John Phibbs will lead a tour in May 2023 (May 14 – 24) to some of the parks in England that Frederick Law Olmsted visited, so participants may enjoy and study first hand the places that determined his own career, and the future of landscape architecture in America. Famously, Olmsted took from his travels not only the delight in nature that is so much a part of 18th century English landscape, but also its didactic and philanthropic role in ameliorating the lives of ordinary people in the new industrial cities. The creation of entire landscapes, he concluded, “all in imitation of nature, is to this day the peculiar art of England.” The trip will include some classic Capability Brown landscapes: Chatsworth, Charlecote, Knowsley, Trentham, and Weston Park. Also there will be some Repton classics, Rug and Stoneleigh, as well as other great landscapes Olmsted visited: Chirk, Hagley, Enville, the Leasowes. There are also the smaller but critically influential public parks created for the benefit of all classes of Birkenhead and at the Birminham and Derby Arboreta. John Phibbs’s wife Gilly Kitching is making all the arrangements so if you would like to know more, email info@inspirationevents.com.
This year’s Harvard Graduate School of Design Frederick Law Olmsted Lecture, delivered by Ethan Carr, is also the keynote lecture for the conference Olmsted: Bicentennial Perspectives, October 14-15, 2022. On Friday, the conference will run from 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM; the Frederick Law Olmsted Lecture will take place from 5:30 – 7:00 PM that evening. The talk will take place in Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium, and is free and open to the public, but registration required HERE
Olmsted designed his most complete and innovative park system in Boston, including a “large park” that contained his most ambitious pastoral landscape. Often grouped with Central Park (1858) and Prospect Park (1865) as one of his three greatest urban parks, Boston’s Franklin Park (1885) cost less than a third as much to develop. But the desire to “let it alone” was more than a pecuniary impulse. Achieving more by doing less culminated an evolution in his design practice. The landscape of upland pastures and hanging woods persisted as an amplified version of what it had been: a characteristic passage of “rural” New England scenery. For Olmsted, letting it alone both preserved and transformed the landscape into an ideal setting for “receptive” recreations that improved individual wellbeing and built a sense of community in the modern city.
When the problem of low visitation to Franklin Park was identified at the end of the nineteenth century, Boston responded with the construction of the Franklin Park Zoo (1912) and successfully activated the park. But in the mid-twentieth century, a decline in the condition of the park drew an opposite response—another and very different way of letting it alone. Buildings and structures were left to deteriorate and landscape maintenance all but disappeared. Institutional racism influenced official policy: once Franklin Park was perceived as a place for Black people, city government no longer considered it worth maintaining. This fact has been obscured by histories that emphasize a perceived obsolescence of the design or the conflict of “active” and “passive” recreation as causes of the park’s supposed demise. These interpretations suggest that the park should be considered an abandoned ruin awaiting redevelopment. But Franklin Park was never abandoned. For over fifty years people in the communities around it have enjoyed the park, organized programming, and performed maintenance. The official neglect of Franklin Park is nevertheless one of great inequities in the city’s history, and new investment and design must address it—perhaps by finding a right way, again, to let it alone.
To attend this keynote address, please register for Olmsted: Bicentennial Perspectives. Ethan Carr, PhD, FASLA, is a Professor of Landscape Architecture and the Director of the Master of Landscape Architecture program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is a landscape historian and preservationist specializing in public landscapes. Three of his award-winning books, Wilderness by Design (University of Nebraska Press, 1998), Mission 66: Modernism and the National Park Dilemma(University of Massachusetts Press, 2007), and The Greatest Beach: A History of Cape Cod National Seashore (University of Georgia Press, 2019), describe the twentieth-century history of planning and design in the US national park system as a context for considering its future. Carr was the lead editor for The Early Boston Years, 1882-1890, Volume 8 of the Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted (2013). Carr co-wrote Olmsted and Yosemite: Civil War, Abolition, and the National Park Idea(Library Of American Landscape History, 2022) with Rolf Diamant, tracing the origins of the American park movement. His latest book, Boston’s Franklin Park: Olmsted, Recreation, and the Modern City (2023) reconsiders the history of this landmark urban park. Carr consults with landscape architecture firms that are developing plans and designs for historic landscapes.
