George Kessler
George Edward Kessler (July 16, 1862 – March 20, 1923) was an American pioneer city planner and landscape architect.
George E. Kessler | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 16, 1862 Frankenhausen, Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt |
| Died | March 20, 1923 Indianapolis, Indiana, United States |
| Resting place | Bellefontaine Cemetery St. Louis, Missouri |
| Spouse |
Ida Grant Field of St. Louis
(m. 1900) |
| Children | George Edward Kessler, Jr. |
| Parent(s) | Edward Carl Kessler Adolphe Clotilde Zetzsche Kessler |
Over the course of his forty-one year career, George E. Kessler completed over 200 projects and prepared plans for 26 communities, 26 park and boulevard systems, 49 parks, 46 estates and residences, and 26 schools. His projects are in 100 cities in 23 states, such as in Shanghai, New York, and Mexico City.
He wrote: "Planning should be comprehensive. Even though a grand urban design could only be realized in bits and pieces, and over a long period of years, still we should always know where we are going. Each bit and piece should be understandable by reference to the great plan of which it is a part. Planning must also be relevant to the particular city: its geography, its economic character, all its local peculiarities. We must deal with it in its application to the entire city. The object is to make cities decent places for masses of people to live in. Cities grow mostly by accident in response to trends in the real estate market. Very little thought is given to their qualitative characters. But there comes a time when development must be subject to control, when further growth must be planned such that urbanization will no longer proceed at the expense of devastating 'nature'."