"Bright, cheerful houses, well arranged, well trimmed lawns, hedging carefully cut... distinctly joyous," wrote architectural critic Herbert Croly in 1914 about the Forest Hills Gardens community in Queens, New York. The New York Tribune agreed, reporting that the place was a "modern Garden of Eden, a fairy tale too good to be true." Conceived as an experiment that would apply the new "science" of city planning to a suburban setting, Forest Hills Gardens was created by the Russell Sage Foundation to provide housing for middle-class commuters as an alternative to cramped flats in New York City. Although it has long been recognized as one of the most influential planned communities in the United States, this is the first time Forest Hills Gardens has been the subject of a book. Susan L. Klaus's fully illustrated history chronicles the creation of the 142-acre development from its inception in 1909 through its first two decades, offering critical insights into American planning history, landscape architecture, and the social and economic forces that shaped housing in the Progressive Era. Klaus focuses particularly on the creative genius of Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., who served as planner and landscape architect for the project. Drawing on his father's visionary ideas but developing his own perspective, the younger Olmsted redefined planning for the modern era and became one of the founders of the profession of city planning in the United States.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"A Modern Arcadia" illuminates the fascinating intersection of social and aesthetic reform movements in the Progressive Era... -- David Glassberg, author of "Sense of History: The Place of the Past in American Life"
The scholarship in this work is exceptionally thorough...a significant contribution to the fields of landscape and planning history. -- Cynthia Zaitzevsky, author of "Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System"
The scholarship in this work is exceptionally thorough...a significant contribution to the fields of landscape and planning history. -- Cynthia Zaitzevsky, author of "Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System"
From the Publisher
An illustrated history of one of America's most notable planned communities.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An important book,
By
This review is from: A Modern Arcadia: Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. & the Plan for Forest Hills Gardens (Paperback)
I happend to bump into the book by accident. I was doing research into
Edward Bouton, creator of Baltimore's Roland Park. Bouton also doubled as the general manager of the Sage Foundation's Forest Hills Gardens. This is a great book, meticulously researched. Read it.
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
MAROONED IN GOPHER PRAIRIE, Minnesota, in 1912, newly wed Carol Kennicott dreams of transforming "the unsparing unapologetic ugliness and the rigid straightness" of her village into something like the new "fairy-book suburb" of Forest Hills Gardens on Long Island, pictures of which had already found their way to her tiny public library on the American plain. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sage Foundation, New York, Station Square, United States, Roland Park, Long Island, Olivia Sage, Frederick Law Olmsted, World War, City Beautiful, Gardens Corporation, Archive Center, Cord Meyer, John Glenn, Olivia Park, Olmsted Brothers, Robert de Forest, Grosvenor Atterburv, Progressive Era, Rick Olmsted, Suburban Town Built, Courtesy Fairsted, Ebenezer Howard, Edward Bouton, Forest Park New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
MAROONED IN GOPHER PRAIRIE, Minnesota, in 1912, newly wed Carol Kennicott dreams of transforming "the unsparing unapologetic ugliness and the rigid straightness" of her village into something like the new "fairy-book suburb" of Forest Hills Gardens on Long Island, pictures of which had already found their way to her tiny public library on the American plain. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sage Foundation, New York, Station Square, United States, Roland Park, Long Island, Olivia Sage, Frederick Law Olmsted, World War, City Beautiful, Gardens Corporation, Archive Center, Cord Meyer, John Glenn, Olivia Park, Olmsted Brothers, Robert de Forest, Grosvenor Atterburv, Progressive Era, Rick Olmsted, Suburban Town Built, Courtesy Fairsted, Ebenezer Howard, Edward Bouton, Forest Park New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 17
books:
See all 17 books this book cites
2
books
cite this book:
- The Garden City: Past, present and future (Studies in History, Planning and the Environment, No 15) by Stephen Ward in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The City Beautiful Movement (Creating the North American Landscape) by William H. Wilson in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Shaping an Urban World by Gordon Emanuel Cherry in Back Matter
- Town Planning in Practice by Raymond Unwin on page 55
- Civilizing American Cities: Writings On City Landscapes by Frederick Law Olmsted in Back Matter
See all 17 books this book cites
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