OLMSTED'S VISION AND U.S. PARKS

Catalog description

This course begins with the ideals and legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed the Emerald Necklace in Boston and Central Park in New York City and whose Brookline firm shaped outdoor spaces across the U.S., including numerous cities, campuses, and national parks. Reading and viewing establish the context for Olmsted’s influential vision through a range of media, especially historical archives, essays, poetry, short stories, paintings, photographs, and short films. His work acts as a springboard to themes and challenges that have become increasingly relevant in the U.S. in the twenty-first century, including access to green space as a social justice issue, what it means to say a park is public or national, and competing claims on conserved tracts of land, particularly in the American West. Students venture into Boston parks on multiple occasions and make at least one site visit to the Museum of Fine Arts. Prerequisite: completion of an English Sequence. (4 credits)