Central Park

CENTRAL PARK, a three-part documentary series slated for national broadcast on
PBS, will tell the epic story of how and why one of America’s most treasured, iconic
landmarks came to be created, and how, for over 170 years, through many ups and
downs, it has evolved and endured. An artistic masterpiece and an enormously
ambitious work of public infrastructure, the park was created in the mid-19th century
when New York’s leaders made the extraordinary decision to set aside more than 800
acres in the nation’s most expensive real estate market, so that it could – at great cost –
be turned into a park for the greater good of the public. To Central Park’s legendary
designers, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, their magnificent creation was “a
single work of art with a single noble purpose” and “democratic development of the
highest importance.”

For all its glory and influence, Central Park has a complex history that reflects many of
the tensions – of race, ethnicity, sex, and class – that have shaped life in America from
its founding. The series will follow the evolution of Central Park from its inception in the
pre-Civil War period, through competing ideas about park use and controversies over
encroachments in the 20th century, to its perilous decline during New York’s fiscal crisis
of the 1970s, and finally, to its resurgence in the present day.

CENTRAL PARK will be directed and produced by award-winning filmmaker Lynn
Novick, whose body of work – more than 90 hours of acclaimed public television
programming – has been recognized with multiple Emmys, Peabody and Alfred I.
DuPont-Columbia Awards. Collaborating with Novick will be veteran documentary
producer Robin Espinola. The series is a production of Skiff Mountain Films and is
expected to air on PBS in 2028.