Great City Parks is a celebration of some of the finest achievements of landscape architecture in the public realm. It is a comparative study of thirty significant public parks in major cities across Western Europe and North America. Collectively, they give a clear picture of why parks have been created, how they have been designed, how they are managed, and what plans are being made for them at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Based on unique research including extensive site visits and interviews with the managing organisations, this book is illustrated throughout with clear plans and photographs– with this new edition featuring full colour throughout. Tate updates his seminal 2001 work with 10 additional parks, including: The High Line in NYC, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam. All the previous city parks have also been updated and revised to reflect current usage and management.
This book reflects a belief that well planned, well designed and well managed parks and park systems will continue to make major contributions to the quality of life in an increasingly urbanized world.
1. Paley Park, New York 2. Yorkville Park, Toronto 3. Freeway Park, Seattle 4. Bryant Park, New York 5. The High Line, New York 6. Parc de Bercy, Paris 7. Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam 8. Parc André-Citroën 9. Park Güell, Barcelona 10. Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, Paris 11. St James’s Park, London 12. Parque de Maria Luisa, Seville 13. Luisenpark, Mannheim 14. Vondelpark, Amsterdam 15. Parc de la Villette 16. Birkenhead Park 17. Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London 18. Grant Park, Chicago 19. The Regent’s Park, London 20. Stadtpark, Hamburg 21. Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord 22. The Großer Tiergarten, Berlin 23. Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York 24. Central Park, New York 25. Stanley Park, Vancouver 26 . Golden Gate Park, San Francisco 27. Emerald Necklace, Boston 28. Forest Park, St Louis 29. Amsterdamse Bos 30. Minneapolis Park System
Biography
Alan Tate has a degree in Town and Country Planning, an accredited Diploma in Landscape Design from the University of Manchester, and a PhD in Architecture from Edinburgh College of Art. He has over twenty years' professional experience and is a Fellow and Past President of the United Kingdom Landscape Institute. He has been teaching at the University of Manitoba since 1998 where he was promoted to the position of Professor in 2007 and was Head of Department from 2000 to 2005 and from 2011.
Marcella Eaton has a Bachelor of Environmental Studies from the University of Manitoba and a PhD in Landscape Architecture from Edinburgh College of Art. She has many years of professional experience, largely in Toronto, and has been teaching at the University of Manitoba since 1998. She has been Associate Dean Academic in the Faculty of Architecture since 2009.
"Great City Parks is a 344-page treasure chest for park professionals and aficionados and catnip for city park enthusiasts. It is a book to which one can return repeatedly and which one can treat both as a great reference book and as a primer for how one might think about designing or restoring the next great park." - Adrian Benepe, The Nature of Cities
"Great City Parks [first edition] by Alan Tate, who himself has designed parks from Hong Kong to Disney Paris, is a detailed analysis of twenty parks, their planning, design and the management criteria for their success. The parks chosen are of different size, ages and characteristics. Each was designed for public use, allowed free admission and, to Tate, are significant examples of design. He reviews the sites, the rationale for their choice and the key figures behind their creation and design."— Dr Michael Bounds, Urban Research Centre, University of Western Sydney
