By Francis R. Kowsky
I like learning about the lives of people who made a huge difference in my life and the lives of many others. Calvert Vaux is one of them. A co-designer of Central Park (together with Frederick Olmsted), he revolutionized the idea of what park is for, re-envisioned apartment buildings, and the importance of incorporating architecture wisely in the landscape. This book does a good job describing all this, with added notes about his life and misfortunes, though it does tend to go into more architectural detail than I find necessary for a lay person like me. [320pp plus notes and index]
