Thursday, December 2, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Beauty, Efficiency, and Economy: A Life of Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., Landscape Architect, Planner, and Conservationist, Online
Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), was preordained to landscape architecture by his famous father (1833–1903). Fortunately, he proved a talented professional in his own right, making a significant mark through innovative and creative work in city and community planning, in park development, and through his life-long advocacy for land preservation and conservation. For too long the fact that he shared the name of one of the most prominent figures in the practice of landscape architecture in America has obscured his major contributions to the field. Elizabeth Hope Cushing’s new book focuses on the life and professional career of this talented son of a famous father. Her talk provides an overview of his life and contributions to the national landscape, highlighting his importance in American landscape history. As respondent, Keith Morgan, professor emeritus, Boston University, will explore some of the challenges Olmsted, Jr. overcame in building on and expanding his father’s legacy in landscape architecture.
Elizabeth Hope Cushing is a practicing landscape historian, and author of the newly published Beauty, Efficiency, and Economy: A Life of Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., Landscape Architect, Planner, and Conservationist and Arthur A. Shurcliff, Design Preservation, and the Creation of the Colonial Williamsburg Landscape. She is co-author of Community by Design, The Olmsted Firm and the Development of Brookline, Massachusetts.
Keith N. Morgan is a professor emeritus of History of Art & Architecture and of American & New England Studies at Boston University. His books include Charles A. Platt. The Artist as Architect (MIT, 1985); a new introduction for Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect (University of Massachusetts Press, 1999); and Community by Design: The Olmsted Firm and the Development of Brookline, Massachusetts with Elizabeth Hope Cushing and Roger Reed (University of Massachusetts Press, 2013).
To order Beauty, Efficiency, and Economy: A Life of Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., Landscape Architect, Planner and Conservationist click the link. Books ordered by December 9, 2021 with the code OlmstedDec2021 receive a 10% discount. The lecture is free, but registration is required. A Zoom link will be sent to your email after registering.
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