The Harvard University Graduate School of Design, in partnership with the Arnold Arboretum, will host a two-day academic conference as part of the national Olmsted 200 celebration. While Olmsted was central to the conceptual formation of the degree program in landscape architecture at Harvard University and the design of the Arnold Arboretum, the interpretive ambitions of the conference are anything but parochial.
More details to come. Friday’s program will take place at the GSD, Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium, and Saturday’s program will take place at the Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway. Free and open to the public. Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu.
April marks the 200 anniversary of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, the master designer of public parks and a founder of the field landscape architecture. On October 9 at 5:30 at New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill, join historian and filmmaker Laurence Cotton (originator of and consulting producer to the PBS special Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America) as he does a deep dive into the remarkable life and career of the Renaissance-man Olmsted–writer, philosopher, social reformer, advocate for the preservation of natural scenery, and creator of some of the most beautiful public and private parks and gardens in all of N. America. In his presentation, Laurence will talk about the influences of design traditions, aesthetics and philosophies that influenced Olmsted’s thought—including English garden design, the Hudson River School and Transcendentalism. Laurence will also give a visual tour of representative masterful landscapes designed by Olmsted, Senior, as well as his two sons and the Olmsted Bros. landscape architecture firm, as the footprint of their works literally stretch across the entire continent of N. America, with something of a focus on New England, and in particular, Massachusetts and nearby sites in Connecticut and Rhode Island. For more about the celebrations of Olmsted in 2022 check out the website olmsted200.org. You can also check out local programs by visiting Olmstednow.org
Laurence Cotton, currently based in Portland, Oregon, a city that benefits from an Olmsted-master planned park system, originally hails from Boston, renowned for its Olmsted landscapes and the home base for generations of landscape design practitioners working for the Olmsted Bros. firm. A practicing public historian, and writer/producer of historical films for PBS, Mr. Cotton was trained as a cultural anthropologist and brings that lens to bear on much of his work. He has worked with the tribal populations on throughout the Columbia River watershed and has also worked on open space acquisition and the designs of parks and trails in Pacific Northwest. He also brings training as an interpretive naturalist, is a birder and a photographer. His visit to Worcester is one of many such stops on his 2022 tour of the U.S. to present programs about the Olmsted legacy during the Olmsted 200 year.
$15 Member Adult; $25 Adult (Registration includes admission to the Garden) Register HERE.
Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, in partnership with the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT), will host a three-day symposium as part of Olmsted 200, the national bicentennial commemoration of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, social reformer and founder of American landscape architecture. The symposium will be held in Boston, home to the Emerald Necklace, Olmsted’s last great public project. Adjacent to Boston is Brookline where the Olmsted firm’s home and office resided through 1980. For Olmsted, “nothing else compares in importance to us with the Boston work…I would have you decline any business that would stand in the way of doing the Best for Boston all the time.”
Through events, education, and advocacy at the local and national levels, Olmsted 200 ensures that the legacies of the Olmsteds live on across the country by renewing public and policy commitments to the preservation and maintenance of our historic parks and places. Olmsted Now is the Greater Boston effort, an inclusive coalition that connects communities and organizations commemorating Greater Boston’s bicentennial of Brookline-based Olmsted with the “fierce urgency of now.”
Registration for Olmsteds: Landscapes and Legacies is live HERE. Learn more about the symposium at this link. $49 – $99.
Out of the 1860s, as the United States engaged in a civil war, abolished slavery, and remade the government, the public park emerged as a product of these dramatic changes. New York’s Central Park and Yosemite in California both embodied the “new birth of freedom” that emphasized the duty of republican government to enhance the lives and well-being of all its new citizens. A central figure directly connected with abolition, the Civil War, and the dawn of urban and national parks is Frederick Law Olmsted, whose pre-war journalism about the South, design work on Central Park, and ground-breaking Yosemite Report created an intellectual framework for the “park idea.” Marking the bicentennial of Olmsted’s birth, a new book by Rolf Diamant, former superintendent of Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site and Ethan Carr, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, offers a new interpretation of how the American park—urban and national—came to figure so prominently in our cultural identity, and why this more complex and inclusive story deserves to be told.
The Arnold Arboretum will present Rolf Diamant and Ethan Carr on March 12 from 2:30 – 4, and will also be presented in-person at the Arboretum’s Weld Hill Research Building at 1300 Centre Street, Boston, MA 02131. To sign up for the in-person event, click here. Presented in collaboration with Friends of Fairsted, the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, and the Library of American Landscape History. Register HERE.
