Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
areas. Elaborate tables were prepared, ratios of appropriate acreage per capita
were enumerated, and the various types of spaces were described in the lan-
guage of sociology and economics rather than in the traditional discourses
of landscape design, environmental science, or nature worship. Despite these
rhetorical changes, the 1950 open space program was not appreciably dif-
ferent than earlier park development proposals.
52
A decade later, when the National Capital Planning Commission
(NCPC) issued its Year 2000 Policies Plan, the conceptual framework had
shifted to an even more abstract basis. Undeveloped areas were portrayed as
amorphous green spaces, to be pushed and pulled into various configura-
tions as planners pondered schematic development strategies, which they
portrayed in colorful renderings that seemed to have more to do with con-
temporary abstract art than with actual cities or physical environments.
Reacting to the monumental vagueness of this brand of open-space plan-
ning that appeared to give no heed to the physical characteristics of the
landscapes it sought to manipulate, the next major attempt to articulate the
nature of Washington's nature embraced the natural sciences as a model.
Following the ecology-based design principles espoused by University of
Pennsylvania landscape architect Ian McHarg, the 1967 NCPC monograph
Toward a Comprehensive Landscape Plan
presented the underlying geologic
and biotic features of greater Washington through a series of elaborately
detailed maps. Riding the rising tide of the ecology movement, this metic-
ulously assembled and ostensibly scientific overview was intended to sup-
port an ecologically conscious approach to the design and management of
Washington's physical environment. While the McHarg plan had little
immediate effect, it exemplified the trend toward conceiving nature as a
mosaic of ecological associations. Park management was increasingly seen
as a process of identifying, restoring, and preserving biological processes
in the hopes of reproducing the stable and harmonious conditions that
ostensibly prevailed before European settlement. Ecology-based notions of
environmental protection replaced picturesque aesthetics and social
improvement as the ideological basis of natural resource management.
53
The outdoor recreation craze of the 1960s also had a marked effect on
Washington's natural areas. As in the 1920s and the 1930s, parks were pro-
moted as places to engage in active physical exertion.The team sports and
structured play activities favored by early-twentieth-century reformers
remained popular—and playgrounds and athletic facilities continued to be
