American landscape architect Charles Downing Lay was awarded the silver medal at the 1936 Olympic Art Competitions in the category Designs For Town Planning for his work Marine Brooklyn Park in the homonymous district of Brooklyn. The 2.1 km ² (since 1937 7.4 km ²) of grassland and salt marsh are located at the western end of Jamaica Bay. Parts of the site were donated by the wealthy Whitney family. Lay’s plan focused on sporting activities, but was never implemented. The design included a major remodeling of the coast and followed the idea of the German “Volksparks” (public park) of the time. In 1933 his plans were ultimately rejected.
His father Oliver Ingraham Lay was a painter, and he himself attended the School of Architecture at Columbia University from 1896-1900 before transferring to Harvard’s School of Landscape Architecture, from which he graduated in 1902. Together with his compatriots Henry Vincent Hubbard and Robert Wheelwright, Lay founded a landscape agency in New York. They also published the professional journal Landscape Architecture, beginning in October 1910. Lay designed, or contributed to the design of, countless parks, subdivisions, private estates, and gardens throughout the United States, although his influence was most apparent on the East Coast. He was consulting architect to the 1939 New York World’s Fair and worked on conservation efforts in the Housatonic River valley, founding the Housatonic Valley Planning Association in 1948. During World War II, he advised the military leaders of the United States in establishing Air Force and Naval bases.
United States