What Is Special About An "Olmsted" Park?

What is it that makes a landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmsted different than other landscape artists' work? Why such furor about an "Olmsted" design, which seems to engender a great degree of pride in places which can boast of one of his works, and which draw to them legions of devoted fans?

The late Bruce Kelly, a noted Olmsted scholar and himself a landscape architect, found fifteen elements which make an landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmsted distinct:

1. They are man-made works of art.
2. They have their roots in the English Romantic style.
3. They reflect a Victorian influence.
4. They provide a strong contrast with the city.
5. They are characterized by the use of bold land forms.
6. They provide a balance between the spatial elements of turf, wood and water.
7. They use vistas as an aesthetic organizing element.
8. They contain a series of planned sequential experiences.
9. They provide for the separation of traffic.
10. They provide visitor services.
11. They contain artistically composed plantings.
12. They integrate the architecture into the landscape.
13. Each has provision for a formal element.
14. They were characterized by variety.
15. They were built to provide for recreation.

- Bruce Kelly, Art of the Olmsted Landscape

The next time you visit one of Buffalo's Olmsted parks - or one of Olmsted's works in your area - watch for the aspects Mr. Kelly has listed!

Copyright 1997-2007 Stanton M. Broderick

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