It's well known they preferred Prospect Park over Central Park for its design properties, and among other things, because they were basically able to take the lessons (and mistakes) they learned from designing Central Park and apply them to Prospect Park.
Olmstead and Vaux had deep philosophical ideas about the purpose and design of pubic parks, and those ideas permeate the parks of our world today.
They believed parks should be designed with an overall unified composition that takes advantage of the natural, organic characteristics of the site. Parks should be subtly divided into subsections, where each has its own purposeful use. Thereby, a person can move through without apprehension of collision of different kinds of traffic (ie. pedestrians, bikes, horses, there were no autos in their day).
A park is a place where a person can be a part of nature. Plants should thrive, be non-invasive. The design should conserve the natural features of the site to provide for the continued ecological health of the area.
They believed that a wildflower seen in nature had a greater affect on a person than a rare flower seen in a museum.
A quote from Olmstead illustrates how seriously they took their work:
It is a scientific fact that the occasional contemplation of natural scenes of an impressive character, particularly if this contemplation occurs in connection with relief from ordinary cares, change of air and change of habits, is favorable to the health and vigor of men…The want of such occasional recreation where men and women are habitually pressed by their business or household cares often results in a class of disorders the characteristic quality of which is mental disability, sometimes taking the severe forms of softening of the brain, paralysis, palsey, monomania, or insanity, but more frequently of mental and nervous excitability, moroseness, melancholy, or irascibility, incapacitating the subject for the proper exercise of the intellectual and moral forces.***********************
Today, there might be some light debate among Brooklynites about which park is better: Prospect Park vs Central Park. But to most people outside of NYC that would be like comparing apples to some fruit no one has ever heard of.
Central Park is the most famous public park in the world, and a marvelous intersection of people, both tourists and locals. The history is rich, and the park is depicted in films, music and books. Indeed, one of the most "New York things" I can think of is the roller skating dancers that meet every Saturday and Sunday afternoon in Central Park.
Yes ultimately the debate on Prospect Park vs Central Park is the same as the more over-arching debate of Brooklyn vs Manhattan. The same reason the common tourist wouldn't visit Brooklyn in the first place: it's a great place to live, but wouldn't want to visit.
Except for maybe Williamsburg, OR if you had a local showing you around, you would probably be amiss of touring Brooklyn. And that's perfectly ok with everyone living in Brooklyn.
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I live next to Prospect Park, and it's a great place for introspection. Especially during the week. In the mornings, on weekdays, it's quite empty, and during the winter months it's a ghost town.
The reason Olmstead and Vaux preferred Prospect Park over Central Park is because its superior design allows a person to flow through, and exist in, the park and absorb "the occasional contemplation of natural scenes of an impressive character, particularly if this contemplation occurs in connection with relief from ordinary cares, change of air and change of habits, [it] is favorable to the health and vigor".
Prospect Park is roughly 2/3 the size of Central Park but feels much larger. It's easier to get lost in Prospect Park.
Central Park is a rectangle surrounded by tall buildings, Prospect Park is a polygon surrounded by buildings only a few of which are taller than the trees in the park.
Prospect Park has rougher terrain, more hills and hidden meandering trails. I'm not suggesting it's Yosemite, but it's easy to get away from traffic, and for the most part, people, in general.
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NOW, go on the weekends ... in the Spring, Summer or Fall ... and it's a different story. People playing baseball, soccer, flying kites, lying on blankets. Grilling, playing music. Hundreds of joggers, bikers, walkers. Concerts at the bandshell.
The same comparison could be made to the nearby Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. It's free on Tuesdays so a pro move is to walk through the Botanic Gardens on the way to Prospect Park.
Go to the Botanic Gardens on the weekend and you can hardly get in a photo without dozens of people in the frame.
The same for restaurants, museums, grocery stores, movie theaters, the beaches.
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I couldn't tell you how many lost weekends I've blinked and missed. Friday afternoon into Sunday night, and I'm climbing the stairs out of the Subway at 7am on Monday against the crowd of ice-coffee sippers rushing off to cubicle-land.
After a few years, friends stop texting on the weekends to ask what you are up to.
But alas, listlessly wanting for the "normal" work-life has another side of the coin. The secret of the freelancer, the gigger, is the free time on weekday afternoons, the empty beaches, museums, grocery stores, and parks.
Weekends in Prospect Park? let everyone else have their time. I'll go on a Tuesday when it's empty.
To see the working world through the lens of resolve while most are at full attention, to wander while most work, is something to relish.
I've noticed my reaction to my girlfriend's suggestions that we do some fun or adventurous excursion on the weekend. I suggest we go during the week, "We should go like on a Tuesday afternoon when no one is there." She works during the week, so obviously this is both a useless and selfish suggestion. But I've grown an allergy to crowds and lines, certainly of the brunch variety.
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Julio Cortazar in his 1963 novel Hopscotch says:
I do not believe the firefly gets any great satisfaction from the incontrovertible fact that he is one of the most amazing wanders of this circus, and yet one can imagine a consciousness alert enough to understand that every time he lights his belly this light-bearing bug must feel some inkling of privilege.For the freelancer, gigger, that privelege, whether you can put your finger on it or not, is an empty park on a Tuesday afternoon. Or the famous pizza place with a 2 hour wait on Saturday, but 10 minute wait on Wednesday.
When I graduated college, there was this idea: graduate, salary, house, wife, dog, kids, etc. There was a tendency to see gigging as floundering, floating. Perhaps, but at first I realized there was some inkling of privilege in there, and over time, I've come to appreciate and take advantage. The "floundering, floating" notion is a wry smile that I'm cheating and getting away with it.
Maybe most people wouldn't give that up to work through the weekend, or even more unimaginable to most people: be away from home for weeks or months. But that's perfectly ok with me, and probably everyone else who tours. The point is that the touring freelance lifestyle is different and I realize that and prefer it.
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Some articles on Prospect Park:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/nyregion/11parks.html?_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/17/realestate/streetscapes-prospect-park-the-other-olmsted-vaux-landscape-masterpiece.html?mcubz=0
https://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/munshisouth10/group-projects/prospect-park/olmsteds-role/
Some articles on Frederick Law Olmstead:
http://www.olmsted.org/the-olmsted-legacy/olmsted-theory-and-design-principles/design-principles
http://www.olmsted.org/the-olmsted-legacy/olmsted-theory-and-design-principles/olmsted-his-essential-theory
http://wildhood.net/blog/2016/5/17/olmsteds-unconscious-recreation
https://signalvnoise.com/posts/2919-ten-design-lessons-from-frederick-law-olmsted-the-father-of-american-landscape-architecture