11 of Confederate president tbe Society for· tbe Exten 0 0 ~ Jefferson Davis. sion of University EdllCfl tion, a progressive program Po1-rmit photograph of]olm Nolen, #2903.
[Show full text]
General Features of a Park System for Chattanooga, Tennessee
General Features of a Park System For Chattanooga, Tennessee REPORT TO THE BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS BY JOHN NOLEN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT CAMBRIDGE, MASS. I'HKSENTUD MY k 3 GENERAL FEATURES OF A PARK 5Y5TEM FOR CHATTANOOGA BY . JOHN NOLEN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT CAMBRIDGE, MASS. BOSTON GEO. H. ELLIS CO.. PRINTERS 1911 ^ ?*\ Setter of Erattamttfal To the Board of Park Commissioners, Chattanooga, Tenn. Gentlemen,—I beg to hand you herewith the Report and General Plan for a Park System for Chattanooga. The oppor- tunity that confronts your city to create a comprehensive system of parks is seldom equalled; but Chattanooga is growing rapidly, and the value of land is rising even more rapidly. Therefore, if large and satisfactory results are to be secured, action must be prompt and business-like. It is doubtful if the preparation of the park plans could have been undertaken at a more opportune time. Yours very truly, John Nolen, Landscape Architect. Cambridge, Mass., 10 March, 1911. MtmhtrB of ite Mnwtb of Park QIiratmteaumroB (ttfjattaunnga R. S. FAXON, President Dr. S. B. COOK Dr. J. B. LEE JOHN NOLEN, Landscape Architect 111 " The life history of humanity has proved nothing more clearly than that crowded populations, if they would live in health and happiness, must have space for air, for light, for exercise, for rest, and for the enjoyment of that peaceful beauty of nature which, because it is the opposite of the noisy ugliness of towns, is so wonderfully refreshing to the tired souls of townspeople."— Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect. "I have spoken of the utilization of public reservations as if they were to be expected to yield only health and enjoyment and improved powers of perception; but I should deal with the subject very imperfectly if I did not point out that the right utilization of public reservations is a strong agency for promoting public morality and a high standard of family life.
[Show full text]
“The Garden City of the South”: Beautification, Preservation, and Downtown Planning in Augusta, Georgia
Cleveland State University EngagedScholarship@CSU History Faculty Publications History Department 10-3-2019 Making “The Garden City of the South”: Beautification, Preservation, and Downtown Planning in Augusta, Georgia J. Mark Souther Cleveland State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clhist_facpub Part of the Public History Commons, United States History Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning Commons How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! Publisher's Statement Copyright SAGE publications. Published by the Journal of Planning History, a SAGE journal. All rights reserved. Original Citation Souther, J. M. (2019). Making “The Garden City of the South”: Beautification, Preservation, and Downtown Planning in Augusta, Georgia. Journal of Planning History. https://doi.org/10.1177/1538513219873277 Repository Citation Souther, J. Mark, "Making “The Garden City of the South”: Beautification, Preservation, and Downtown Planning in Augusta, Georgia" (2019). History Faculty Publications. 109. https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clhist_facpub/109 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the History Department at EngagedScholarship@CSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of EngagedScholarship@CSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Making “The Garden City of the South”: Beautification, Preservation, and Downtown Planning in Augusta, Georgia J. Mark Souther1 Abstract This article illuminates how a smaller southern city engaged broader planning approaches. Civic leaders, especially women, pushed and partnered with municipal administrations to beautify Augusta, Georgia, a city with extraordinarily wide streets and a long tradition of urban horticulture.
[Show full text]
2017 NTBA FALL ROUNDTABLE Thursday, October 12 – Sunday, October 15, 2017 Cincinnati, Ohio
URBAN RETAIL: CREATING AN ACTIVE RETAIL CORE AS THE ENGINE FOR SUCCESS 2017 NTBA FALL ROUNDTABLE Thursday, October 12 – Sunday, October 15, 2017 Cincinnati, Ohio NTBA / Monica V. Johnson, Director / 914-715-5576 / [email protected] / Program 3/23/2017 Page 1 Liberty Center “Urban Retail: Creating an Active Retail Core as the Engine for Success” is the timely and dynamic topic for the NTBA’s Fall Roundtable. THIS IS A CAN NOT BE MISSED event for NTBA developer members to learn more about the changing world of retail development and how walkable, mixed-use, urban centers are flipping traditional development strategies upside down. Urban Retail expert Robert Gibbs will be our host and the nationally recognized and highly successful Liberty Center will be our exciting base camp for the Roundtable. Gibbs will provide sessions on Urban Retail Planning and Development, Urban Retail 404, and will lead the discussion during our roundtables. Tours of Over the Rhine, Mariemont Town Center, Hyde Park, and Liberty Center will take center stage, along with their generous developers who will share their development case studies and best practices. Retail truly is the economic driver for urban retail development. We hope you will mark your calendar NOW to attend the NTBA Fall Roundtable in Cincinnati, Ohio this October. Registration is open for this members-only event. To join the NTBA, please visit HERE. Members may register for the Roundtable HERE. NTBA / Monica V. Johnson, Director / 914-715-5576 / [email protected] / Program 3/23/2017 Page 2 Liberty Center THE 2017 NTBA FALL ROUNDTABLE URBAN RETAIL Thursday - Sunday, October 12-15, 2017 Notes Please note that NTBA membership is required to attend Roundtables with the exception of guest speakers and/or significant others who may attend with a current member.
[Show full text]