Eps 1: A conversation between fredrick law olmsted and Calvert Vaux
— Fredrick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux
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Cody Olson
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Together, they developed the winning Greensward Plan, outlining a great rural park at the center of New York City. Less than ten years into Central Parks development, the chairman of the Brooklyn Parks Commission, James C. T. Stranahan, asked them to develop another tract, one rich with natural resources and lovely woods, in what was then the third-largest city in the United States, behind Manhattan and Philadelphia. What brought them together was a contest, born out of the wealthiest New Yorkers returning from a grand tour, to design a park as splendid as they had seen in Europe.
In 1889, the two men agreed to contribute their services to the town of Newburgh, New York, by designing the park there to honor Andrew Jackson Downing. In the late 1880s, both Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux cooperated with one another in special projects, such as providing their services for free design work for the city of Newburgh, New York, where they built a park in Andrew Jacksons honor.
With the painter Frederic Church having established himself as the paragon of the citizen-engaged painter, it is easy to understand why Olmstead and his partner Calvert Vaux thought of Church being brought in to serve as one of four or five commissioners in New Yorks Department of Parks in 1871. During the nineteenth century, few literate Americans would have been aware of these figures dramatically changing the world around them, yet The artist Frederic Church and Olmstead knew of one another, and each others work. Through their many meetings, shared inspiration, and partnership during the latter part of the 19th century, Frederic Edwin Church and Frederick Law Olmstead combined efforts to permanently alter how Americans saw the aesthetic and social potential of the natural world.
PODCAST The most prominent American landscape architect of the 19th century, Frederick Law Olmsted designed scores of parks, parkways, and university campuses throughout the nation. Pioneering landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted earned wide recognition for his landscape designs across America, and along with partner Calvert Vaux, created beloved, iconic green spaces such as New York Citys Central Park and Prospect Park. Having founded his landscape design firm, Frederick Law Olmsted, in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1882, Olmstead went on to design a staggering range of projects, including parks and park systems in Detroit, Rochester, Louisville, and Boston; campuses for Stanford University and the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey; the Druid Hills suburb near Atlanta; the grounds of the U.S. Capitol; the site of the Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893; and--in a final undertaking--the setting for the nations first major scientific forestry effort, at the Biltmore Estate near Asheville, North Carolina.
Establishing Frederick Law Olmsted own landscape-design firm in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1882, Olmsted went on to design an astonishing range of projects, including parks and park systems in Detroit, Rochester, Louisville, and Boston ; campuses for Stanford University and New Jerseys Lawrenceville School ; the suburb of Druid Hills near Atlanta ; the grounds of the United States Capitol the United States Capitol ; the site for the Worlds Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893 ; and -- in a final undertaking -- the setting for the nations first major effort in scientific forestry, at Biltmore estate near Asheville, North Carolina. Encouraged to apply his administrative skills, and to draw upon his expertise in the field of landscaping, New York, New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans, and the citys ; the citys new downtown, and New Orleans, and other places, New Orleans, and other places. Emboldened by the citys oldest public garden, and other places. Emboldened by his newly discovered, the Central Parks, and other places. Emboldened by the citys oldest public garden, and other places. In 1857, Calvert Vaux asked Frederick Law Olmstead to join him in preparing a submission to the design contest for it.
Calvert Vaux designed numerous country and suburban houses displaying a sensitive relationship to nature, including the house and studio of painter Jervis McEntee, who was his brother-in-law. In addition to landscaping projects, Calvert Vaux dedicated himself as an architect to designing a variety of houses integrating with nature. Apart from designing, he also dedicated the last years of his life in focussing projects in the public parks in New York as landscape architect, resulting in him designing a number of smaller parks across the city, as well as being able to continue his work in Central Park.
Among the subsequent clients for houses by Calvert Vaux were landscape artist Frederic Edwin Church, who was heavily involved with plans for the Olina at Hudson, New York; painter Worthington Whittredge in Summit, New Jersey; and Reform politician Samuel Tilden at New Yorks Gramercy Park . The century may have been when Olmstead approached artist Frederic Church, asking him to display his three most-admired canvases supporting the Union cause at New Yorks Sanitary Fair in 1864, the great exhibition benefiting the Civil War effort.
The proposal for Central Park, developed by Olmstead and Vaux--called The Greensward Plan--drew on personal experiences, ideas about social reform, and a romanticization of natural beauty . In creating Central Park, Olmsted and Vaux invented landscape architecture as a craft of design with profoundly social goals. Olmsted was one of several mid-19th-century thinkers who believed that, after unprecedented industrialization and urbanization, experiencing nature had restorative, civilizing effects on the people living in cities.
The story is commonly reported--at least in Brooklyn--that Olmstead and Walker had learned from their mistakes in designing Central Park, then refined their plans into the 585-acre Prospect Park.