Friends Annual Meeting/Program - New York’s Green Jewels: Central and Prospect Parks

Dinner and Annual Meeting: 6 to 7PM

Presentation will begin promptly at 7PM

New York’s Green Jewels: Central and Prospect Parks

Central Park has frequently been called New York’s backyard, the city’s lungs, and its green jewel. It is all of those things, as well as a significant urban park that changed the way cities across the United States thought about how to incorporate green spaces into their burgeoning metropolises in the 19th century. Prospect Park, Central’s sister park in Brooklyn, is considered superior by historians, urban planners, and landscape architects. Both are works of genius and were designed by the same team of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.

In this illustrated slide lecture, architectural historian and preservationist Jane Cowan will take you on an armchair tour of these urban wonders. Discover lesser-known areas like the North Woods with its Loch in Central Park and the newly restored Vale of Cashmere in Prospect Park. Learn the reason for these parks’ construction and the fascinating and contentious story of how they came to be. Discover how the seamless melding of architecture and nature makes these urban oases some of New York City’s most-loved spaces more than 150 years after their creation.

 Ms. Cowan will bring our armchair tour to life with contemporary photographs as well as historic photographs, maps, and documents.