Building to Last: Past, Present and Future – Saving Central Park with Elizabeth Barlow Rogers

World-renowned author, landscape preservationist, and civic activist Elizabeth Barlow Rogers joins energy and infrastructure attorney, birth doula, and InterIntellect host Hailey Phillips to explore what it takes to build timeless institutions of value, transcending contemporary political drama and lasting for generations.

Central Park, in the words of Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, “is both a masterpiece of landscape design and a great democratic institution.” Conceived from the imaginations of civic idealists in the mid 19^th century at a time when New York City was growing exponentially, Central Park embodies a recognition that humans are inextricably part of nature and that beauty is an essential element for spiritual wellbeing.

Continuing the legacy of Central Park architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, Elizabeth Barlow Rogers became the patron saint of Central Park in the late 1970s—at a time when New York City was in financial ruin and Central Park was on the brink of collapse—first as Central Park Administrator and later as the founding president of the Central Park Conservancy, a revolutionary public-private partnership which continues to steward the park to this day.

Through a feat of exceptional dedication, Elizabeth served as torch bearer for the renaissance of Central Park, supplementing vision with extraordinary leadership and management skills to save Central Park and leave us with the park we have today, achieving what many before and after her have failed to—building to last.

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