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building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

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Conclusion<br />

The Independence of <strong>the</strong> United States of America and <strong>the</strong> end of <strong>the</strong> Civil War<br />

mark <strong>the</strong> approximate chronological extent of this research, even though a few<br />

“incursions” into more recent years have been proposed. The decades under<br />

examination were analysed with <strong>the</strong> intention of providing a general view of <strong>the</strong><br />

problems concerning <strong>the</strong> <strong>landscape</strong> and <strong>the</strong> major transformations of American<br />

<strong>landscape</strong>s and towns.<br />

Although we have not dwelt too long on each individual aspect, or on any one<br />

protagonist in particular, <strong>the</strong> difficult lay in giving <strong>the</strong> correct importance to <strong>the</strong><br />

events, <strong>landscape</strong>s, architecture and project designers, who have contributed to<br />

this historic and critical account. If some aspects, which could have played a role in<br />

a monographic research, have been omitted, it has been done consciously, for<br />

various reasons. First and foremost, <strong>the</strong> reconstruction of <strong>the</strong> general climate of<br />

American interest towards <strong>the</strong> <strong>landscape</strong> would have been affected, and secondly,<br />

specific details have already been dealt with by o<strong>the</strong>r scholars. What emerges from<br />

this way of proceeding is <strong>the</strong> pervasive level of some of <strong>the</strong> ideas regarding <strong>the</strong><br />

<strong>landscape</strong>, born in nineteenth century America, which appear extremely fascinating<br />

and engrossing to European eyes.<br />

Fur<strong>the</strong>rmore, it must be added that we believe <strong>the</strong> attempt to describe <strong>the</strong>se first<br />

experiences of <strong>landscape</strong> may contribute to providing new keys to <strong>the</strong><br />

understanding of more contemporary projects. We wished to demonstrate in<br />

particular that <strong>the</strong> work of anonymous pioneers and <strong>the</strong> courage of minor<br />

protagonists, which made those events unique, should be placed side by side with<br />

<strong>the</strong> great fa<strong>the</strong>rs of <strong>the</strong> American <strong>landscape</strong>, such as Olmsted and Downing, The<br />

history of <strong>the</strong> <strong>landscape</strong>, perhaps even more than <strong>the</strong> history of architecture, is a<br />

form of observation, which requires <strong>the</strong> study of <strong>the</strong> processes of industrial,<br />

agricultural, infrastructural, architectural and <strong>the</strong>oretical renewal, without which it<br />

would be difficult to understand <strong>the</strong> development and evolution of <strong>the</strong><br />

“construction of <strong>the</strong> <strong>landscape</strong>”. Thinking back to <strong>the</strong> events described undoubtedly<br />

leaves us a precise message. The birth of <strong>the</strong> modern, ecological and landscaping<br />

175

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