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Renegade Naturalist Radio #6: Charles Beveridge, Expert on Urban Parks & Frederick Law Olmsted

February 1, 2013 By Daniel Botkin 2 Comments

https://www.danielbbotkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/RenegadeRadio_Ep06_Beveridge.mp3

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Renegade_Beveridge_featureimageRenegade Naturalist RadioThis episode of Renegade Naturalist Radio features Charles Beveridge, widely considered the foremost authority on the life and work of Frederick Law Olmsted.

Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) was the visionary urban planner and landscape architect behind dozens of important U.S. city parks in the late 1900s. Starting in 1857 with the design of Central Park in New York City, the crown jewel of American city parks, he created designs for thousands of landscapes.

Olmsted's legacy includes Boston’s Emerald Necklace, Prospect Park in Brooklyn, the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, Mount Royal in Montreal, the grounds of the U.S. Capitol and the White House, along with many other green spaces that have defined towns and cities

Dr. Beveridge is the editor of the seven-volume The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted, (American University, Washington, D.C.) and the author of Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing the American Landscape (Rizzoli, 2005).

In this interview, Beveridge discusses the importance of nature and vegetation in cities.

"Olmsted was very concerned about nature and very aware of the power of nature and the kind of role it could play in society and cities, and American cities, in particular. But everything he was concerned with was of the mixture of nature and art. He was not interested in wilderness, and that was really true of much of his generation; they had plenty of wilderness. They were interested in wildness, and Olmsted's approach was in some ways similar to Thoreau's in that respect."

For more information about Frederick Law Olmsted and Charles Beveridge, visit the Olmsted and America's Urban Parks website.

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Filed Under: People & Nature, Renegade Naturalist Radio Tagged With: conservation, Frederick Law Olmsted, Nature, renegade naturalist radio, urban ecology restoration

Comments

  1. Michael W Finkbeiner says

    May 24, 2013 at 11:19 am

    Your former student (Yale MFS ’71) thanks you for this site and your discussion of urban/wilderness values in design.

    Reply
    • Daniel Botkin says

      May 30, 2013 at 11:55 am

      Hello Michael,
      Thanks much for your comment. Good to hear from you. What are you up to?

      Dan Botkin

      Reply

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From Daniel B. Botkin, Ph.D

Daniel Botkin
I believe we are mostly on the wrong track in the way we try to deal with the environment. Everything I do, study, learn, and advise about the environment is different from the status quo. Throughout my career, I have tried to understand how nature works and use that understanding to figure out how we can solve our most pressing environmental problems.

My process over the past 45 years has been to look carefully at the facts, make simple calculations from them (sometimes simple computer models) and then tell people what I have learned. It’s surprising how rarely people bother to look at the facts. This has surprised me every time I’ve started a new ecology research project or work on an environmental issue.

In the course of my work and studies, I have learned many things and I want to tell you about them. That is the purpose of this website.

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