The park and the town; public landscape in the 19th and 20th centuries.

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Chadwick, George F. The park and the town; public landscape in the 19th and 20th centuries. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1966, 388pp., very good dust-jacket, cover price $16.50, very good black cloth, lightly rubbed edges of cover, previous owner's name in black marker. Dust-acket design by William Slack. Printed in Great Britain. - CONTENTS: Acknowledgements - Acknowledgements for Illustrations - Introduction - The English Landscape Movement and the Public Park - Pleasure Garden and Public Walk - John Claudius Loudon and the Gardenesque - Sir Joseph Paxton - Botanic Gardens and Parks in the North - The Parks of London - The Italian Garden in England - The Parks of Paris - The American Park Movement - The Turn of the Tide - The Continental Contribution - The Park of Tomorrow - Bibliography Index. -- In Roman times, the Porticus Livia, a garden designed for public meetings and recreation was an integral part of tha design of the city. In ancient Assyria, a large tract of land was set aside for hunting and relaxation. As long as man has lived In close proximity to man, he has provided an open area - a square or place - for public use. But it was not until the late nineteenth century that the park as we know it - a public area laid out amid essentially urban surroundings - took on full importance. The parks of Victorian times were elaborate ventures in a style known as the Gardenesque, and contained ornate fountains, obelisks, complex arrangements of greenery, and serpentine walkways. In the 1960's, crowded cities and increased leisure time have again focused attention on the need for and design of public parks. THE PARK AND THE TOWN shows how landscape gardening, architecture, town planning, and governmental policy all contribute to park design, and how parks, at their best, can be among the finest and most characteristic products of their age. Ranging from John White's plan for Marylebone Park (1809) to the 1963 International Garden Exhibition in Hamburg and the progressive urban landscapes in Caracas, Venezuela, George F. Chadwick provides a broad international appraisal of the park and its continuing place in town planning. Dr. Chadwick starts with Victorian England, where the idea of creating attractive land-sea pes within the town for public use and enjoyment began, providing colorful glimpses of designers and patrons and an account of the techniques and innovations that gave the park movements of the period their distinctive - and often controversial - flavor. Making extensive use of photographs, drawings, and plans of European and American parks including Orchard Beach, Naw York, and tha Jones Falls Valley Park, Baltimore - he shows how Victorian gardens have Influanced European and American designers. In recounting the history of parks, he illustrates how their landscape was transformed by a changing approach to design, and indicates the park's evolving function in the community. In the concluding section of THE PARK AND THE TOWN Dr. Chadwick discusses the park of the future, pointing out that recreation is bound to play an increasingly vital part in town planning. He suggests that the park of tomorrow may assume forms as varied as the children's play space,the field for organized games, the greenway threading through the city, and the nature reserve at the seashore or in the mountains. He shows how it "may perhaps continue to develop, taking into account new demands and new requirements of urban life,". -- THE AUTHOR: George F. Chadwick has received considerable acclaim as a town planner and landscape architect in his native England, where he was involved in the design of the celebrated "New Town" of Hemel Hempstead. He is author of The Works of Sir Joseph Paxton and is currently Senior Lecturer in Town and Country Planning at the University of Manchester. Dr. Chadwick is a Member of the Town Planning Institute and a Fellow of the Institute of Landscape Architects. N° de ref. del artículo 88564

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