George Kessler, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

George Kessler

American landscape architect

Date of Birth: 16-Jul-1862

Place of Birth: Bad Frankenhausen, Thuringia, Germany

Date of Death: 20-Mar-1923

Profession: architect, urban planner, landscape architect

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Cancer

George Edward Kessler (July 16, 1862 – March 20, 1923) was an American pioneer city planner and landscape architect. 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 can be found in 23 states, 100 cities, in places as far flung as Shanghai, New York, and Mexico City."Planning", wrote Kessler, "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," he insisted, "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.'"