Calvert Vaux - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Calvert Vaux was an architect and landscape designer. He is best remembered as the co-designer (with Frederick Law Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...

), of New York's Central Park

Central Park

Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...

.

Little is known about Vaux's childhood and upbringing. He was born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

in 1824, and his father was a doctor. Due to this social standing, his father was able to provide a comfortable income for his family.

Vaux (rhymes with hawks) attended a private primary school until the age of nine. He then trained as an apprentice under London architect Lewis Nockalls Cottingham

Lewis Nockalls Cottingham

Lewis Nockalls Cottingham was a British architect who pioneered the study of Medieval Gothic architecture. He was a restorer and conservator of existing buildings...

. Cottingham was a leader of the Gothic Revival movement. He trained Vaux until the age of twenty-six, and as a result, Vaux became a very skilled draftsman.

Landscapes

In 1851, Vaux exhibited in London a collection of landscape watercolors made on a tour to the Continent, and it was this gallery that captured the attention of the American landscape designer and writer Andrew Jackson Downing

Andrew Jackson Downing

Andrew Jackson Downing was an American landscape designer, horticulturalist, and writer, a prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival style in the United States, and editor of The Horticulturist magazine...

, who many consider to be "The Father of American Landscape Architecture." Downing had traveled to London in search of an architect who would complement his vision of what a landscape should be. Downing believed that architecture should be visually integrated into the surrounding landscape, and he wanted to work with someone who had as deep an appreciation of art as he did. Vaux readily accepted the job and moved to the United States.

Downing and Vaux worked together for two years, and during those two years, he made Vaux a partner. Together they designed many significant projects, such as the grounds in the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

and the Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

in Washington D.C. Vaux’s work on the Smithsonian inspired an article he wrote for The Horticulturalist, of which Downing was the editor, in which he stated his view that it was time the government should recognize and support the arts. Shortly after writing this in 1852, Downing died during a fire in a steamboat

Steamboat

A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...

accident. Vaux took over the partnership, and his later work in Central Park

Central Park

was a fitting memorial to his late partner.

In 1854, he married Mary McEntee, of Kingston, New York

Kingston, New York

Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, USA. It is north of New York City and south of Albany. It became New York's first capital in 1777, and was burned by the British Oct. 16, 1777, after the Battles of Saratoga...

, the sister of Jervis McEntee

Jervis McEntee

Jervis McEntee was an American painter of the Hudson River School. He is a somewhat lesser-known figure of the 19th century American art world, but was the close friend and traveling companion of several of the important Hudson River School artists...

, a Hudson River School

Hudson River school

The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism...

painter; they had two sons and two daughters. In 1856, he gained US citizenship and became identified with the city’s artistic community, “the guild,” joining the National Academy of Design

National Academy of Design

The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in New York City as the National Academy of Design – known simply as the "National Academy" – is an honorary association of American artists founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E...

, as well as the Century Club

Century Club

Century Club may refer to:*Centurion, a variation of the drinking game known as Power Hour*The Century Association, a prominent private authors and artists club, with its own building, in New York City...

. In 1857, he became one of the founding members of the American Institute of Architects

American Institute of Architects

The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...

. Also in 1857, Vaux published Villas and Cottages, which was an influential pattern book that determined the standards for “Victorian Gothic” architecture. These particular writings revealed his acknowledgment and tribute to Ruskin

John Ruskin

John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...

and Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...

, as well as to his former partner Downing. These people, among others, influenced him intellectually and in his design path.

Parks

In 1857, Vaux recruited an inexperienced Frederick Law Olmsted, who had never before designed a landscape plan, to help design the Greensward Plan, which would become Central Park. They were able to obtain the commission through an excellent presentation that capitalized on Vaux's talents in landscape drawing and the inclusion of before-and-after sketches of the site. Together, they fought many political battles to make sure their original design remained intact and was carried out.

In 1865, Vaux called upon Olmsted and they decided to create a partnership. As Olmsted, Vaux and Company, they designed Prospect Park

Prospect Park (Brooklyn)

Prospect Park is a 585-acre public park in the New York City borough of Brooklyn located between Park Slope, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Kensington, Windsor Terrace and Flatbush Avenue, Grand Army Plaza and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden...

and Fort Greene Park

Fort Greene Park

Fort Greene Park is a municipal park in Brooklyn, New York, comprising 30.2 acres .The park includes the high ground where the Continental Army built Fort Putnam during the American Revolutionary War. The site was chosen and the construction supervised by General Nathanael Greene...

in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, and Morningside Park in Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

. In Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

they planned one of the first suburbs, called the Riverside Improvement Company

Riverside, Illinois

Riverside is an affluent suburban village in Cook County, Illinois. A significant portion of the village is in the Riverside Landscape Architecture District, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970. The population was 8,895 at the 2000 census...

in 1868. They were also commissioned to design a major park project in Buffalo, New York

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

, which included The Parade (now Martin Luther King, Jr. Park

Martin Luther King, Jr. Park

Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, originally "The Parade" and after 1896, Humboldt Park, is a historic park located at Buffalo in Erie County, New York. Located in east Buffalo and bisected by Fillmore Avenue, it is an individual park designed in 1874 by Frederick Law Olmsted and originally connected...

