Frederick Law Olmsted

UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture LARC 444/553 Green Network Planning

January 9, 2019 GREEN NETWORKS A Short History A Very Selective History….

THEMES 1. Pioneers of green space systems 2. Greenspace systems and urban form 3. Early green neighbourhoods EARLY GREEN SYSTEMS THINKING & PLANS Olmsted(s), Kessler, Cleveland FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED

by creativemarket.com FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED 1822- 1903

Farmer, social reformer, journalist, social critic, public administrator and…

First to coin “landscape architect” Father of Landscape Architecture

designer of ~100 parks, park systems, estates, 27 campuses FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED (FLO)

With Calvert Vaux, designed Central Park in 1858

Landscape architecture consulting firm 1865- 1898

Olmsted Brothers: FLO Junior and John Charles 1898- 1980

source Getty Images OLMSTED- Central Park, NYC

A place of respite for the working class from the industrial city

beauty, sanitation , health

Olmsted envisioned a system of green spaces extending throughout NYC - parkways and linear parks interconnecting the major parks

Central Park - diagram showing Riverside, Heckscher 1977 p. 169 OLMSTED- Pleasure drives

Prospect Park, Brooklyn

Parkways (pleasure drives to and between parks)

interconnected parks systems

Lewis Mumford: “The park system is thus the very spearhead of comprehensive urban planning”. Heckscher 1977 p. 193 BUFFALO PARK SYSTEM Olmsted & Vaux 1868-1872

USA- “ﬁrst system of parks and historic parkways” Buﬀalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy VISION: • parkway as form-givers • connecng key parks • armature for interconnecng future parks

Heckscher- as system aborted

Source: Albert Fein, 1972 FL Olmsted and the American environmental tradition. BOSTON PARK SYSTEM aka Emerald Necklace (1878-1895) Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles Elliot, John Charles Olmsted, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.

(Olmsted coined the term “park system”)

source wikimedia.org BOSTON PARK SYSTEM aka Emerald Necklace (1878-1895) Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles Elliot, John Charles Olmsted, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.

envisioned as a circumnavigang greenbelt around Boston (never completed)

begins at Boston Common (1634)

“a chain of parks linked by parkways and waterways” Wikipedia

walking, pleasure drives, small parks, arboretum, large park (Franklin), along waterways BACK BAY FENS- First Green Infrastructure

“Frederick Law Olmsted….proposed to ﬂush out the stagnant waterway and add naturalisc planngs to emulate the original de marsh ecology of the Fenway area. His plan was true to both the character of the land and the needs of the growing populaon.” Boston Mayor Marn J. Walsh

Boston Park Department & Olmsted Landscape Architects, “Map of the Back Bay Fens,” The Urban Imagination, accessed September 4, 2017, http:// dighist.fas.harvard.edu/courses/2015/HUM54/items/show/70. INFLUENCES IN CANADA

1877 Mount Royal Park, Montreal F. L. Olmsted Sr. FREDERICK TODD, Landscape Architect First resident landscape architect in Canada

EXAMPLES OF WORK: 1904 Assiniboine Park, Winnipeg

1899 Park system of the National Capital- Ottawa

1905 Park system, Edmonton

Residential developments in Vancouver- Shaughnessy and Point Grey Greenspaces along the North Saskatchewan River, Edmonton MINNEAPOLIS PARK SYSTEM (1880’s) H.W.S. (Horace) Cleveland

Heckscher: Protecting and interconnecting natural features

A city of parkways A city characterized by natural features

Minneapolis Park System Plan, 1883 source Heckscher 1977, page 207 94

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minneapolisparks.org LEONARD H. NEIMAN SPORTS COMPLEX

FORT SNELLING GOLF 35W GEORGE KESSLER

Educated in landscape architecture in Germany

1892 Landscape Architect for Kansas City Park Board

worked brieﬂy in New York/ communicated with Olmsted

Private pracce: designed notable parks and park systems in Memphis, Dallas, St Louis, Indianapolis… KANSAS CITY PARK SYSTEM George Kessler 1893 1977

Heckscher: Planning the “bones” or structure of the city & Expandable system

source Heckscher 1977, page 200, 201 OLMSTED BROTHERS- PORTLAND

John Charles Olmsted, December 1903 Proposed system of parks for Portland, Oregon

