Category: Spotlights

A look into Sudbrook, a suburban community near Baltimore designed in 1889 by Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr.

Over a century ago, renowned landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, transformed the acreage around Biltmore House from overworked woodland to the lush, natural landscaped experienced today.

The Olmsted-Beil House on Staten Island, NY, was the site of agricultural and landscaping experiments by Olmsted and his home base for intellectual pursuits and travels that transformed his worldview and informed his social conscience, inspiring him thereafter to endeavor to improve society.

A look into Gallaudet University, a private federally chartered research university, whose mission is to empower deaf and hard of hearing students.

Shelburne Farms is an education nonprofit working to inspire and cultivate learning for a sustainable future. Our campus, a 1,400-acre working farm and National Historic Landmark designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., makes that work a lot easier.

The country house of philanthropists Robert Treat and Lydia Lyman Paine, Stonehurst crowns the career-long collaboration between Olmsted and the renowned American architect Henry Hobson Richardson. 

Druid Hills, now one of Atlanta’s historic in-town neighborhoods, is Frederick Law Olmsted’s “last suburb.”

Louisville’s system of parks and parkways, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and his sons, is one of only four completed parkway systems in the country.

Rochester, NY is one of only four cities in the U.S. with an entire park system designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted was commissioned in 1888 to design the first park for the city on 20 acres of donated land. However, Olmsted recommended the addition of lands along the Genesee River, north and south of […]

One of the first planned communities in the U.S., Riverside, IL is said to be the realization of Frederick Law Olmsted’s vision of the ideal suburb

In his hometown of Hartford, Olmsted contributed to the planning and the design of Trinity College.

In 1869, after a decade of toying with the idea of creating a park on Mount Royal, the City of Montréal began the process of acquiring the land to achieve its vision. The land purchase alone cost Montréal the equivalent of close to a full year’s budget. The City Council then went straight to Frederick […]

Shortly after the Civil War, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux transformed the lands around Bridgeport Harbor, Long Island Sound, and Black Rock Harbor into what is today – Seaside Park (Project No. 12021). Thanks to advocacy by Bridgeport’s daily newspaper, plus land donations from nearby residents, Seaside Park came to fruition. Most notable among […]

The first of its kind in the United States, the Buffalo, New York system of interconnected parks and parkways is one of the largest Olmsted bodies of work comprised of 24 park and parkway features.

Learn more about Olmsted and Vaux's design for Prospect Park in Brooklyn, NY.