Frederick Law Olmsted-The Landscape Architect Extraordinaire

Born in Hartford Connecticut in 1822, Frederick Law Olmsted had early health problems due to being poisoned by a somac plant which prevernted him from attending Yale. He became a seaman and a prominent journalist amongst other things before dedicating himself to design. In 1848 he bought a 125 acre farm on Staten Island which encouraged him ten years later to enter a competition to design New York's Central Park which he won, being chosen by Calvert Vaux, an English Architect who admired Olmsted's ideas.

A Painting of Frederick Law Olmsted

Olmsted's ideas are still to be seen in Central Park and of course in all the parks that he designed after that, that is that parks are for the public. Green Spaces are to be enjoyed by everybody and not to be gated off for the rich. An interesting thing to note is that it is commonly agreed that Olmsted's inspiration for Central Park came on his visit to Birkenhead Park in Liverpool, England. If you look, the two designs are very similar, going to show that even the best designers need and use inspiration from other designers and the world around them.

Boston's Emerald Necklace Park-A popular approach to park design to this day.

Other notable examples of his work include Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Boston's Emerald Necklace Park and Belle Isle park New York. Olmsted was an early champion of the conservation movement that is now a key part for global thinking on the environment, and was crucial in helping found the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1898.

Birkenhead Park near Liverpool, England- A source of inspiration for Central Park New York

Leon Battista Alberti

Leon Battista Alberti- Renaissance Master

Born in Genoa in 1404, Alberti was the son of a wealthy Florentine father who's impact on design is unquantifiable. Joining the Papal court as a young man he became interested in ancient ruins which sparked off his love affair with architecture and design. He was also athletic and well read. He in fact wrote a play that was so good it was passed off as classical literature to audiences. He wrote books on painting, and in 1438 was given his first architectural commission, a triumphal arch to support a statue. From this small start he worked his way into the role of architectural advisor to Pope Nicholas V.

Pallazo Rucellai-Florence-An Urban Design Blueprint

His Rucellai Palace of 1486 was his first proper commission and one that would influence western architecture and urban design for 500 years. In 1452 he completed his 'Treatise on Architecture' inspired by the work of Vitruvius, the book is still on the reading list of every Architecture course in the world. His church of Santa Maria Novella is the inspiration for countless churches that followed with its classical scrolls that bridge the nave with the lower aisles.

Santa Maria Novella Church- Inspiration for countless churches since

Alberti was also an avid artist in the humanist tradition. His life's accomplishments cover a vast array of disciplines from cryptography, poetry, prose, sculpture and philosophy. Like the other renaissance masters of his day he was a leading light in a world coming to grips with science and the changing world view of an increasingly intellectually informed populace. To say Alberti did his time justice is an understatement, he helped define it, and his work still resonates with architects, designers and urban planners as contextual, elegant and beautiful. His work bridged the ancient world of privilege and palaces with the increasingly modern world of city streets and merchant houses. He designed the houses and helped the merchants fill them with his books and paintings and helped define what urban design is today. The true Renaissance Master.

Ref- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Battista_Alberti

Sir Nicholas Grimshaw- Hi Tech Urban Architecture

Sir Nicholas Grimshaw is a distinguished British Architect and Urban Designer. Born in Hove, in 1939 he soon found an interest in Meccano toys, perhaps spurred on by his father who was an engineer. Not surprising then, is his admiration for the work of Joseph Paxton, architect of the metal and glass masterpiece of Crystal Palace of 1851. He also has a reverence for the work of IK Brunel, the UK engineering genius.


Studying at the prestigious Architects Association in London, after graduation he partnered up with Terry Farrell. After his work with Terry Farrel ended he set up Nicholas Grimshaw & partners in 1980. His work is of the High Tech variety with an emphasis on materiality in architectural detail. His practice has grown and now includes large developments as well as urban masterplans. His famous works include his futuristic Sainsbury's superstore (1988), the national space science centre (2001) and Southern Cross Station in Melbourne (2006, to name but a few.

Sainsbury's high tech superstore, Camden, London

One such Masterplan is the Tirana Masterplan in Albania. The 15 square kilometer plan emphasises the importance of urban green space as being outdoor rooms that hang on a central spine of green space in the form of a linear park. Though not unique, the work shows a good understanding of how internal and external spaces can interact sensitively and practically over a large area while keeping a human scale to the urban design.

