園林小知識 奧姆斯特德的遺產（英文原聲）

Central Park, a peaceful swath of woods and meadows in the midst of New York City. It is the work of Frederick Law Olmsted, whose vision and imagination helped to shape the American landscape and improve our quality of life. Olmsted envisioned great urban parks, like Central Park, as places where people could come together and enjoy nature to the benefit of all society. You will find all classes largely represented. Each individual adding by his mere presence the pleasure of all others, all helping to the greater happiness of each. To Olmsted, landscape design was an instrument for social change, a means to strengthen democracy and to establish a sense of community. Olmsted's work in Central Park helped form the philosophical and aesthetic foundation for all of his future landscape design work. Frederick Law Olmsted was born April 26, 1822 into a prominent Hartford family. Young Frederick did not have a formal education. His learning was based on experiences, walks with his father, learning at schools run by local ministers, apprenticeships, and self-directed studies. At every chance, he roamed Connecticut's woods and fields. Frederick was an avid reader, devouring books by 18th century theorists who touted the benefits that nature bestows on people's bodies and minds. He encountered a new world in these books. The concept of designing environments that could influence human behavior fascinated Frederick. In 1840, after studying surveying for a time, he moved to New York City to apprentice as a clerk in the office of a dry goods importer. Two years later, he left his apprenticeship to crew on a merchant ship to China for a year. Upon returning, his father helped him to establish a farm on Staten Island. Here, Olmsted practiced scientific farming, seeking ways to improve farming techniques. In 1850, when he was 28 years old, he took a walking tour of Europe, where he was inspired by European and English scenery, farms, and gardens. He was particularly struck by Birkenhead Park near Liverpool because it was public, open to everyone. I was ready to admit that in democratic America, there was nothing to be thought of as comparable with this people's garden. Returning to New York, he wrote a book on his experiences in England. The book caught the eye of the editor of the New York Daily Times, who hired him to travel through the South and report on the social and economic influence of slavery. Olmsted argued that the institution of slavery could not exist in a civilized society. Back in New York, Olmsted's literary career placed him at the forefront of ideas and events of his time. By 1857, his many influential connections included a Central Park commissioner who convinced him to apply to be the superintendent of the yet-to-be-built Central Park. A short time later, he teamed up with Calvert Fox, a young English architect, and together, they entered and won the park's design competition with a plan they called Greensward. We want a ground to which people may easily go after their day's work is done, seeing, hearing, and feeling nothing of the bustle and jar of the streets, where they shall, in effect, find the city put far away from them. Olmsted's impressive administrative ability at Central Park did not go unnoticed. In 1861, at the outbreak of the Civil War, he was asked to direct the new United States Sanitary Commission. Olmsted would use all the organizational skills that he acquired managing Central Park to coordinate the well-being of tens of thousands of men. He threw himself into the task. An associate, George Templeton Strong, noted in 1863 that Olmsted is in an unhappy, sick, sore mental state. He works with steady, feverish intensity till 4 in the morning, sleeps on a sofa in his clothes, and breakfasts on strong coffee and pickles. In 1863, Olmsted's organizational skills were again sought, this time to manage the Mariposa gold mining estate in northern California. He moved west. The Mariposa mines were not far from the Yosemite Valley. Olmsted was captivated by Yosemite's wildness and grandeur. It is sublimely beautiful, much more beautiful than I had supposed. Olmsted would be asked what should be done with such a special place. His seminal report would help provide the underpinnings of the national park movement in the United States. At his partner Calvert Vaux's urging, Olmsted returned from California in 1865. Their next project is widely considered to be their masterpiece, Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Over the next 18 years, with Vaux and on his own, Olmsted's design work continued unabated. He would work on projects across North America. In 1883, at the age of 61, Olmsted bought a home in Brookline, Massachusetts, where he established a design office. This firm became the country's first full-scale professional office for landscape architecture. Olmsted lived at a time of great change. His landscapes were designed to provide respite for a nation healing from a civil war. And an oasis in cities that were growing with each wave of immigration. His parks helped to ease the nation's transition from farms to cities. Today, Olmsted's profound influence is everywhere. His landscapes still provide places where all are welcome. Places where... Each individual adding by his mere presence to the pleasure of all others, poor and rich, young and old, all helping to the greater happiness of each.