"Explore central park, the heart of New York city and the very first landscape public park in the United States. Central Park Then and Now presents compelling historic and contemporary images of this famous park from throughout its 150 year history and across its 843-acre sylvan landscape filled with a unique urban vitality."--Book jacket.

Since it opened in 1858, Central Park has been one of New York's most-photographed landmarks. However, while some of the park remains as it was then, much of the park's landscape has changed over the years. Through historic images and contemporary photographs by Denise Stavis Levine, Central Park provides a previously unseen glimpse of the park's hidden history and brings it up to date.

The year 2008 marks the 150th anniversary of the design of Central Park, the first and arguably the most famous of America’s urban landscape parks. In October 1857 the new park’s board of commissioners announced a public design competition, and the following April the imaginative yet practicable "Greensward” plan submitted by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted was selected. This book tells the fascinating story of how an extraordinary work of public art emerged from the crucible of New York City politics. From William Cullen Bryant’s 1844 editorial calling for "a pleasure ground of shade and recreation” to the completion of construction in 1870, the history of Central Park is an urban epic--a tale not only of animosity, political intrigue, and desire but also of idealism, sacrifice, and genius.

A pictorial history of the development of New York City’s Central Park from conception to completion. Drawing on the unparalleled collection of original designs for Central Park in the New York City Municipal Archives, Cynthia S. Brenwall tells the story of the creation of New York’s great public park, from its conception to its completion. This treasure trove of material ranges from the original winning competition entry; to meticulously detailed maps; to plans and elevations of buildings, some built, some unbuilt; to elegant designs for all kinds of fixtures needed in a world of gaslight and horses; to intricate engineering drawings of infrastructure elements. Much of it has never been published before. A virtual time machine that takes the reader on a journey through the park as it was originally envisioned, The Central Park is both a magnificent art book and a message from the past about what brilliant urban planning can do for a great city.

The story of how one woman's long love affair with New York's Central Park led her to organize its rescue from a state of serious decline, returning it to the beautiful place of recreational opportunity and spiritual sustenance that it is today. Elizabeth Barlow Rogers opens with a quick survey of her early life--a middle-class upbringing in Texas; college at Wellesley, marriage, a master's degree in city planning at Yale. And then her move to New York, where she starts a family and, when she finds being a mother and a housewife is not enough, pours herself into the protection and enhancement of the city's green spaces. Interwoven into her own story is a comprehensive history of Central Park: its design and construction as a scenic masterpiece; the alterations of each succeeding era; the addition of numerous facilities for sports and play; and finally, the "anything goes" phase of the 1960s and 70s, which was often fun but nearly destroyed the park. The two narratives continue to entwine as she finds a job in the administration of Central Park, founds the Central Park Conservancy, and transforms both the park and herself--a transformation that has led to the writing of her many books, to travels that have taken her to parks and gardens around the world, and to solidifying the prestige of one of New York's most conspicuous landmarks.

Putting archive and contemporary photographs of the same landmark side-by-side, Central Park Then and Now® celebrates the famous park throughout its 150-year history, as well as the roads and landmark buildings surrounding itCentral Park is an 843-acre sylvan landscape filled with a uniquely New York urban vitality. Crowds in long gowns and top hats change to mass gatherings in modern times, such as the 1968 rally against the Vietnam War and the vigil following John Lennon's death in 1980. Lost structures are revealed, including a lavish 1920s era nightclub, known as the Casino, and elaborate rustic shelters and bridges. The book is a "walk through the park," beginning at its elegant Fifth Central Park Avenue entrance at East 59th Street with views of the Plaza Hotel and Grand Army Plaza. It moves north along Manhattan's Upper East Side, taking in the Zoo, magnificent Mall, Terrace, Bethesda Fountain, and Metropolitan Museum of Art. It extends to the park's northern border at 110th Street in Harlem, returning south along the Upper West Side to West 59th Street. It presents picturesque scenes along the lake and boathouse, as well as the Great Lawn and Sheep Meadow where historic rallies and concerts took place. This side of the park also reveals hidden sites in the wooded Ramble, the glittering Tavern on the Green restaurant, and a Thanksgiving Day Parade that took place along Central Park West more than half a century ago. Other sites include Millionaires Row, Carriage Row, Inscope Arch, Belvedere Castle, Gapstow Bridge, Wollman Rick, Balto Memorial, Obelisk, Dairy, and Arsenal. Rare archival images are paired with specially commissioned photographs, bringing the past and present together to reveal New York's fascinating history; its major events, controversies, and cultural changes throughout the decades.

Twin Cities: Then and Now is an engaging, startling, and at times heartbreaking look at the dramatic evolution of landscapes in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Larry Millett, author of Lost Twin Cities, explores the changing appearances of Minneapolis and St. Paul from the vantage point of their relatively static streets. Seventy-two historic photographs taken from the 1880s to the late 1950s, are paired with Jerry Mathiason's elegant new black-and-white photographs to provide superb visual comparisons between then and now. Millett's lively and informative essays examine the often astonishing changes wrought by time and circumstance. Maps and detailed informational graphics provide orientation and identify hundreds of significant buildings and places in the photographs.