The Politics of Park Design: A History of Urban Parks in America

by Galen Cranz

Galen Cranz surveys the rise of the park system from 1850 to the present through 4 stages - the pleasure ground, the reform park, the recreation facility and the open space system. Looking at both their physical design and social purpose, Cranz argues that city parks have become an instrument of social policy with the potential for reflecting and serving social values.

Galen Cranz is Associate Professor of Sociology in Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley

Genres: History

361 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1982

Reviews

[Jessica DeWitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough overview of the history of urban parks in the United States. Will be using frequently as a reference for my dissertation.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is surprisingly interesting, given the absolute blandness of the cover! It's also somewhat dated, restricted as it is to urban park design in the US to the beginning of the 1980s. But for all that, the writing is lucid, and there's a well-researched history here of motivation behind park design. Political motivation, that is: debates over what a park is for, exactly, and how landscape architecture can best be used to deliver on that purpose. Looking at the park near my house (not American)... it's basically just a big square, lined with trees, and a giant floaty sort of sculpture in the middle. I don't think that many of the park planners that Cranz describes would have approved... many of them seem to want to use public parks to somehow elevate public behaviour (to get the poor unwashed to mimic the culture of their betters), or to somehow fulfil patriotic, law-abiding, democratic, and other desired traits.

I have to admit that, enjoying parks as I do, I hadn't given a great deal of thought to the general history of their use - or, perhaps, of their intended use - but Cranz shows the slow evolution of purpose, and the varying desires of stakeholders, in a really interesting way. It's made me think about parks differently, so that's something.

[Jen A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insightful and easy to read history of the design and purpose of urban parks in the US. Read to get an understanding of how parks came to be and how their meaning shifted over time. Really appreciated the updated 2020 edition preface, which grounded this fairly dated book in more recent changes in the meaning of parks.

[LandscapeArchitect Books]

Recommended by Tom Turner - author of 'Garden History: Philosophy and Design 2000 BC - 2000 AD' - as one of forty books which - he suggests - every landscape student should have seen. Thanks to the Landscape Information Hub UK. http://www.lih.gre.ac.uk/histhe/books...