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 Conservationistand 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).
Olmsted 200 invites you to join the fourth webinar in our Conversations with Olmsted series. In this series, we examine different aspects of Olmsted’s far-reaching influence on America’s physical landscape and social fabric, exploring how best to continue his legacy of parks for all people.
Parks and public spaces face more challenges and threats than ever before. In some cases, development has nearly destroyed these historic landscapes, altering them with highways, towers, and more. Unfortunately, once open spaces are gone, they’re gone forever.
In the age of the pandemic, our nation’s parks and open green spaces have served as places of healthful recreation and respite – but they are not self-sustaining, and greater use has meant greater demand for care and attention, often with far smaller budgets.
This November 30 panel discussion will be moderated by Stephanie Crockatt, executive director of the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, a member of the NAOP Olmsted Network. The panel will explore the threats and opportunities facing Olmsted parks and how to protect these natural and historic assets for future generations.
Panelists include:
Charles Birnbaum FASLA, FAAR, President, CEO, and founder of The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), a founding partner of Olmsted 200. Before creating TCLF, Birnbaum spent fifteen years at the National Park Service Historic Landscape Initiative (HLI) and a decade in private practice in New York City, focusing on landscape preservation and urban design.
Karen Mauney-Brodek, President of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy. Mauney-Brodek is working to restore and improve the Emerald Necklace’s 1,100 acres. She spearheaded the Conservancy’s 20th Anniversary celebration in 2018 and is currently leading a significant revitalization of Charlesgate Park with neighborhood group Charlesgate Alliance.
Andy Mitton, Principal, The Berger Partnership. Mitton is a landscape architect, board member, past president, and nine-year member of Seattle’s Friends of Olmsted Parks (FSOP). He is currently working on the Olmsted 200 Tree Project to identify opportunities to reinvigorate Seattle’s historic parks. He was also part of a task force that compiled recommendations in a report, “Rebirth of Olmsted’s Design for Equity,” for the Superintendent, Seattle Parks and Recreation and the Seattle Board of Park Commissioners.
Register todayon Eventbrite, free,to participate in this event.
If you recently got married and had a nice bit of change to spend, what would you spend it on? For William & Mai Coe in 1913, the answer was simple: purchase a 400-acre estate on Long Island’s “Gold Coast,” have the grounds designed by world-famous landscape architects, fill it with rare species of trees and plants, and then build a 65-room mansion for the cherry-on-top. Fortunately, it’s still all preserved over a century later, and ready to be explored.
Join New York Adventure Club for a virtual exploration of Planting Fields, a sprawling Gilded Age estate in Oyster Bay built between 1918 and 1924 for insurance magnate William Robertson Coe, and his wife, Standard Oil heiress Mai Rogers Coe.
Led by docent Elizabeth Abrams, our unique experience around the historic 409-acre estate will include:
The history and story of the Coe Family, from their accumulation of vast sums of wealth to the ambitious transformation of their grounds into a botanical marvel
A discussion around the Planting Fields grounds (designed by Guy Lowell, A. Robeson Sargent, and the Olmsted Brothers Firm), teeming with historic formal gardens, greenhouses, and rare species of trees & plants
A digital walkthrough of Coe Hall, a 65-room Tudor Revival mansion featuring evidence of Mai’s patronage of living artists including commissioned murals by American artists Robert Winthrop Chanler and Everett Shinn, ironwork by Samuel Yellin, and interior design by famed tastemaker Elsie De Wolf
Rare archival photos by Mattie Edwards Hewitt that reveal the evolution of the buildings and gardens of the estate
Afterward, we’ll have a Q&A with Elizabeth — any and all questions about Planting Fields are welcomed and encouraged!
Can’t make it live? Don’t worry, you’ll have access to the full replay for one week! $10. Register at www.AdventureClub.com
This National Parks program on Saturday, November 17 from 11 – 12:30 will explore the cultural and botanical history of the former home of “Mrs. Jack”. An illustrated lecture will be followed by a walk over a 5 acre portion of the estate that since 2001 has been administered as part of Frederick Law Olmsted NHS. Enrollment for this walk is limited. Please RSVP at https://www.nps.gov/frla/special-events.htm
