Olmsted's America
Subtitle: an "unpractical" man and his vision of civilization
By: Lee Hall.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Little, Brown
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 270
Subjects: Olmsted, Frederick Law, 1822-1903.; Landscape architects -- United States -- Biography.; Landscape architecture -- United States -- History.; United States -- Civilization.
Genres: Biography.
Description: While Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) stands among America's great innovators, his story is one of both enormous achievement and miserable failure, of public acclaim and official derision. Known as the Father of American Landscape Architecture, he is best recognized for his collaborative work with Calvert Vaux. Together they designed and built some of the greatest parks and public spaces in America, including Central Park in Manhattan and Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

Among Olmsted's numerous solo projects are Boston's Emerald Necklace, the grounds of the United States Capitol and the Washington Monument, and the extensive grounds at Biltmore, the Vanderbilt mansion in North Carolina.

But Olmsted was a restless individual who pursued a number of careers, among them "scientific" farmer, journalist, and commissioner of the Union's Sanitary Commission during the Civil War. He was author of several books, director of the Mariposa gold mines in California, instrumental in the preservation of Yosemite and Niagara Falls - and, by extension, the founding of the National Park Service - and designer of Riverside, Illinois, the first planned suburb.

Perhaps his most significant legacy to Western civilization, however, stems from his ideas and plans concerning the importance of integrating everyday life with nature. In Olmsted's America, Lee Hall presents not just a biography per se but an examination of how Olmsted's particular ideas affected the United States during his time and the important significance these concepts hold for today's world, especially as they relate to nature and the environment.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-263) and index.
"A Bulfinch Press book."