Shared Spaces

Famed landscape gardener and philanthropist Bunny Mellon found inspiration in the Olmsted firm. Her Oak Spring Garden Foundation and NAOP have now joined forces in the creation of a 23-panel exhibit for the Olmsted Bicentennial: Frederick Law Olmsted: Landscapes for the Public Good.

Meet Austin Allen, a member of our Olmsted 200 Honorary Committee!

Frederick Law Olmsted was landscape architect for the US Capitol Grounds. To mark the bicentennial, the USCHS is offering a special Olmsted calendar and Olmsted ornament.

Prospect Park gardener Jesse Brody offers insights on maintaining a positive outlook while facing challenges in Olmsted’s beloved Brooklyn park.

Meet Phillip Loughlin, a member of our Olmsted 200 Honorary Committee!

As we celebrate the many accomplishments of Frederick Law Olmsted, Olmsted 200 also examines how his values and principles can help address challenges facing public parks today. For his time, Olmsted espoused some fairly radical perspectives — believing that parks belonged to all people and contributed to public health and well-being. More than 100 years later, his dynamic ideas about democratic spaces live on.

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 […]

Prospect Park Gardener, Jesse Brody, here muses on the London Plane Tree that provides the canopy in Prospect Park’s Concert Grove.

Central Park, the first joint venture of Olmsted and Vaux, from its first years, has also inspired many artists to depict its scenery and the ways people enjoy it, giving us, as a few early examples show, another way to appreciate the park’s design and social impact.