Although most people associate the Olmsted firm with the East Coast, the Olmsteds had a long and significant engagement in the west. In 1865, Frederick Law Olmsted released the Yosemite Report calling for scenic reservations for all Americans. In Oakland, at about the same time, he undertook his first and only cemetery— Mountain View— and later worked with Senator Leland Stanford on the design of Stanford University. John Charles Olmsted proved to be a park maker extraordinaire in Seattle and Portland, while FLO, Jr. gravitated towards matters of conservation, working closely with Save the Redwoods League and the State of California.
In this webinar, Dave Zuckermann offers a fascinating look at the Olmsteds’ impact in the west. Zuckermann is the recently-retired Interpretive & Recreation Services Manager for the East Bay Regional Park District, a two-county special district in California’s San Francisco Bay Area that manages 73 parks and over 125,000 acres of land.