Tirana Linear Park Masterplan, Albania-Designed 2015

Ref-https://www.architecture.com/Explore/Architects/NicholasGrimshaw.aspx

Jan Gehl- Space is for sharing

Jan Gehl- Human Design we can all share

Jan Gehl is a Danish Architect and urban designer. Born in 1936, he came to prominence with his book 'Life between building' published in 1971. It focussed on how small changes could over time improve urban spaces. He documents in his other popular book 'Public Spaces, Public Life' how Copenhagen has slowly over time transformed itself from a car focussed city to one focussed on pedestrians. His work can be described as New Urbanism yet his work is distinct and expertly put together.

Gehl has been prominent in the UK also, where he has led public realm studies for 'Transport for London' and was commissioned by New York City to help them redesign New York streets to be suitable for pedestrians and cyclists. He has also taken on many interesting projects in Australia and New Zealand where he prepared public life studies for major Australian cities such as Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington.

Integrating Cycling and green travel into cities is one of Gehl's interests

His work is influenced by the work of Jane Jacobs,  a leading light in urban planning and design or as Gehl calls her 'the Grandmother of Humanistic planning'.

Gehl recently interviewed in Copenhagen had this to say about how he thinks cities should change-

'To me, a sustainable city would be a very people-friendly city. It would be a city with good public spaces and a city that is rather compact. It would be a city that really invites people to walk and bicycle as much as possible. A good walking and cycling environment with a good public realm is also a good environment for public transport, so there is an important connection here as well.'

Gehl's updated Herald Square in New York

Ref-http://www.dac.dk/en/dac-cities/sustainable-cities/experts/jan-gehl-making-healthy-cities/

Stanford White-America's Renaissance Master

Stanford White co founder of Architecture firm McKim Meade & White, was a master of interpreting European Renaissance architecture in a modern US context and spanned the 19th and 20th Centuries. His grandson, upon seeing the villas in Florence, Italy remarked 'Why they are pure McKim Meade & White!' such was the borrowing of design elements from Italy that White incorporated in his American town houses and skyscrapers. Yet he made them distinctly American and his influence on American Urban Design in the last 150 years is immense.

Born in 1853 in New York, Stanford White was trained as an architect under Henry Hobson Richardson where White helped design seaside houses in the shingle style but his renaissance style works such as Madison Square Garden 1891, won him early acclaim. It was at Madison Square Garden that White was later shot dead by a jealous husband of Evelyn Nesbit whom White had had an affair with.

Penn Station 1910-McKim Meade & White

Many of the iconic buildings have since been demolished but the ones that remain are a testament to an architect and an architecture firm that set the rules for american city architecture for decades.

'Any city gets what it admires, will pay for, and, ultimately, deserves. Even when we had Penn Station, we couldn’t afford to keep it clean. We want and deserve tin-can architecture in a tinhorn culture. And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed'

"Farewell to Penn Station," New York Times editorial, October 30, 1963

Madison Square Garden 1890

Ref- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Stanford-White
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/GON004.htm

Robert Moses-City Visionary

Robert Moses-New York City Visionary

Robert Moses-Civil Servant to City Father

Robert Moses was ostensibly a civil servant and a controversial figure in New York during the 1950s. He is remembered for his achievements in city planning design and infrastructure. Works that he helped see through to completion include the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Shea Stadium, two hydroelectric dams, Jones Beach State Park, 13 bridges and 35 highways. 2.5 million acres of parks in New York state where preserved on his watch.

Jones Beach Park NY

He was born in 1888 in New Haven, Connecticut, grew up in Manhattan and died in West Islip, New York, in 1981. During his life he transformed the city of New York by overseeing new highways and skyscrapers as well preserving land for urban parks. In 1913, Moses began his career at the Municipal Research Bureau in New York, helping restructure New York's Civil service and was given the post of chief of staff for the Restructuring Commission where he made his mark on government and then in 1922 he became  head of the 'Long Island State Park Commission.' where he made his mark on the design of the city and reformed the Park system. In 1933, Mayor of New York Fiorello La Guardia, invited Moses to head the city's Parks Department and the Triborough Bridge Authority where he began an ambitious building program during the Great Depression.
His controversy surrounded his approval of public housing towers, much maligned by planners and the public at large.

The Lincoln Centre for Performing Arts- A Modernist Masterpiece

Still his tenacity, vision and built achievements ultimately have left their mark on one of the greatest cities in the world for us all to see to this day. His work influenced city planning around the United States and so his impact on Urban Design is vast.

Ref @ http://www.biography.com/people/robert-moses-9416268#death-and-legacy