Every city in North America seems to have a park at its heart. Both Mount Royal Park in Montréal and Central Park in New York are leading examples of urban green space as the defining characteristic of a city.

Try to imagine Montréal without its "mountain’’ and right away we see that the logic of how Montréal is organized disappears. As the focus of the city, the mountain sets the visual rules for the development of our urban architecture, as well as allowing for sinuous roads rather than strictly traffic thoroughfares. The park coincides with the space and time continuum adopted by Montrealers, as well as offering the opportunity to either wander in a natural setting or simply rediscover themselves with the changing seasons.

Central Park offers New Yorkers a similar experience, an island of real nature squeezed into the hustle and bustle of a major metropolis. People go there to relax, play sports, admire an installation, listen to a concert….Twenty million visitors a year define Central Park as one of Manhattan’s major tourist destinations.

In each case, these cities have shown a similar way of integrating nature into the urban fabric, striking a balance. They also share the same history relating to the development of urban parks in North America, during the latter period of the nineteenth century, in response to unprecedented industrial and commercial growth.

Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), an American social reformer and democrat, was the instigator of the design and creation of numerous ‘’central parks’’ and is considered the founder of landscape architecture.  He was highly regarded as an environmental planner, and won the competition to design Central Park in New York. His concepts of landscape planning and design not only continued to develop, but were regarded as the standard in North America.

 

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