In 2022, the Olmsted Network partnered with Professional Grounds Management Society (PGMS) to create an Olmsted Award category for the annual PGMS Green Star Awards. The Biltmore Estate in North Carolina was the first landscape to win the Olmsted Award, which recognizes properties whose design and management practices follow the principles of Frederick Law Olmsted. Honorable mentions went to the Architect of the Capitol, Duke University and State of Washington Capitol Campus. 

Applications for this year’s award are being accepted until June 15, 2025, via the PGMS website here.

“We are fortunate to collaborate with the Olmsted Network to honor the legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted and the Olmsted firm with the Olmsted Green Star Award category. The deep appreciation for nature and ecology espoused by Frederick Law Olmsted are values shared by PGMS and our members. Olmsted’s influence runs deep, and I encourage everyone to take advantage of the resources available through the Olmsted Network to learn more about your landscape and its connection to Olmsted or how the designers may have been influenced by him,” Michael Gildea, CGM, PGMS Board President. 

While Olmsted’s legacy included his design of many properties across the United States, perhaps his greatest contribution is his understanding and implementation of a set of comprehensive design and management principles. These principles, now taught in schools, are utilized by landscape architects and designers and are evident in many modern-day properties.

The Olmsted Award category is open to all types of properties and is not restricted to only historic properties or properties designed by the Olmsted firm. The Olmsted Award evaluates properties based on the following design and management principles created by Frederick Law Olmsted. The category evaluates properties in the following areas: landscape maintenance (20 percent); safety (15 percent); challenges (20 percent); Olmsted design and management principles (20 percent); and stewardship, education, and training (15 percent). 

Olmsted Award winning properties have landscape management and maintenance practices that are carefully planned and implemented. If the landscape is historic or has historic elements, they are well documented and maintained to reflect and retain their historic significance. Special projects are designed and maintained to limit impacts on the natural landscape. Exceptional measures are taken to protect the site/resource and to minimize construction impact.  

The award will recognize properties where Olmsted principles are integrated and practiced throughout the design and management operations. Olmsted principles include:

  • A Genius of Place— The design should take advantage of unique characteristics of the site, even its disadvantages. The design should be developed and refined with intimate knowledge of the site.
  • Unified Composition— All elements of the landscape design should be made subordinate to an overarching design purpose. The design should avoid decorative treatment of plantings and structures so that the landscape experience will ring organic and true.
  • Orchestration of Movement— The composition should subtly direct movement through the landscape. There should be separation of ways, as in parks and parkways, for efficiency and amenity of movement, and to avoid collision or the apprehension of collision, between different kinds of traffic.
  • Orchestration of Use— The composition should artfully insert a variety of uses into logical precincts, ensuring the best possible site for each use and preventing competition between uses.
  • Sustainable Design and Environmental Conservation— The design should allow for long-term maintenance and ensure the realization and perpetuation of the design intent. Plant materials should thrive, be noninvasive and require little maintenance. The design should conserve the natural features of the site to the greatest extent possible and provide for the continued ecological health of the area.
  • A Comprehensive Approach— The composition should be comprehensive and seek to have a healthful influence beyond its boundaries. In the same way, the design must acknowledge and take into consideration what surrounds it. It should create complimentary effects. When possible, public grounds should be connected by greenways and boulevards so as to extend and maximize park spaces.

For more information, or to begin your submission, visit the PGMS website here.