Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn’s design gem
“What artist is noble,” Olmsted wrote, “as he who, with far-reaching conception of beauty…directs the shadows of a picture so great that Nature shall be employed upon it for generations.”
Credited as the world’s first parkway, Eastern Parkway is a Brooklyn staple. If you’re not familiar with Eastern Parkway, it’s a long stretch of multiple, wide sidewalks that connect Prospect Park, akin to Central Park, with surrounding neighborhoods in Brooklyn.
Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in 1869, they drew upon their earlier design choices implemented in Central Park (1858), calling upon a need for an escape from the chaos of Manhattan. Overwhelmed by the density, Olmsted and Vaux wanted to counteract the debilitating aspect of urbanization by carefully designing spaces in Brooklyn that celebrated openness and aesthetics. Parks, like Prospect Park, were carefully designed to have secluded pastoral landscapes, views of meadows, pastures, and still water for contemplation. Suburbs were used as a separation between the public (work) and private (home); suburbs were thought to have more openness, with wider roads, tree lined streets, and following natural topography. Parkways were the new urban spatial element that would link parks with suburbs, extending the park’s aesthetic benefits beyond the park itself.
“…Olmsted and Vaux wanted to counteract the debilitating aspect of urbanization by carefully designing spaces in Brooklyn that celebrated openness and aesthetics.”
Inspired by the the boulevards of Western European cities, Olmsted and Vaux built Eastern Parkway predominantly for pleasure. Beginning at the northernmost tip of Prospect Park, they wanted to create an experience where visitors and residents felt comfortable and connected with the natural environment, while also allowing for different modes of traffic to efficiently pass through.
The wide roadway at the center allows for streamlined car traffic, whereas the more narrow roadways are for bicycles (25’) and (once upon a time) carriages (30’). Six rows of mature, closely spaced trees continue the whole length of the street, carrying on for miles. The tree lined malls have become natural roadway dividers, and create aesthetically pleasing walkways down the middle of each mall. The parkway is a community affair, where lone visitors pass time reading on benches, and members of the community catch up in the mall. A constant flow of cyclists, pedestrians, runners, and cars has kept the thoroughfare thriving for over 150 years.
Eastern Parkway remains a landmark in landscape architecture, setting a precedent for how we navigate the complex relationship between urban landscape and natural form.
