Olmsted
was a landscape architect, educated at private schools
and a special student at Yale College. He had seven
year's farming experience. He took several trips
abroad studying many parks and private estates. He
became Superintendent and Landscape Architect for
Central Park in association with a young English
architect who had been associated with Andrew Downing.
Becoming associated with various other partners,
his principal works were the parks of Brooklyn,
Buffalo, Chicago ( South Park), Milwaukee, Rochester,
Louisville, Boston, Detroit and many other cities and
towns. He also was architect for the United States
Capitol grounds at Washington; World's Fair at
Chicago; and the great Biltmore Estate of George W.
Vanderbilt, just outside Asheville, North
Carolina.
He did a large amount of technical writing and was
associated with many architects, engineers, landscape
architects, landscape gardeners in an advisory way. He
was particularly interested in the naturalistic style
of planting and was the originator of the extreme use
of shrubbery borders and masses as the main feature of
landscape planting. His influence throughout the
country has been exceedingly great.
