What are other important and still relevant statements of park design principles, past and present?
Over the last 150 years in the U.S., there has been a remarkable continuity in some of the basic purposes and justifications for preserving scenic and historic landscapes for the benefit of the public. Current ideas about who makes up the public (or publics) have changed, and so have the standards for what constitutes successful preservation of cultural and natural resources. But some basic assumptions about why governments should make parks, and how they should be planned and designed, remain valid. These assumptions are important to reconsider at the outset of the Designing the Parks effort. Click Here to read a range of excerpts that list at least some of the statements and documents that contain justifications for making state and national parks, as well as ideas about how they should be planned and designed to best achieve their purposes. They begin with writings by Frederick Law Olmsted, who strongly believed that public access to the experience of natural beauty was necessary fo