• parks should be part of a system • park systems should be comprehensive • connected by boulevards and parkways • sited to take advantage of natural landscapes & scenery • include ill-drained areas and areas subject to flooding Unknown author_graphic interpretation of the John Charles Olmsted proposal PORTLAND 2035 Comprehensive Plan (2016)

Vision for greenways and habitat areas OLMSTED BROTHERS- SEATTLE (1903 - 1941) 1903 Plan for a parks system

“The primary aim should be to secure and preserve for the use of the people … these advantages of water and mountain views and of woodlands… An ideal system would involve taking all of the borders of the different bodies of water…and to enlarge these fringes at suitable and convenient points.” John Charles Olmsted, 1903

Source: Heckscher 1977, page 75 1903 Plan 2019 JOHN NOLEN: Landscape architect and town planner

John Nolen 1869-1937 educated at Harvard 1903 - 1905

studied landscape architecture under Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.

ﬁrst American to idenfy himself as a town planner Nolen: “let nature lead the way in planning” JOHN NOLEN New Towns for Old 1927 inﬂuenced by Garden City movement in England orderly street plans+ orderly locaon of civic and commercial facilies

let nature lead the way in planning (based on topography; seng aside natural features for parks and recreaon)

green spaces should be public

Nolen- preliminary plan for Flint Michigan NEIGHBOURHOOD SCALE OLMSTED- Neighbourhood plans

Olmsted and Vaux Plan for Riverside, IL 1869

44% public open space 3 miles riverside greenspace

street tree planning VANCOUVER INFLUENCES FREDERICK TODD

Shaughnessy Heights, Vancouver

named aer Thomas Shaughnessy, former president of the Canadian Paciﬁc Railway

NOLEN- Neighbourhood plans

Mariemont Plan John Nolen 1921

a pre-eminent urbanist Congress for a New Urbanism

• city-beauful- inﬂuenced street plans • nature-inﬂuenced open space plans

Venice Florida Plan John Nolen 1926 DUANY AND PLATER-ZYBERK with contributions from Leon Krier

New Urbanists Founding members of Congress for a New Urbanism

promoted traditional neighbourhood development

walkable neighbourhoods

Seaside Florida 1985 DUANY AND PLATER-ZYBERK with contributions from Leon Krier

New Urbanists Founding members of Congress for a New Urbanism

promoted traditional neighbourhood development

walkable neighbourhoods

Seaside Florida 1985 CLARENCE STEIN & HENRY WRIGHT with LA Marjorie Sewell Cautley

Regional Plan Association of America (with Lewis Mumford, Benton MacKay, others)

influenced by Garden City movement in Britain (Ebenezer Howard, Patrick Geddes)

advantages of town/ beauty and delight of country

Radburn, NJ plan 1929 RADBURN A Town for Children: accommodating the car/ safety for children

walkable neighbourhoods VILLAGE HOMES, Davis, CA

designed and developed by Michael and Judy Corbett 1975

California interpretation of Radburn

street greenway VILLAGE HOMES + agriculture + green infrastructure 20 cases GREEN NETWORKS Orenco Station Markham, ON Hillsboro, OR NW Landing DuPont, WA Cornell 15% 32% 9% 1996 1996 1990 Garrison Woods Toronto, ON Eugene, OR Royal Node Calgary, AB Denver, CO Stapleton Beaches 12% 37% 22% 37% 1996 1998 2001 1997 Abbotsford, BC Chesterton, IN Coffee Creek East Clayton Salem, OR Surrey, BC Auguston Fairview 26% 39% 12% 39% 1998 2003 2000 2002 Minneapolis, MN Los Angeles, CA SE False Creek Vancouver, BC Vancouver, Village Homes Village Heritage Park Playa Vista Davis, CA 39% 32% 14% 51% 2003 2002 1996 1975 Prairie Crossing Wilsonville, OR Wilsonville, Grayslake, IL Denver, CO Tucson, AZ Tucson, Lowry AFB Villebois 32% 39% Civano 52% 15% 1998 1995 2000 2003 MOST IMPORTANT TAKE-AWAYS

FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES OF EARLY VISIONARIES: • capture and preserve landscape structure early (Nolen’s let nature lead the way) • nature’s linear systems are the ideal connective tissue for park systems • plan green space systems at the city scale • maintain that systems thinking down to the neighbourhood scale • imagine expandable systems • urbanism and green space systems can function together QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?