Green Metropolis ― The Extraordinary Landscapes of New York City As Nature, History, and Design

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.

ELIZABETH BARLOW ROGERS is the president of the Foundation for Landscape Studies, and the author of eight previous books. A native of San Antonio, Texas, she has been a resident of New York City since 1964. She was the first person to hold the title of Central Park Administrator, a position created in 1979; in 1980, she was instrumental in the founding of the Central Park Conservancy, a public-private partnership supporting the restoration and management of the park. She served in both positions until 1996.