{"id":69057,"date":"2026-03-30T09:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=69057"},"modified":"2026-04-13T09:31:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T13:31:21","slug":"campanella-clarke-rapuano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/campanella-clarke-rapuano\/","title":{"rendered":"How Two Alums Transformed the Landscape in NYC and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a prof\u2019s book recalls, the early 20th-century grads designed Bryant Park, the Bronx River Parkway, two World\u2019s Fairs, and more<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Joe Wilensky<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gilmore Clarke 1913 and Michael Rapuano 1927 are the \u201cunsung giants\u201d of American landscape architecture, says Thomas Campanella, MLA \u201991. His newest book, Designing the American Century<\/em><\/a>, is a lavishly illustrated 400-page exploration of the pair\u2019s legacy and professional partnership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A professor of urban studies and city planning in AAP, Campanella<\/a> is also the historian-in-residence for NYC\u2019s parks department and spends about half his time in the Big Apple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Gilmore
Clarke (right) and Rapuano in 1972.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNowhere is the legacy of Clarke and Rapuano more deeply inscribed,\u201d he writes. \u201cThrow a stone anywhere in this great metropolis and it will likely strike one of their works.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The duo\u2019s careers spanned a hugely consequential half-century, transforming public landscapes and modernizing cities through the creation of dozens of parks, highways, parkways, and housing projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf influence be measured simply by the number of human lives touched by one\u2019s work,\u201d Campanella observes, \u201cthen that of Clarke and Rapuano is unparalleled in the 20th century.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

If influence be measured simply by the number of human lives touched by one\u2019s work, then that of Clarke and Rapuano is unparalleled in the 20th century.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Their NYC portfolio alone includes a slew of historic and enduring urban spaces: Bryant, Riverside, Battery, and Cadman Plaza parks; the Brooklyn Heights Promenade; the Henry Hudson Parkway; and the United Nations campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were also responsible for the site plans for the 1939 and 1964 World\u2019s Fairs, Jones Beach, and the Central Park Zoo\u2014and even sketched out the design for the ubiquitous park bench that can still be found throughout NYC today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Thomas<\/figure>\n
Campanella’s book started as his Cornell master’s thesis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Outside the NYC metro area, they designed parkways in Philadelphia and Washington, DC, the site plan for the Pentagon and its surroundings, and urban renewal plans for several other U.S. cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Clarke also served as AAP\u2019s first professor of city planning and later the college\u2019s dean, commuting from NYC twice a week.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their NYC portfolio alone includes a slew of historic and enduring urban spaces: Bryant, Riverside, Battery, and Cadman Plaza parks; the Brooklyn Heights Promenade; the Henry Hudson Parkway; and the U.N. Headquarters.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Many of Clarke and Rapuano\u2019s NYC projects were carried out while they were working for Robert Moses, the now-infamous urban planner and first commissioner of the city\u2019s unified park system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Campanella grapples with that complicated legacy in the book, along with what he describes as \u201cthe unintended consequences of the motor vehicle age.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"New
Among the pair’s lasting contributions is the design of the classic NYC park bench.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Subtitled The Public Landscapes of Clarke and Rapuano, 1915\u20131965<\/em>, the volume began 35 years ago\u2014as Campanella\u2019s thesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he recalls, after completing his 2019 book Brooklyn: The Once and Future City<\/em><\/a>, he thought to himself: \u201cMaybe it\u2019s time to get back to my buddies and finish this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he describes, Clarke and Rapuano created the nation\u2019s very first parkway\u2014originally envisioned as a way for early motorists to enjoy traveling through lush natural landscapes\u2014along the Bronx River in Westchester County in the 1920s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"color
Their work included the site plan for the 1964 New York World\u2019s Fair.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was soon followed by the Saw Mill and Hutchinson river parkways, making the suburbs more easily reachable, and therefore more desirable, at the dawn of the automobile age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those first parkways \u201cwere loved, and were very sensitively designed to be good neighbors and to integrate well with the communities and neighborhoods they passed through,\u201d says Campanella, who penned an op-ed<\/a> for the New York Times<\/em> marking the Bronx River Parkway\u2019s centennial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clarke and Rapuano created the nation\u2019s very first parkway\u2014originally envisioned as a way for early motorists to enjoy traveling through lush natural landscapes\u2014along the Bronx River in Westchester County in the 1920s.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were linear parks that included amenities for the non-driving public. People wanted to live near these things, because they were delightful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And their effects were largely positive, Campanella notes\u2014pointing out that NYC\u2019s Belt Parkway had the longest separated bikeway in North America when it was built, and that the Henry Hudson Parkway, which runs along Manhattan\u2019s West Side, offers a spectacular entryway into the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"aerial
The Henry Hudson Parkway and Riverside Park in 1937.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut this was a fleeting moment,\u201d he says. \u201cThe cars were small, and not that many people had them. The culture was different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of automobiles\u2014and with them, the desire for highways and expressways\u2014exploded in the post-World War II era, Campanella notes, with many of the biggest urban road projects \u201cbeing punched through some of the densest neighborhoods on the Eastern Seaboard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And those roads didn\u2019t go through affluent neighborhoods, he says; they almost always transected immigrant, minority, and poor areas, forever altering or even demolishing them and displacing their residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Design
The pair’s design sketch for a public housing project in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is where the story gets complicated,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd Clarke and Rapuano were part of that, too\u2014because even with all the wonderful work they did in the prewar period, it\u2019s overshadowed by the urban renewal projects, the public housing projects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Even with all the wonderful work they did in the prewar period, it\u2019s overshadowed by the urban renewal projects, the public housing projects.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

One of the pair\u2019s biggest endeavors\u2014the Brooklyn Civic Center, which included the renowned Cadman Plaza Park\u2014demolished most of Downtown Brooklyn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, their creation of the widely beloved Brooklyn Heights Promenade\u2014\u201cstill among the city\u2019s most breathtaking public spaces,\u201d he writes\u2014necessitated the removal of several immigrant neighborhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"the
The U.N. campus in 1955.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But even considering this fraught legacy, Campanella calls Clarke and Rapuano \u201camong the foremost shapers of the postwar metropolitan landscape,\u201d whose influence should be remembered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLandscape architects, site planners, urban designers, and civil engineers\u2014they were vernal weavers of the modern motorway,\u201d he writes, \u201cmaster craftsmen of public parks and parkways for nearly 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top: The Bronx River Parkway in the 1920s. (Hand-colored photo courtesy of the Westchester County Archives; Campanella portrait provided; all other images courtesy of Princeton University Press.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published March 30, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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