Registration Eligibility
Open to landscape architecture professionals, allied designers, and the general public.
Start Date
09/06/2025
End Date
09/06/2025
Description
April 2022 marked the bicentennial of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr.’s birth. Although many still do not know that there is no “A” in his name, and that there were three Olmsted’s. His impact on the profession – and the public – from coast-to-coast – is still not fully understood. Olmsted-designed landscapes are more than picturesque scenery and public grounds for society’s use and enjoyment.
This presentation draws on forty years of professional practice – incorporating big ideas, anecdotes, and aims to lift the veil on those in Olmsted’s practice and his successor firms from 1857-1979 (beyond those named Olmsted). Additionally, the presentation will address how the Olmsted practice served as the definer and proselytizer of the professional discipline that Sr. named, how the firm came to define what a corporate practice should look like and how it should function and how landscape architects need to seize the opportunity to lead and orchestrate from the planning of cities and campuses to getting involved early and siting the building architecture.
Olmsted introduced new typologies (parkway, park system), he recognized that landscape was Infrastructure and that a thorough understanding of soils and water (from watersheds and hydrology to soil remediation) was essential. He understood landscapes and cities to be dynamic, possessing intertwined systems that could be guided and shaped, and the idea of managing change.
Finally, the presentation concludes with reflections of how we can steward Olmsted’s ideas and built works today – from a deeper and broader cultural context to supporting and collaborating with individuals and organizations who are working in their communities to engage with Olmsted and his legacy.
Location
Ridgefield, CT
Distance Learning
No
Course Equivalency
No
Subjects
Campus Planning & Design
Development Trends
Horticulture / Plants
Project Management
Urban Planning & Design
Water / Stormwater Management
Health, Safety and Welfare
No
Hours
1.0
Learning Outcomes
1) Understand the scope of Olmsted Sr.’s impact on the development of the profession, and raise the visibility of his sons and his successor firms spanning a century of practice.
2. Reveal the foundations for the Olmsted renaissance/movement during the past 40 years and consider its transferability.
3. Understand what Olmsted’s ideas, his built legacy and what his continuum of practice means to the profession today.
4. Reveal aspects of the legacy ripe for expansion and reappraisal (e.g. the role of women in the practice, African Americans who built many of these landscapes, etc.).
Instructors
Charles A. Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR
Course Codes
Olmsted2025CT
Provider
The Cultural Landscape Foundation