Morrison Heckscher

It’s a rainy day, but hopefully the 150th anniversary of the day Central Park’s design was selected won’t be a total washout. In honor of America’s first major public park, the city has christened the 72nd Street Cross Drive "The Olmsted & Vaux Way" after the park's two architects, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.  read more »

Location: Your new book, Creating Central Park, asserts that the park was a testament to democracy, lowercase ‘d.’ But it wasn’t born of it. Can you explain the vote for the park and the general push for the park?

Mr. Heckscher: I would like to start by saying that the whole issue of the park has to do with open space in Manhattan. Central Park is, shall we say, the conclusion of 50 years of political machinations of how to provide, for the city and Manhattan, open space mostly for health reasons—for air and space for the health of the public, and recreation.

Why hadn’t it been done beforehand?  read more »