How Well Do You Know Frederick Law Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted: Father of Landscape Architecture in the United States

• Frederick Law Olmsted was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator.
• He is considered the father of landscape architecture in the United States.
• Olmsted designed many well-known urban parks with his partner Calvert Vaux, including Central Park, Prospect Park, and Cadwalader Park.
• He headed the preeminent landscape architecture and planning consultancy of late 19th century United States, which was carried on and expanded by his sons, Frederick Jr. and John C., under the name Olmsted Brothers.
• Other notable projects Olmsted was involved in include the country's first and oldest coordinated system of public parks and parkways in Buffalo, New York; the Niagara Reservation in Niagara Falls, New York; and Mount Royal Park in Montreal, Quebec.
• Olmsted had a significant career in journalism, traveling to England to visit public gardens and writing for the New York Daily Times about his extensive research journey through the American South and Texas.
• Olmsted's design of Central Park embodied his social consciousness and commitment to egalitarian ideals, believing that the common green space must always be accessible to all citizens.
• During the American Civil War, Olmsted took leave as director of Central Park to work in Washington, D.C., as Executive Secretary of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, a precursor to the Red Cross.
• Olmsted was an important early leader of the conservation movement in the United States, serving on the Board of Commissioner of the state reserve for Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Big Tree Grove.
• Olmsted established the first full-time landscape architecture firm in Brookline, Massachusetts, where he designed Boston's Emerald Necklace, the campuses of Wellesley College, Smith College, Stanford University, and the University of Chicago, among many other projects.
• Olmsted's work set a standard of excellence that continues to influence landscape architecture in the United States.
• Olmsted was an early and important activist in the conservation movement, including work at Niagara Falls, the Adirondack region of upstate New York, and the National Park system, and played a major role in organizing and providing medical services to the Union Army in the Civil War.Frederick Law Olmsted is known as the "father of American Landscape Architecture" and was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1822. He was a journalist and farmer before becoming a landscape architect. He was also a strong advocate for conservation and the preservation of natural wonders, including Niagara Falls and the Adirondack region. In 1898, he helped found the American Society of Landscape Architects. Olmsted's design principles emphasized the use of natural features of a given space, subordination of individual details to the whole, concealment of design, design that works on the unconscious to produce relaxation, and utility or purpose over ornamentation. Olmsted designed primarily in pastoral and picturesque styles. His designs were intended to enhance the sense of space and scenery by using indistinct boundaries using plants, brush, and trees. Olmsted's design principles are seen in Central Park, the Central Park Mall, and affluent New Yorkers' country estates. After Olmsted's retirement and death, his sons John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. continued the work of their firm, doing business as the Olmsted Brothers.