), The Park (now the Delaware Park), and The Front (now simply Front Park). Vaux designed many structures to beautify the parks, but most of these have been demolished. Vaux also designed a large Canadian city park in the city of Saint John, New Brunswick

Saint John, New Brunswick

City of Saint John , or commonly Saint John, is the largest city in the province of New Brunswick, and the first incorporated city in Canada. The city is situated along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River. In 2006 the city proper had a population of 74,043...

called Rockwood Park

Rockwood Park, Saint John

Rockwood Park is a city park in Saint John, New Brunswick. It is located in the eastern area of the North End and is one of Canada's largest urban parks...

it is one of the largest of its kind in Canada. In 1871, the partners designed the grounds of the New York State Hospital for the Insane in Buffalo and the Hudson River State Hospital for the Insane

Hudson River State Hospital

The Hudson River State Hospital, is a former New York state psychiatric hospital whose main building has been designated a National Historic Landmark due to its exemplary High Victorian Gothic architecture, the first use of that style for an American institutional building., It is located on US 9...

in Poughkeepsie

Poughkeepsie (town), New York

Poughkeepsie is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 42,777 at the 2000 census. The name is derived from the native term, "Uppu-qui-ipis-in," which means "reed-covered hut by the water."...

.

In 1872, Vaux dissolved the partnership and went on to form an architectural partnership with George Kent Radford and Samuel Parsons

Samuel Parsons

Samuel H. Parsons Jr. . Parsons was a well-known American landscape architect remembered primarily for his "Beaux-Arts" designs in New York City, the development of Central Park, San Diego’s Balboa Park, and for serving as a founding member to the American Society of Landscape Architects...

, Jr. He returned to working with Olmsted in 1889 to design the City of Newburgh's

Newburgh (city), New York

Newburgh is a city located in Orange County, New York, United States, north of New York City, and south of Albany, on the Hudson River. Newburgh is a principal city of the Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown metropolitan area, which includes all of Dutchess and Orange counties. The Newburgh area was...

Downing Park

Downing Park (Newburgh, New York)

Downing Park is the largest of several public parks in the city of Newburgh, New York, USA.The park was designed in the late 19th century by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who gave the design to the city on the condition it would be named after their mentor, Andrew Jackson Downing, a...

as a memorial to their mentor. It would be the pair's last collaboration. On a foggy November 19, 1895, he drowned in an accident while he was visiting his son, Downing Vaux, in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

.

Throughout his lifetime, Vaux, while on his own and through various partnerships, designed and created dozens of parks across the country. He introduced new ideas about the significance of public parks in America during a hectic time of urbanization

Urbanization

Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....

. This industrialization of the cityscape

Cityscape

A cityscape is the urban equivalent of a landscape. Townscape is roughly synonymous with cityscape, though it implies the same difference in urban size and density implicit in the difference between the words city and town. In urban design the terms refer to the configuration of built forms and...

inspired him to focus on an integration of buildings, bridges and other forms of architecture into their natural surroundings. He favored naturalistic, rustic and curvilinear lines in his designs, and his design statements contributed much to today’s landscape and architecture.

Other famous New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

buildings Vaux designed are the Jefferson Market Courthouse

Jefferson Market Library

The Jefferson Market Branch, New York Public Library, still familiar to New Yorkers as Jefferson Market Courthouse, is located at 425 6th Avenue in Greenwich Village, New York City on a triangular plot formed by Greenwich Avenue and West 10th Street...

, the Samuel J. Tilden House

Samuel J. Tilden House

The Samuel J. Tilden House was the home of Samuel J. Tilden, former governor of the U.S. state of New York and fierce opponent of the Tweed Ring and Tammany Hall. Originally built in 1845, Tilden lived in the brownstone from 1860 until his death in 1885...

, and the original Ruskinian Gothic buildings, now largely invisible from exterior view, of the American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...

and the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...

.

Less familiar are twelve projects Vaux designed for the Children's Aid Society

Children's Aid Society

__notoc__The Children’s Aid Society is a private charitable organization based in New York City. It serves 150,000 children per year, providing foster care, medical and mental health services, and a wide range of educational, recreational and advocacy services through dozens of community centers,...

in partnership with George Kent Radford; the 14th Ward Industrial School (1889), 256-58 Mott Street, facing the churchyard of Old St Patrick's Cathedral, and the Elizabeth Home for Girls (1892), 307 East 12th Street, both survive and are landmarked.

Vaux drowned in Gravesend Bay, Brooklyn, and is buried in Kingston, New York

Kingston, New York

's Montrepose Cemetery

Montrepose Cemetery

-Burials:*Jervis McEntee , American painter*Thomas Cornell , American politician and businessman*Arthur Sherwood Flemming , United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare...

. In 1998, the City of New York named a park looking onto Gravesend Bay as Calvert Vaux Park.

Sources

Kowsky, Francis R.
Francis Kowsky
Francis R. Kowsky is a notable architectural historian and State University of New York Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts at Buffalo State College, SUNY, Buffalo, New York. He has published on nineteenth century American architects and architecture including Frederick Withers, Calvert Vaux,...

, Country, Park & City: The Architecture and Life of Calvert Vaux, Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...

, New York 1998; ISBN 0195114957

Rosenzweig, Roy, and Elizabeth Blackmar. The Park and the People: A History of Central Park. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-8014-9751-5.

External links

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