Winner, J. B. Jackson Book Prize from the Foundation for Landscape
StudiesIn this insightful biography, Bruce Stephenson analyzes the
details of John Nolen's experiments, illuminating the planning
principles he used in laying out communities from Mariemont, Ohio,
to Venice, Florida. Stephenson's conclusion discusses the potential
of Nolen's work as a model of a sustainable vision relevant to
American civic culture today.John Nolen (1869-1937) studied
economics, philosophy, and public administration at the Wharton
School of the University of Pennsylvania, where his keen
intelligence and remarkable administrative abilities were
immediately recognized. In 1903, at the age of thirty-four, Nolen
enrolled in the new Harvard University program in landscape
architecture, studying under Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and Arthur
Shurcliff. Two years later, Nolen opened his office in Harvard
Square.Over the course of his career, Nolen and his firm completed
more than 400 projects, including comprehensive plans for
twenty-nine cities and twenty-seven new towns, all of them in the
United States. Like other reformers of the Progressive Era, Nolen
looked to Europe for models to structure the rapid urbanization
defining modern life into more efficient and livable form. Nolen's
mutually influential relationship with Raymond Unwin, England's
preeminent garden city planner, typified the "Atlantic Crossings"
that produced a host of intensely interesting planning experiments
in England, Europe, and the United States during the first decades
of the twentieth century. "Nolen has never received the systematic
assessment that he deserves despite being the subject of so much
writing--the Stephenson biography stands alone. The author makes a
convincing case that Nolen was a pivotal figure in the profession
of city planning and that his contributions were uniquely situated
to bridge the fields of landscape architecture and planning. This
is an exceptionally fine work."Christopher Silver, author of
Planning the Megacity: Jakarta in the Twentieth Century"The long
overdue and definitive biography of one of America's most prominent
and influential urbanists. . . . Stephenson effectively positions
Nolen between the classical practitioners of the nineteenth century
and the modern ecological focus of the twentieth century (which he
helped to establish)."Keith N. Morgan, coauthor of Community by
Design: The Olmsted Office and the Development of Brookline,
MassachusettsIn this deeply researched and richly detailed
biography . . . Stephenson focuses attention on a figure who has
been curiously understudied and who arguably deserves additional
scrutiny on several topics from his ideas about race and class to
his proto-environmentalism, all key interests among Progressive
reformers.Journal of Southern HistoryStephenson offers a richly
developed biographical portrait of Nolen interwoven with a detailed
discussion of his numerous planning projects. . . . [The]
biographical component allows the reader to see how Nolen's life
experiences shaped his professional work. Especially impressive is
Stephenson's discussion of Nolen as a progressive during his work
at ASEUT and his early travels to Europe. . . . The numerous color
photographs make the book a visual delight and the excellent index
makes referencing the book a breeze.Journal of Planning History
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