Elizabeth Barlow Rogers (born 1936) is an American environmentalist, landscape preservationist, author of numerous books and essays, and a former park administrator.
At the time, the 843-acre (341 ha) public space was strewn with trash and long neglected with virtually no funding allocated to improving its condition.
Rogers' aim was "the renewal of the physical beauty of the park as originally envisioned by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, yet integrated with contemporary social and recreational uses.
The institute was unable to accomplish its goals, however, for unlike Central Park, where Rogers had managerial authority and widespread public support, the city's streetscape was the subject of, in Rogers's words, "general indifference to the visual blight that has grown with the progressive coarsening of the environment as it has been allowed to become dominated by highway engineers and commercial interests.
The institute and its founder have become mired in dozens of messy battles with city bureaucrats over designs for light poles, plans to reroute traffic and other issues.
In 2005, Rogers established the Foundation for Landscape Studies, whose mission was, according to its website, "to foster an active understanding of the importance of place in human life."