Celebrating Frederick Law Olmsted
This year is a celebration of parks across the country. 2022 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted - the American landscape designer widely considered the father of American landscape architecture.
Over the course of his career, Frederick Law Olmsted designed a total of 100 public parks and recreation grounds. Among them, New York City's beloved Central Park. He is also recognized for designing Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York, Emerald Necklace in Boston, Massachusetts, the three-mile approach road to the grand Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, the Washington Park in Chicago, Illinois, and the grounds of the United States Capitol and White House. Frederick Olmsted's work set a standard of excellence that continues to inspire landscape architects throughout the United States. Last week, I attended the Olmsted Bicentennial Gala at the Central Park Loeb Boathouse to honor this great innovator and social reformer. The event was part of the year-long "Olmsted 200: Parks for All People" Celebration. Please go to Olmsted200.org to learn about other celebrations in your area - just click on the highlighted link.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Here I am with the Frederick Law Olmsted mascot at the Olmsted Bicentennial Gala “Parks For All People.” The event was presented by the National Association For Olmsted Parks last week. (Photo by Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
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- Frederick Law Olmsted was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1822. However, it was not until he was 43 years old did he decide to devote his entire career to landscape architecture. Prior to working on the New York City Central Park design, Frederick worked as a merchant, apprentice seaman, experimental farmer, author and even a gold mine manager. He also directed the U.S. Sanitary Commission, worked for the American Red Cross, and wrote for The New York Daily Times.
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- This is an aerial view of Central Park looking north, which Frederick designed with his business partner, Calvert Vaux. Olmsted and Vaux’s plan created ways for pedestrians and carriages to enjoy the park without getting in each others’ way. It was called the Greensward Plan. (Photo by Central Park Conservancy)
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- Here is another aerial view of Central Park – this one of Sheep Meadow, a great field where visitors can rest and play. (Photo by Central Park Conservancy)
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- This is the Central Park Bow Bridge. (Photo by Central Park) Conservancy
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- And this is Central Park’s Great Lawn. (Photo by Central Park Conservancy)
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- This autumn photo is from Prospect Park in nearby Brooklyn, New York. Frederick was very adamant in his belief that a great park should be tranquil – a place where visitors could recuperate from the busy pace of city life. Frederick and Calvert Vaux began working on Prospect Park in 1866. It included plans for the Long Meadow, a heavily wooded area they called the Ravine and a 60-acre Lake. (Photo by Elizabeth Keegin Colley)
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- This is the Prospect Park Boathouse. (Photo by Anne Claire Brun)
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- Prospect Park also features rolling green meadows, meandering carriage roads with scenic lookouts, waterfalls, springs, and a rich forest filled with trees. (Photo by Brittany Buongiorno)
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- This is Shelburne Farms, a 3,800-acre agricultural estate originally consolidated and owned by William Seward and Lila Vanderbilt Webb. The landscape was inspired by none other than Frederick Law Olmsted. (Photo by Marshall Webb)
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- Today, more than 1.4 million people visit George Vanderbilt’s Gilded Era Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina each year. Frederick considered Biltmore among the crowning jewels of his career. Frederick wrote to his business partners, “it is far and away the most distinguished private place, not only for America, but of the world.” This is the Spring Garden at Biltmore. (Photo by The Biltmore Company)
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- Olmsted Park in Boston is a linear park and a part of the city’s Emerald Necklace of connected parks and parkways. Originally named Leverett Park, in 1900 it was renamed to honor its designer. (Photo by Emerald Necklace Conservancy)
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- Founded in 1942 and also located within Emerald Necklace, the Fenway Victory Gardens is comprised of more than 500 gardens spanning 7.5 acres. (Photo by Evan Bradley)
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- Jackson Park was designed in 1871 as part of the 1055-acre South Park system in Chicago. It is a 593-acre tract connected to Washington Park via a mile-long boulevard, the Midway Plaisance. Originally called Lake Park, it was later named for former president Andrew Jackson. (Photo by Chicago Parks Foundation)
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- Each major Frederick Olmsted Park features a specialty garden. The Japanese Garden in Delaware spans more than six acres and is placed between the foothill of The Buffalo History Museum and Mirror Lake. (Photo by Zhi Ting Phua)
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- Another space designed by Frederick and Calvert is Chapin Parkway in Buffalo, New York. It was named after Brigadier General Edward Payson Chapin, who was a well known Buffalo attorney at the time of the Civil War. (Photo by Zhi Ting Phua)
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- In 1890, Georgia businessman Joel Hurt asked Frederick to prepare a plan for an area in Atlanta. By 1905, two years after Olmsted died, a linear park design was completed by the Olmsted Brothers that consisted of six segments on 45 acres – Springdale, Virgilee, Oak Grove, Shadyside, Dellwood, and Deepdene. This is a photo of Shadyside.
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- Here is a fall image of Dellwood in Atlanta’s Olmsted Linear Park.
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- And here is the US Capitol Summer House, a hexagon-shaped brick structure set into the sloping hillside in front of the Capitol Building. Construction began in 1879 and was completed in late 1880 or early 1881. It was designed primarily to offer visitors to the Capitol a place to rest.
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- To learn more about Frederick Law Olmsted and the beautiful parks he designed, please visit Olmsted200.org. (Photo by Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
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