The Civic Landscape: Exploring Prospect Park's Concert Grove

Start Date

07/20/2025

End Date

07/20/2025

Description

When Olmsted and Vaux designed Prospect Park, they envisioned a naturalistic setting of forest, lake, and meadow. Yet they also created one formal outdoor space dedicated to gathering for musical performances known as Concert Grove. This 90-minute walking tour will focus on the history, design and landscape/architectural elements of the grove. Our walk will begin at the newly restored Concert Grove Pavilion with its colorful eclectic columns and stained-glass skylight. At the conclusion of the walk, we will contemplate the elegant and moving 1921 Prospect Park War Memorial adjacent to the grove.

Location

New York, NY

Distance Learning

Course Equivalency

Subjects

Parks & Recreation

Health, Safety and Welfare

Hours

1.50

Learning Outcomes

1) Understand how the Concert Grove fits into the overall design of Prospect Park as conceived by Olmsted and Vaux.

2) Learn about the major components of the Concert Grove design and the aesthetic benefits of the design’s radial layout.

3) Understand how landscape elements such as trees, terraces, planters and sculpture reinforce the overall concept for the Concert Grove.

4) Learn how Robert Moses, former NYC park commissioner, altered the Olmsted Vaux design of Concert Grove and how the grove was restored to back its original intentions.

5) Identify five native plants along the lake which abuts Concert Grove and understand their importance to the lakeside ecosystem.

6) Study the composition of various pedestals supporting the busts and sculpture of famous people throughout Concert Grove in terms of hierarchy, proportion, scale, and materials.

7) Understand how elevating the human form via pedestals helps create the image of man as a hero.

8) Compare and contrast gothic ornament from the Concert Grove Pavilion to the classical ornament of Prospect Park War Memorial.

8) Understand how the symbolism associated with various architectural and artistic elements in the Prospect Park War Memorial convey a sense of human loss and grief.

Instructors

Martin Brandwein

Course Codes

Provider

Institute of Classical Architecture & Art

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