A Look at The New Tome On Brooklyn’s Prospect Park

In the heart of one of the nation’s most densely populated urban areas sits an idyllic realm of graceful meadows, dense woods, placid lakes, and fresh air. Brooklyn’s 585-acre Prospect Park offers a rural refuge to thousands of visitors every day. Created nearly 150 years ago by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert B.Vaux, designers of New York’s Central Park, the duo considered Prospect Park their true masterpiece. Prospect Park, the first monograph on this exquisite public space, presents a wealth of archival and newly commissioned photography and insightful text. David P. Colley and Elizabeth Keegin Colley trace the park’s colorful history from its creation in the mid-nineteenth century to its decline in the 1970’s and restoration in the 1980’s, up to the park’s new Lakeside facility, scheduled to open in December 2013. Prospect Park presents this beloved public space as an integral part of Brooklyn’s identity—and as New York City’s biggest and best-kept secret. Here, we take a look inside Prospect Park: Olmsted & Vaux’s Brooklyn Masterpiece by David P. Colley.