Ignaz Pilat

Ignaz Pilat , actually Ignatz Anton Pilát (born June 27, 1820 in St. Agatha , † September 17, 1870 in New York City ), was an Austrian gardener who played a key role in designing Central Park in New York City. Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " IAPilát ".

life and work

Pilat was born as the youngest of eight siblings on June 27, 1820 in St. Agatha in Upper Austria.

First he trained at a college in Vienna, then at the botanical garden of the University of Vienna , where he also began his professional life as a gardener. He then moved to the imperial botanical garden Schönbrunn . An indication of his excellent reputation can be that he was commissioned to create a park for Prince Metternich , his first major work. From 1843 to 1853 he worked at the Schönbrunn Botanical Garden. In 1856 he went to America, initially as head gardener on the property of Thomas Metcalf near Augusta (Georgia) . In 1856 he returned to Vienna to take over the management of the Botanical Garden. In 1857 he was back in America, this time in New York, where he took part in the competition to design Central Park.

Pilat is also the author of a well-known textbook on botany (published in Vienna) and a work on garden design (published in Linz).

Central Park

His reputation as a Pilat was probably the reason for Andrew H. Green , head of the Park Commission for the establishment of Central Park, to appoint him to the Central Park facility in New York , a position that he held until his death. As recently as 1857, Pilat and Charles Rowolle made an inventory of the existing vegetation on the site prior to the new construction . He then played a key role in shaping Central Park. As the chief landscape gardener ("first landscape gardener"; his area of ​​responsibility corresponded roughly to that of today's landscape architect) and assistant to chief planner Frederick Law Olmsted , Pilat was responsible for the selection of all plants, their arrangement, detailed work on the site and the space-defining views that were already highly praised at the time. In particular, the design of the part of the park “The Ramble”, an 18-hectare artificial wilderness landscape in the middle of Central Park, is attributed to Pilat. His assistant was the Karlsruhe-born gardener Wilhelm L. Fischer (1819–1899).

The Ignaz Pilat Society , founded on April 13, 2005 by the austrian cultural forum in New York , is dedicated to Pilat and is responsible for the renovation of "The Ramble".

Washington Square Park

Washington Square Park

From 1869/1870, the formal landscape was redesigned by Pilat, together with the engineer Montgomery Alexander Kellogg . One of the first redevelopment projects of the "Department of Public Parks" founded in 1870 (head: William Grant ), whose chief landscape planner was Pilat.

Madison Square Park

Madison Square, 1908

Another work by Pilat that he created with William Grant is the redesign of the park on Madison Square in Manhattan (5th Avenue), (originally opened on May 10, 1847, redesigned by Pilat / Grant 1870). In the course of the redesign, numerous figures were placed in the park. The original park was destroyed in 1925 when the New York Life insurance building was built. In June 2001 a redesign was reopened.

Canal Street Park

Also one of the earliest public parks in the city. Later redesigned by Samuel Parsons and destroyed in 1929 during construction work on the West Side Highway.

See also

• List of well-known Austrian emigrants from the USA

literature

• Fritz Weigl: You had the green thumb. Austrian gardener portraits; a biographical photo album of the green guild (perspectives on the history of science: “popular”; 2). Erasmus-Verlag, Vienna 2005. ISBN 3-9500624-7-5 .
• MM Graff: The men who made Central Park . Greensward Foundation, New York 1982 (illustrated by Esther Bubley )
• Franziska Kirchner: Central Park in New York and the influence of German garden theory and practice on its design . (Green row; 23). Werner, Worms 2002. ISBN 3-88462-178-5 (biography in particular pp. 203-226).
• Franziska Kirchner: The Central Park. An American-German cooperation. In: Die Gartenkunst / NF , Vol. 18 (2006), Issue 1, pp. 55–68, ISSN  0935-0519

Web links

• The Men Who Made Central Park (English)
• New York: An Austrian as a Park Father , Die Presse, December 1, 2003
• New York: Austrians in Central Park , Die Presse, November 18, 2004