Riceviamo e con piacere pubblichiamo il contributo inviatoci da Henry A. Calamia1 sul villaggio di Riverside (Illinois, USA), probabilmente la prima comunità pianificata negli Stati Uniti su progetto di Frederick Law Olmsted e Calvert Vaux (già progettisti del Central Park di New York, 1863-1870). Un'esperienza di pianificazione urbana sicuramente interessante e in sintonia con gli eventi di fine XIX secolo, periodo in cui negli Stati Uniti si sviluppò il City Beautiful Movement, di matrice estetica e paesaggistica, i cui principi ebbero ripercussioni in occasione dell’Esposizione Universale di Chicago2 (1893) nonché sulle origini del Piano regolatore di Chicago (Daniel H. Burnham e Edward H. Bennet, 1909).
1. Henry Calamia vive e lavora a Riverside, Illinois, e recentemente ha ultimato un romanzo sulle partite truccate nel calcio italiano / lives and works in Riverside, Illinois, and has just completed a novel about match-fixing in Italian football. Contacts: h.calamia@gmail.com
2. La Chicago world’s fair tenuta al Jackson Park, sul Lago Michigan, si propone come il manifesto del Movimento della Città bella e fu progettata in gran parte da Frederick Law Olmsted e Daniel H. Burnham.
Proponiamo la lettura del testo in lingua originale
|
Piano Generale di Riverside, 1869 |
In the United States, the concept of landscape architecture would be much different were it not for Frederick Law Olmsted. Best known for his work in designing New York’s Central Park, Olmsted was responsible for not only shaping the landscape of a growing country, but was also responsible for changing how Americans viewed public space. Perhaps one of Olmsted’s most dynamic achievements is the Chicago suburb of Riverside, Illinois, which is arguably the first planned community in the United States.
In 1673, French
explorers Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet were returning from an
expedition along the Mississippi River when Indian guides told them of a
shortcut. Coming northeast from the Illinois River and up the Des Plaines
River, they could portage their canoes a short distance to reach Lake Michigan,
which offered a direct route home. This area would become known as the Chicago
Portage: a crucial link for trappers and traders in a region that eventually would
become the center of commerce for the Midwest. If not for the expedition of
Marquette and Jolliet, and the guidance of local Indians, the city of Chicago might
never have come to exist.