Few elements in the built environment have become more definitive than the road, but they are also a fundamental witness to the changing values of landscape architecture. The circulation plan for Central Park (and precedent rural cemeteries) is an early example of thinking through the relationship between nature and the body moving at speed through space. And if winding scenic byways and national park roads were the first efforts of landscape architects to shape the experience of moving by car, the parkway was likely its apotheosis.Parkways taught people to love driving and to see roads as something that held intrinsic value. A master of this art was the firm of Clarke & Rapuano. Primarily associated with Robert Moses’s urban projects, the firm was the subject of a ranging conversation I…
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Landscape Architecture (Digital) - 1 Issue, June 2024