CHAPTER II
THE GREENSWARD PLAN

1858

In This Report, Olmsted and Vaux describe the Central Park site and the basic elements of their proposed design. They first address the question of topography, indicating the parklike character of the open, rolling, upper park, and contrasting it with the deeply gullied and rocky terrain of the section south of the reservoirs. They demonstrate why the lower park would necessarily be divided into several sections intended for different uses and with different landscape effects. At the same time, they indicate that the Ramble hillside, the area with the finest natural scenery, would provide a focus for the design of the lower park.

Olmsted and Vaux then address the question of circulation in and through the park, and present their novel concept of sinking the required transverse roads below the surface of the ground. Describing the experience of a visitor who enters the park through the entrance at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, they show how the Promenade (later called the Mall) would serve to unify the lower park. They warn that the formal Promenade would be the only important clearly artificial structure in the park, and that all buildings and bridges should be inconspicuous and “confessedly subservient to the main idea” of the park as a series of passages of scenery.

After noting the other features of their design, the authors conclude the first section of the report with a description of the extensive arboretum of American trees and shrubs they wish to establish in the northeastern corner of the park. In the second section they discuss construction procedures and costs, while in the third they list the trees and shrubs they propose for the arboretum and the plant materials to be used to create an effect of “subtropical luxuriance” in sections of the Lake shore and the Ramble. Interspersed with the text of the report are the nine views that Olmsted and Vaux submitted showing the “present condition” and “effect proposed” for various areas of the park. The “Greensward” competition design also is presented, in three sections.

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