Green metropolis
Subtitle: the extraordinary landscapes of New York City as nature, history, and design
By: Elizabeth Barlow Rogers
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Published: 2016
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9781101875537; 9781101875544
Subjects: NATURE / Environmental Conservation & Protection; Urban ecology (Sociology); Natural areas; Urban ecology (Biology); Parks; Environmental conditions; HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Middle Atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA); ART / Subjects & Themes / Landscapes; Natural history; City planning; Human ecology; Landscapes; History
Description: "The woman who launched the restoration of Central Park in 1980 surveys in depth seven green landscapes in New York City, their history--both natural and human--and how they have been transformed over time. Elizabeth Barlow Rogers describes seven landscapes: greenbelt and nature refuge that runs along the spine of Staten Island on land once intended for a highway; Jamaica Bay, near JFK Airport, whose mosaic of fragile, endangered marshes has been preserved as a bird sanctuary; Inwood Hill, in upper Manhattan, whose forest once sheltered Native Americans and Revolutionary soldiers before it became a site for wealthy estates and subsequently a public park; the Central Park Ramble, a carefully designed artificial wilderness in the middle of the city; Roosevelt Island, formerly Welfare Island, in the East River, where urban planners built a traffic-free 'new town in town' in the 1970s and whose southern tip now boasts the Louis Kahn-designed memorial to FDR; Fresh Kills, the James Corner Field Operations-designed 2,200-acre park on Staten Island that is being created out of what was once the world's largest landfill; The High Line, in Manhattan's Chelsea and West Village neighborhoods, an aerial promenade built on an abandoned elevated rail spur"--
Notes: "A Borzoi book"--Title page verso.
Table of contents: title: Green Metropolis : Birth of a Landscape; title: Green Woods : Staten Island Greenbelt; title: Green Marshes : Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge; title: Green Forest : Inwood Hill Park; title: Green Miracle : Central Park Ramble; title: Green Community : Roosevelt Island; title: Green Garbage : Fresh Kills; title: Green Promenade : The High Line.