1. George Edward Kessler was an American pioneer city planner and landscape architect.
36 Facts About George Kessler
1. 2.
George Kessler's projects are in 100 cities in 23 states, such as in Shanghai, New York, and Mexico City.
3.
George E Kessler was born in Frankenhausen, Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, to Edward Carl Kessler and Adolphe Clotilde Zeitsche Kessler on July 16,1862.
4.
At the age of sixteen, George Kessler became a cashboy at Sanger Brothers Dry Goods.
5.
The family moved back to Germany, where George Kessler received formal training.
6.
George Kessler undertook a two-year apprenticeship at the private landscape gardening school at the Grand Ducal Gardens in Weimar, Germany, where he studied botany, forestry, and design under Hofgartner Armin Sckell and Garteninspector Julius Hartwig.
7.
George Kessler then worked for several months with Haage and Schmidt, a major German plant nursery in Erfurt.
8.
George Kessler received further training in Charlottenburg and Potsdam that included a brief study at Gaertner Lehr Anstalt, the school of garden design founded by Peter Joseph Lenne; technical engineering study at Gartner-Lehranstalt; study with Hofgartner Theodore Neitner at the Neue Garten; and study at the Polytechnicum, the premier horticultural library in Germany.
9.
In October 1881, the George Kessler family returned to New York.
10.
From January to March 1882, George Kessler sent four letters to Frederick Law Olmsted.
11.
Also Olmsted encouraged George Kessler to educate himself about nature through reading, reflection, and excursions, and to aim to free himself from German associations in order to expand his capabilities and to not limit his influence and opportunities.
12.
Beside working on the park, George Kessler was caretaker of the farm property.
13.
Less than two years after George Kessler started, the park had become a great success.
14.
George Kessler maintained a nursery in the park filled with a large variety of trees and shrubs.
15.
George Kessler was responsible for sales from the park's icehouse and arranged excursions to the park.
16.
George Kessler managed the company's two experimental tree farms totaling 1,500 acres near Farlington, Kansas.
17.
George Kessler soon opened an office in Kansas City and went looking for more work.
18.
George Kessler landscaped the hollow and then encircled it with a boulevard to prevent residents from turning it into part of their backyards.
19.
On May 31,1890, George Kessler applied to become the landscape architect for the city's newly created Park Board.
20.
George Kessler had earlier designed the grounds of Meyer's house in what is today's Kansas City Art Institute.
21.
George Kessler later worked with Meyer to lay out the city's street grid including a parks and boulevard system.
22.
On May 14,1900, George Kessler married Ida Grant Field of Kansas City, Missouri.
23.
George Kessler designed Fair Park in Dallas in 1904, but his biggest contribution to that city was his Kessler Plan, which he created in 1909.
24.
George Kessler's plans aimed to prevent the uncontrollable flooding of the Trinity River, improve the narrow, crooked downtown streets, fix the dangerous railroad crossings, and construct the Central Expressway.
25.
George Kessler's plans were not implemented at that time, being deemed "impractical", but later it became clear that changes were needed.
26.
The Central Expressway project was finally realized 40 years after the George Kessler Plan was first presented.
27.
However, George Kessler's plan was overly aggressive and suggested removing nearly all the original campus structures.
28.
George Kessler was hired to resolve a politically charged development dispute involving the park system of Indianapolis in 1908.
29.
George Kessler studied the city for one year before submitting his plan for a park and boulevard system, which was adopted in 1909.
30.
George Kessler issued a master plan for Leeper Park in South Bend, Indiana, in 1915.
31.
In 1918, George Kessler returned to act as consulting engineer for the Dallas Property Owner's Association, and in 1919, began working for the Metropolitan Development Association of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce.
32.
George Kessler drafted city plans for Cincinnati, Ohio; Terre Haute, Indiana; Cleveland, Ohio; El Paso, Texas; Denver, Colorado; and Syracuse, New York.
33.
George Kessler designed Camp Wilson, an army cantonment near San Antonio, Texas.
34.
George Kessler was survived by his wife and son and was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St Louis.
35.
George Kessler was a founder of the American Institute of Planners and an original member of the United States Commission of Fine Arts.
36.
George Kessler was a Freemason in Rural Lodge No 316, Kansas City, Missouri.