Architecture Landscape & Public Lands in the Early 20th Century
US Forest Service 1905
National Park Service 1916
State Park Systems 1920's
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, U.S. President 1901-1909 revolutionized management of public lands
President Teddy Roosevelt at Liberty Cap, Yellowstone 1903
US Forest Service 1905 Gifford Pinchot, Chief Forester Conservationists vs. Preservationists Antiquities Act 1906 Gave president power to set aside National Monuments Grand Canyon, 1908
Landscape Architecture & the United States Forest Service
Frank Waugh, Landscape Architect hired as an outside consultant to the USFS 1917, 1920's Recreation Uses in the National Forests The Natural Style in Landscape Gardening
Arthur Carhart, First Landscape Architect employed by the USFS 1919-1922 Advocate for the preservation of Wilderness
Mission of the National Park Service
Frederic Law Olmsted, Jr., 1916
"to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations"
Early Leadership in the National Park Service
Stephen Mather & Horace Albright
Stephen Mather First NPS Director, served 1917-1929
"Father of the National Park Service"
"all of the improvements in the parks must be carefully harmonized with the landscape, and to this end, engineers trained in landscape architecture or fully appreciative of the necessity for maintaining the parks in their natural state must be employed"
Horace Albright, Assistant Director 1917-1919
Superintendent of Yellowstone 1919-1929
NPS Director 1929-1933
Landscape Architecture in the First Decade of the National Park Service
Consultants: Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr Mission Statement Acadia NP, Maine and other parks Warren Manning Proposed a system of connected National Parks and Monuments via roads, trails, and scenic drives Employees: Charles Punchard, Jr. Head of first division of "Landscape Engineering", 1918-1920 Thomas Vint Replaced assistant landscape engineer Kiessig in 1922 Replaced Hull in 1927 as Chief Landscape Architect, later Chief Architect 40 years years at NPS developed a Master Plan system to guide all future planning for each park
Daniel Hull & Paul Kiessig Landscape Architects, replacements of Punchard
The Role of the National Park Service in Establishing State Park Systems
Background Yosemite & Mariposa Big Tree Grove first "State Parks", California, 1864 Niagara Falls Reservation & Adirondack Forest Reserve in New York, 1885 Various states tentatively follow suit in 1890s by 1918 only of the states had state parks, none were organized into a state parks system National Park Service steps in After WWI (1918) an increased use of automobiles led to increasingly heavy use of National Park lands Stephen Mather, NPS Director, saw the use of Parks State as a buffer to help relieve pressures on National Parks Mather organized the first National Conference of State Parks in 1921 resulted in a rapid expansion of State Parks and creation of agencies to oversee them - 17 state park boards created between 1921 and 1927
New York State Park System
Robert Moses, "Master Builder" 1888-1981
Bronx River Parkway, New York
Leslie G. Holleran, Engineer & Hermann Merkel, Landscape Architect 1912-1923
Bronx River Parkway
before & after
The Great Depression
1929 1940
The Dust Bowl
1930s
The New Deal
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
1933-1945 Soil Conservation Service
Tennessee Valley Authority
Works Progress Administration
Civilian Conservation Corps
"Alphabet Soup"
WPA
Funding for the Arts
WPA
Education
WPA - Zoos
Civilian Conservation Corps
US Forest Service, National Park Service, State & Municipal Parks
10 Labor Classifications in the CCC
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Structural Improvements: bridges, fire lookout towers, service buildings Transportation: truck trails, minor roads, foot trails and airport landing fields Erosion Control: check dams, terracing and vegetable covering; Flood Control: irrigation, drainage, dams, ditching, channel work, riprapping Forest Culture: planting trees and shrubs, timber stand improvement, seed collection, nursery work 6. Forest Protection: fire prevention, fire fighting, insect and disease control 7. Landscape and Recreation: public camp and picnic ground development, lake and pond site clearing and development 8. Range: stock driveways, elimination of predatory animals 9. Wildlife: stream improvement, fish stocking, food and cover planting 10. Miscellaneous: emergency work, surveys, mosquito control
Landscape Architects Serving the New Deal
Landscape Architect Leadership in the 1930s NPS
Thomas Vint (1894-1967)
1933 - Chief of the Park Service Branch of Plans and Designs
Hired team of landscape architects and architects design oversight of all NPS and State Park developments
Began and supervised HABS (Historic American Buildings Survey), also in 1933
Conrad Wirth (1899-1993)
1931 - joined the NPS as Assistant Director for Land Planning 1933 - supervised the service's Civilian Conservation Corps program in the state parks. Only Landscape Architect to serve as Director of the NPS, 1951-1964
National Park Service Campground Plans
1930's
NPS, WPA & CCC Work in Arkansas Parks
NPS `See America First' Campaign
WPA Posters
Blue Ridge Parkway, 1935-1984
NPS, WPA & CCC Stanley Abbott, Landscape Architect
Blue Ridge Parkway National Parkway
North Carolina & Virginia Links Shenandoah & Great Smoky Mountains National Parks, 469 miles
National Historical Parks & National Historic Sites
Colonial National Historical Park (Yorktown, Williamsburg & Jamestown, 1930 & 1936) HABS (Historic American Buildings Survey) 1933 Salem Maritime National Historic Site, 1935
State & Federal Lands, 1995