Charles Eliot (landscape architect)

Charles Eliot (born November 1, 1859 in Cambridge , Massachusetts , United States ; † March 25, 1897 in Brookline ) was a leading American landscape architect who died of fatal meningitis at the age of 38 . Eliot was one of the pioneers of the fundamental principles of spatial planning and laid the conceptual and political foundation for the designation of protected areas of various types around the world. He also played a major role in the design of the Boston Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston , designed a number of public and private landscapes, and published extensive writings on a variety of topics.

Early life

Charles Eliot's father was Charles William Eliot and President of Harvard University , who wrote a biography about his son after his son's death in 1901. The father's cousin , Charles Eliot Norton , was also a Harvard professor of art history and a well-known man of letters . Charles Eliot graduated from Harvard in 1882, and finished thereafter special horticultural courses at the Bussey Institute at the University to focus on his job as a landscape architect to prepare. He is part of the Boston-based Eliot family , whose relatives are still trying to protect the earth from exploitation wherever possible.

Career

In 1883 Eliot became assistant to Frederick Law Olmsted , in whose company he worked on designs for the objects Cushing Island (1883), Back Bay Fens (1883), Franklin Park (1884), Belle Isle Park (1884) and Arnold Arboretum ( 1885) worked. In 1885 Eliot traveled to Europe on instructions from Olmsted to study natural landscapes and to see the designs of Capability Brown , Humphry Repton , Joseph Paxton and Hermann von Pückler-Muskau . His travel diaries are now one of the best sources for the appearance of European landscapes in the late 19th century.

Upon returning to Boston in 1886, Eliot opened his own office. His commissions included White Park in Concord (1888), today's Mill Creek Park in Youngstown (1891) and town planning for Salt Lake City (1890). After the death of Henry Sargent Codman , Olmsted's son Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. and his stepbrother John Charles Olmsted asked Eliot if he wanted to become a full partner in their company. This agreed in March 1893, so that the company was renamed Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot . Within a few months, Eliot took over the running of the business more and more as the older Olmsted brothers' health continued to decline.

Life's work

Eliot's work can still be seen in and around Boston to this day . He published concepts for the esplanades along the Charles River , as previously announced by Charles Davenport and others. As a consulting landscape architect for the Metropolitan Park Commission , he oversaw the acquisition of much of the waterfront in Boston, Watertown and Newton . Eliot was responsible for the landscape work on the Esplanade in Cambridge , and he also realized the promenade in Boston by implementing the designs by Guy Lowell (1910) and Arthur Shurcliff (1936). In 1883 he designed Longfellow Park between Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's home in Cambridge and the Charles River . Until his death he was the responsible partner for the work of his company on Fresh Pond in Cambridge .

In addition to his regular work Eliot wrote regularly technical articles for the magazine Garden and Forest . On March 5, 1890, he published a seminal article there entitled "Waverly Oaks", in which he spoke out in favor of protecting a population of oaks in Belmont . In doing so, he described a general strategy for preserving landscapes following the same pattern as the Boston Public Library for books and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for works of art. This article led the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to hold a conference on the subject of securing landscapes in 1890, the results of which in turn formed the basis for the formation of the Trustees of Reservations for the Massachusetts legislature in 1891 . This was the first organization in the world whose aim was to preserve and manage “beautiful and historical places”. These principles were adopted and further developed in the United Kingdom by the National Trust .

After Eliot's death, the company in which he had been a partner until the end was re-established as the Olmsted Brothers . This company was one of the best known landscape architecture firms in the United States for another 50 years, designing thousands of parks, gardens, and landscapes throughout the 20th century.

It is generally believed that Eliot's works served as inspiration for the establishment of Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island , Maine .

See also

• Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston

Individual evidence

1. ^ Charles William Eliot : Charles Eliot, landscape architect . University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst 1999, ISBN 1-55849-212-7 .
2. ^ Karl Haglund: Inventing the Charles River . MIT Press, Cambridge 2003, ISBN 0-262-27469-8 .
3. ^ Hancock Country Trustees of Public Reservations. National Park Service, accessed May 16, 2012 .