Boston's Franklin Park

This is a groundbreaking study of the design and history of Olmsted's most mature expression of urban park design, which after WWI fell into drastic decline. Historians fault the design as obsolete, a casualty of changing trends in public recreation. Carr disagrees, offering a persuasive argument that the decline was a consequence of the city's lack of stewardship, an example of institutionalized racism. Hilderbrand's afterword describes the current Action Plan, a comprehensive community-based initiative to galvanize revitalization.