The Complete Illustrated Guidebook to Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Rating:
Summary: Vaux and Olmstead's true masterpiece
Review: Long-overlooked because of the size--and Manhattan location--of Central Park, Prospect Park, also by Calvert Vaux and Fredrerick Law Olmstead, is in its own way aesthetically superior. Built for the same reasons as Central Park, Prospect Park was to offer beauty and relief from the congestion that spread across the rapidly growing city of Brooklyn. The neighboring Botanical Garden was to both inspire and educate Brooklynites to the healing power of nature.

"The Complete Illustrated Guidebook to Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden" is one of the first, if not the first, to combine both paradises and provide a practical guide to their beauty. Authors Berenson and deMause provide almost 200 photographs in this volume. More important is the catalog of walking tours and the 100 or so interesting spots you can examine in these urban Edens. So far, I've only explored three of the walking tours and I wasn't disappointed. I look forward to doing the rest of them!