Olmsted Brothers

The Olmsted Brothers company was an influential landscape design firm in the United States, formed in 1898 by stepbrothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. (1870–1957).

History

The Olmsted brothers inherited the nation's first landscape architecture business from their father Frederick Law Olmsted. This firm was a successor to the earlier firm of Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot after the death of their partner Charles Eliot. The two brothers were among the founding members of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and played an influential role in creating the National Park Service. The firm employed nearly 60 staff at its peak in the early 1930s. Notable landscape architects in the firm included James Frederick Dawson and Percival Gallagher [1] [2]. The last Olmsted family member in the firm, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., retired in 1949.^[1] The firm itself remained in operation until 1980.

Office and Archives

"Fairsted", the firm's 100-year-old business headquarters and design office, has been carefully preserved as the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, located on 7 acres (2.833 ha) of landscaped grounds at 99 Warren St., Brookline, Massachusetts. It offers excellent insights into the practice of large-scale landscape design and engineering. The site also houses an archive (access by appointment only) of the firm's designs, plant lists, and photos for hundreds of projects. [3]

Design Work

The Olmsted Brothers completed numerous high-profile projects, many of which remain popular to this day, including park systems, universities, exposition grounds, libraries, hospitals, residential neighborhoods and state capitols. Notable commissions include the roadways in the Great Smoky Mountains and Acadia National Parks, Yosemite Valley, Atlanta's Piedmont Park, a residential neighborhood in Oak Bay, British Columbia, Canada: Uplands; entire park systems in cities such as Seattle,^[2] and Washington state's Northern State Hospital. The Olmsted Brothers also co-authored, with Harland Bartholomew, a 1930 report for the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce entitled "Parks, Playgrounds, and Beaches for the Los Angeles Region" encouraging the preservation of outdoor public space in southern California.^[3] The report was largely ignored by the city, but became an important urban planning reference.

Selected Private and Civic Designs

• Audubon Park, New Orleans, Louisiana
• Ashland Park, residential neighborhood built around Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate in Lexington, Kentucky
• The British Properties, Vancouver, Canada
• Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial a World War II for American servicemen in Cambridgeshire, near Cambridge, England
• Caracas Country Club (1920s)^[4]
• Cleveland Metroparks System, in the Greater Cleveland area, Ohio
• Crocker Field Park, Fitchburg, Massachusetts
• Elm Bank Horticulture Center
• First Presbyterian Church of Far Rockaway
• Fort Tryon Park
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Fresh Pond, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Grover Cleveland Park, Caldwell, New Jersey
• High Point (New Jersey) Park
• Homelands Neighborhood (Indian Orchard, Massachusetts)
• "New" Katonah, Katonah, New York
• Kentucky State Capitol Grounds, Frankfort, Kentucky
• Kohler (Village of), Wisconsin ^[5]
• Leimert Park, Los Angeles, Ca. ^[6]
• Locust Valley Cemetery, Locust Valley, New York
• Metro Parks, Summit County, Ohio ^[7]
• Manito Park and Botanical Gardens, Spokane, Washington
• Marconi Plaza, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Marquette Park, Chicago, Illinois
• Memorial Park, Maplewood, New Jersey
• Otto Kahn Estate, Cold Spring Hills, New York
• Oldfields-Lilly House and Gardens [4] Oldfields, Indianapolis, Indiana, a National Historic Landmark, originally Hugh Landon estate (Olmsted job # 6883 [5] 1920-1927) [6]
• Pope Park, Hartford, Connecticut
• Seattle Park System
• South Mountain Reservation, Maplewood, Millburn, South Orange, West Orange, New Jersey
• Thompson Park, Watertown, New York and roadways

Union County NJ Park system

• Utica, New York Parks and Parkway System, 1908–1914
• Verona Park, Verona, New Jersey
• Wade Lagoon, on University Circle, Cleveland, Ohio
• Warinanco Park, Roselle, New Jersey
• Washington State Capitol Campus Grounds [Olympia]
• The Highlands (Seattle)

Campus Designs

• Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania (1895–1927)
• Chatham University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Denison University, Granville, Ohio
• Harvard Business School, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1925–31)
• Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania (1925–32)*
• Huntingdon College campus ^[8]
• Iowa State University Ames, Iowa (1906)
• Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland (1903–19)
• Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana ^[9]
• Middlesex School, Concord, Massachusetts (1901)
• Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts (1896–1922)
• Newton Country Day School, Newton, Massachusetts (1927)
• Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio (1909) ^[10]
• Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon (1909) ^[11]
• Saint Joseph College (Connecticut)
• Samford University, Homewood, Alabama
• University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (1901–10)
• University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida (1925)
• University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho (1908)^[12]
• University of Montevallo, Montevallo, Alabama
• University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana (1929–32)
• University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island (1894–1903)
• University of Washington, Seattle, Washington (1902–20)
• Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York (1896–1932)
• Western Michigan University original campus, Kalamazoo, Michigan
• Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts (1902–12)

References

1. ^ The Seattle Times. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2003/0427/cover.html. 
2. ^ Williams, David B. (May 2, 1999). "The Olmsted Legacy -- The Fabled Massachusetts Landscape Firm Got To Seattle Early, And That Has Made All The Difference". The Seattle Times. http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19990502&slug=2958185. 
3. ^ Hise, Greg; Deverell, William. Eden by Design: The 1930 Olmsted-Bartholomew Plan for the Los Angeles Region. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520224155. 
4. ^ Romero, Simon, Sandra La Fuente P. contributed reporting, "A Venezuelan Oasis of Elitism Counts Its Days", The New York Times, December 27, 2010 (December 28, 2010, p. A1 NY ed.). Retrieved 2010-12-28.
5. ^ "Company Timeline". Kohler Company. http://www.kohler.com/corp/about/timeline/index.htm. 
6. ^ {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leimert_Park,_Los_Angeles}
7. ^ Metro Parks
8. ^ Huntingdon College campus map
9. ^ "The LSU Campus". Louisiana State University. January, 2004. http://www.lsu.edu/highlights/041/beauty.html. Retrieved 2009-08-19. 
10. ^ Ohio State University, Master Plan Vol. 1 Chap. 2
11. ^ "Report on Oregon Agricultural College, 1909". Olmstead Brothers. October 1, 1909. http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/jspui/bitstream/1957/7930/1/Rep_on_Org_Agr_1909.pdf. Retrieved 2009-10-03. 
12. ^ Official site, University of Idaho

External links

• Olmsted His Essential Theory
• Olmsted Parks in Seattle -- A Snapshot History at HistoryLink.org
• Olmsted Associates: A Register of Its Records in the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division
• Olmsted Research Guide Online a search tool for Olmsted projects and archival records
• Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site preserved home, office and archives of Olmsted firm, National Park Service
• National Association for Olmsted Parks