Here’sna fellow who was a landscape architect before there was such a thingnas a landscape architect!
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Olmsted,nwho was born on this date in 1822, was also a journalist and a publicnadministrator, and he probably called his work with landscapesn“designing,” but many now say that he was the father of landscapenarchitecture.n
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nCentralnPark is a huge public park at the center of Manhattan in New YorknCity. When it opened in 1857, the park had 778 acres of land (it isnnow larger, with 843 acres). These days, about 35 million peoplenvisit the park every year—making this the most visited city park innthe U.S.
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nCentralnPark has several lakes and ponds, plenty of walking paths, severalnbridle paths (for people on horseback), two ice-skating rinks (one ofnwhich becomes a swimming pool in the summer!), a zoo, a formalngarden, a wildlife sanctuary, a forest. AND there is an outdoorntheater, a “castle” with a nature center, a marionette theater,nand an historic carousel. AND there are at least 3 fountains, 7 majornlawns, a meadow, a huge boulder outcropping, smaller swaths of grass,nand multiple enclosed playgrounds for kids.
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nThenthing is, these lakes and forests and meadows and bouldernoutcroppings look so natural. It looks very much as if Olmsted andnVaux just had to plan a few paths in between some great naturalnfeatures. However, almost all these features are landscaped. Theynwere carefully designed to look NOT designed! Cool, huh?
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Naturalistnand artist John Audubon’s birthdayn
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