Romantic Gardens: Nature Art and Landscape Design

“A landscape of buildings and streets” – this is a visual definition of urbanism. Connecting one with the other in order to accommodate pedestrians who seek to reach desired destinations on foot while absorbing impressions by eye must be taken into consideration. Therefore, the word “sidewalk” can be defined as a pedestrian path comprised of identical ground-level slabs of limestone that form a continuous route to a series of geographically linked human constructions. To be precise, a sidewalk is a pedestrian pathway adjacent to one side of a street or roadway with a linear curb to separate the surface for vehicular movement from an adjacent ground-level pathway designed for pedestrian mobility, a statement that implies that this form of outdoor hallway may also run alongside a group of contiguous commercial and residential buildings or individual public or private institutions, such as schools, hospitals and museums, and fenced public recreation spaces, such as parks and playgrounds. Based on the property linkage of individual homes within a residential community, sidewalks provide an opportunity for sociability among neighbors and the establishment of routes for children who walk to school.

How on earth did the Old New York become New New York sixty years ago? The answer lies in the creation of the Landmarks Preservation Commission as a branch of New York City government. In assembling a roster of architectural critics and knowledgeable aficionados of historic landmarks preservation versed in the processes and political difficulties of saving historic buildings and neighborhoods Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel has produced and edited twelve essays that comprise a thought-provoking compendium from which the author of the following review excerpts passages that shed light upon the meanings of the steps undertaken and results achieved by landmark restorers and the nature of the political and economic forces with which they contend.