Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.
Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. (born July 24, 1870 in Staten Island , New York City , USA, † December 25, 1957 in Malibu (California) ) was an American landscape architect who was best known for his endeavors to protect species . He has dedicated his life to national parks and worked on projects in Acadia National Park , the Everglades and Yosemite National Park .
Family and education
Olmsted was the son of Frederick Law Olmsted and Mary Cleveland Perkins and a half-brother of John Charles Olmsted . After graduating from Roxbury Latin School in 1890, he apprenticed to his famous father and received his bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1894 .
Olmsted married Sarah Hall Sharples in March 1911.
Olmsted, Jr. died while visiting friends in Malibu, California, and was buried in Old North Cemetery , Hartford, Connecticut .
Working life
Frederick Law Olmsted Junior worked early (still in his father's company) to two outstanding projects: the Great Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago that the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America was dedicated by Columbus, and the largest privately owned home in the United States , George Vanderbilt's mansion in North Carolina, known as the Biltmore Estate .
After studying at Harvard, he became a partner in his father's landscape architecture firm in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1895 . Shortly afterwards, his father retired into private life. Olmsted and his half-brother John Charles Olmsted took over the management of the company and renamed it the Olmsted Brothers . For the next half century, the company completed thousands of landscape projects in the United States.
In 1900 Olmsted returned to Harvard University, where he introduced the first formal training course in landscape architecture as a university professor.
President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him a member of the McMillan Commission ( Senate Park Improvement Commission for the District of Columbia ) in 1901 . He worked with other notable figures such as Daniel Burnham , Charles Follen McKim, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens on the assignment, "Taking and developing Major L'Enfant's centuries-old plans for Washington and adapting it to today's conditions."
The American Civic Association took advice from him in 1910 on the creation of a new office for national parks. This culminated in a six-year correspondence, including the following excerpted letter:
“ The current situation regarding national parks is very bad. They were created one after the other by Congressional resolutions that did not clearly state what the purposes of the exempted lands were to serve, nor provided any proper and efficient means of safeguarding the parks [...] I made two proposals at different times, one of which was […] The definition of the objectives and purposes according to which the national parks and monuments should be managed by the national park office. "
His best contribution consisted of a few simple words that were incorporated into the National Park Service Organic Act as a guide to conservation and conservation for subsequent generations in America :
“ In order to preserve the landscape and the natural and historical objects and the wild life therein and to offer joy in viewing them and to leave them intact in such a way and by such means for the joy of future generations. "
In 1920, his better-known projects included plans for city park systems and grass verges across the country. While working for the California State Park Commission (now part of the California Department of Parks and Recreation ) in 1928, Olmsted conducted a nationwide survey of potential park land. In it he defined the basic long-term goals and provided guidelines for the acquisition and development of public parks. He was also a founding member and later President of the American Society of Landscape Architects .
Under the leadership of John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., the Olmsted Brothers company employed nearly 60 people in its most prosperous period in the early 1930s. As the last member of the family, Olmsted Jr. retired from the company in 1949.
Honors
In 1918 Olmsted was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 1920 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences ; In 1929 he was elected a member ( NA ) of the National Academy of Design in New York .
Olmsted Point in Yosemite and Olmsted Island near the Great Falls of the Potomac River in Maryland are named after him.
Olmsted Grove in Redwood National Park was dedicated to him in 1953, the same year he received the Pugsley Gold Medal .
Projects
A partial list of Olmsted's design projects in the American capital reads like a guide to National Park Service websites: National Mall & Memorial Parks , Jefferson Memorial , White House Plant, and Rock Creek Park .
In his later years, Olmsted, Jr. worked for the conservation of California's coastal redwoods .
He was responsible for the terrace-style master plan layout for Cornell University . He also worked on Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Florida and Forest Hills Gardens in Queens, New York.
Other projects (extract):
- Landscaping in Waveny Park , New Canaan, Connecticut , 1912.
- St. Francis Wood residential neighborhood in southwest San Francisco , 1914
- Striking superstructure to protect the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument , 1932
literature
- M. Christine Boyer, Manhattan Manners: Architecture and Style, 1850–1900 . New York: Rizzoli, 1985. ISBN 0-8478-0650-2 .
- F. Washington Jarvis: Schola Illustris: The Roxbury Latin School, 1645-1995 , p. 344. Boston: David R. Godine, 1995. ISBN 1-56792-066-7 .
- American Council of Learned Societies: Dictionary of American Biography, Scribner, New York, 1958, ISBN 978-0-684-16226-3 , p. 485
Web links
- State of California: A State Park System is Born Link
- Rolf Diamant: Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. , National Park Service Biography, The First 75 Years Link
- National Historic Site: Frederick Law Olmsted Link
- Jane Kendall: The Magic of Waveny , New-Canaan-Darien-Magazine, Moffly-Publications, July 2008 Link
- NN: The Lasting Legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. Is Everywhere Link
Individual evidence
- ↑ see literature F. Washington Jarvis: Schola Illustris: The Roxbury Latin School, 1645-1995
- ^ The Lasting Legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. Is Everywhere
- ↑ see web link State of California: A State Park System is Born
- ^ Members: Frederick Law Olmsted. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed April 18, 2019 .
- ↑ nationalacademy.org: Past Academicians "O" / Olmsted, Frederick Law NA 1929 ( Memento of the original from May 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on July 6, 2015)
- ↑ has been awarded since 1928 for outstanding achievements in the promotion and development of public parks in the USA ( PDF ( Memento of the original from August 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and Archive link according to instructions and then remove this note. )
- ↑ see web link Jane Kendall: The Magic of Waveny
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Olmsted, Frederick Law Jr. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American landscape architect |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 24, 1870 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Staten Island , New York City , USA |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 25, 1957 |
| Place of death | Malibu (California) |