Eastern Parkway: Shades of Paris in the County of Kings
POLITICAL CULTURE writes about beauty:
Imagine for a moment a networked system of radial boulevards bursting forth from Prospect Park and approaching destinations in outer Brooklyn and Queens. A Parisian type arrangement with all the trimmings: promenades, planted flowers, enchanting elms, and decorative footpaths. In the mid-nineteenth century, Frederick Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, together with Brooklyn�s Parks Commission, sought to make this dream a reality. And Baron Haussmann, the urban planning genius who by creating boulevards in the city�s center transformed Napoleon III�s Paris, was the inspiration. While the larger idea never came to pass (for example: no President St. or Douglass St. boulevards as initially planned), two first rate thoroughfares did manage to emerge from the original design: Ocean Parkway and the monumental Eastern Parkway. Designed and layed out in the late 1860s-- largely coterminous with Prospect Park�s development-- Eastern Parkway�s 2.2 miles from Grand Army Plaza to Ralph Ave on Crown Heights� western border, became the world�s first parkway and a model of urban planning.
Although wide-scale development along the boulevard was to await the completion of the IRT New Lots line decades later, Eastern Parkway did become a central axis for pedestrians and carriage riders. Outfitted with three roadways, separated by two malls, and all divided by glorious tree rows, it would attract such fundamental institutions as the Brooklyn Museum and the Botanic Gardens, as well as sumptious rounded bay nineteenth century row houses.
Curiously, today�s planners would never allow an Eastern Parkway according to University of California-Berkeley urban design specialist Elizabeth Macdonald. Maintaining an artery hospitable to both human and vehicular traffic is far too costly in terms of safety and traffic flow. Ironically, however, Eastern Parkway scores well on both counts (no more accidents comparatively, and a reasonable flow of cars) proving that a century and a half old model of planning can translate successfully into contemporary use.
Certainly Eastern Parkway�s designers, Olmsted and Vaux, are better known for Manhattan�s Central Park. But it was the City of Brooklyn that was the beneficiary of the bulk of that dynamic duo�s New York works. Besides Eastern Parkway, they were responsible for, among others, Prospect Park (which they held in higher esteem than Central Park), Fort Greene Park, and Ocean Parkway.
These days Eastern Parkway is probably best known for its annual labor day West Indian Carnival & Parade, one of New York�s largest and most colorful celebrations. Inaugurated 36 years ago it often draws over one million persons enjoying the rich culture of the West Indian community. Eastern Parkway is also the world headquarters, at number 770, of the Lubavitcher Hasidic movement, the largest Hasidic sect in the world.
Eastern Parkway was designated a �scenic landmark� by the landmarks preservation commission in 1978. In petitioning for landmark status, then Borough President Sebastian Leone pointed out that �the parkway has encouraged the erection of outstanding cultural, religious and residential buildings,� and that �such a designation may assist us in obtaining state and federal help to recondition its roadways and pedestrian paths.� How right Leone was. The late 1980s saw a $58M restoration effort of Eastern Parkway, at the time the single largest road construction project ever advanced, the results of which are enjoyed today by pedestrians and motorists alike.
Imagine for a moment a networked system of radial boulevards bursting forth from Prospect Park and approaching destinations in outer Brooklyn and Queens. A Parisian type arrangement with all the trimmings: promenades, planted flowers, enchanting elms, and decorative footpaths. In the mid-nineteenth century, Frederick Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, together with Brooklyn�s Parks Commission, sought to make this dream a reality. And Baron Haussmann, the urban planning genius who by creating boulevards in the city�s center transformed Napoleon III�s Paris, was the inspiration. While the larger idea never came to pass (for example: no President St. or Douglass St. boulevards as initially planned), two first rate thoroughfares did manage to emerge from the original design: Ocean Parkway and the monumental Eastern Parkway. Designed and layed out in the late 1860s-- largely coterminous with Prospect Park�s development-- Eastern Parkway�s 2.2 miles from Grand Army Plaza to Ralph Ave on Crown Heights� western border, became the world�s first parkway and a model of urban planning.
Although wide-scale development along the boulevard was to await the completion of the IRT New Lots line decades later, Eastern Parkway did become a central axis for pedestrians and carriage riders. Outfitted with three roadways, separated by two malls, and all divided by glorious tree rows, it would attract such fundamental institutions as the Brooklyn Museum and the Botanic Gardens, as well as sumptious rounded bay nineteenth century row houses.
Curiously, today�s planners would never allow an Eastern Parkway according to University of California-Berkeley urban design specialist Elizabeth Macdonald. Maintaining an artery hospitable to both human and vehicular traffic is far too costly in terms of safety and traffic flow. Ironically, however, Eastern Parkway scores well on both counts (no more accidents comparatively, and a reasonable flow of cars) proving that a century and a half old model of planning can translate successfully into contemporary use.
Certainly Eastern Parkway�s designers, Olmsted and Vaux, are better known for Manhattan�s Central Park. But it was the City of Brooklyn that was the beneficiary of the bulk of that dynamic duo�s New York works. Besides Eastern Parkway, they were responsible for, among others, Prospect Park (which they held in higher esteem than Central Park), Fort Greene Park, and Ocean Parkway.
These days Eastern Parkway is probably best known for its annual labor day West Indian Carnival & Parade, one of New York�s largest and most colorful celebrations. Inaugurated 36 years ago it often draws over one million persons enjoying the rich culture of the West Indian community. Eastern Parkway is also the world headquarters, at number 770, of the Lubavitcher Hasidic movement, the largest Hasidic sect in the world.
Eastern Parkway was designated a �scenic landmark� by the landmarks preservation commission in 1978. In petitioning for landmark status, then Borough President Sebastian Leone pointed out that �the parkway has encouraged the erection of outstanding cultural, religious and residential buildings,� and that �such a designation may assist us in obtaining state and federal help to recondition its roadways and pedestrian paths.� How right Leone was. The late 1980s saw a $58M restoration effort of Eastern Parkway, at the time the single largest road construction project ever advanced, the results of which are enjoyed today by pedestrians and motorists alike.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 11:39 PM
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