Frederick Law Olmsted, the orginal landscape architect, inspires Oakland
Olmsted's influence on the Berkeley campus and his designing of Monte Vista Cemetery rooted within the people of the East Bay the concept of preserving the natural beauty of Earth.
In the wake of an early 19th century horticulture revolution, gardens filled with imported species, and had become as Frederick Law Olmsted said "a display of novelty, of fashion, of scientific or virtuoso inclinations." Olmsted loved natural scenery.* His work, as he put it, offered "extraordinary opportunities for cultivating susceptibility to the power of scenery."**
Imagine spending your whole life creating projects that grow so slowly, you will never live to see them mature. Honoring the time-scale of Earth was how Frederick Law Olmsted became the foremost, and one of the finest landscape architects to inspire humanity. His plans and his greatness sprang from his ability to envision Nature's growth--he saw land and trees in his designs as they would be when they matured hundreds of years down the road. With this long-sight, he embraced the native shape of each environment he worked with.
Of his visions, time has told its own story. Oakland's Mountain View Cemetery is one of his great works. The cemetery, chartered in 1863 during Olmsted's tenure in California is without argument, the most beautiful of Olmsted's burial sites. Even so, what he designed is not what it has become. He designed a flowing central road alongside of which, "the heaven-pointing spires of the immortal cypress would prompt the consolation of faith."*** So now, there is a flowing central road, but there are no immortal cypress. Instead, magnolias, palm trees and other non native species have been planted by short-sighted administrators who needed big, now. Maybe that will be corrected some day...
Frederick Law Olmsted hinted at a beautiful concept in his 1866 report to the University of California. He spoke of the creation of "sylvan lanes", a park concept about preserving the canyons and watersheds of the East Bay hills for their natural beauty. "The road is designed to be laid out in such a way as to make the most of the natural features, while preserving their completely sylvan and rural character, being carried with frequent curves in such a way as to make the best use of the picturesque banks of the arroyas (sic) and the existing trees upon them."**** Now, this certainly sounds like the East Bay Regional Park District that is so loved by the people nowadays.
Vast and influential were Olmsted's visions.
* http://www.olmsted.org/ht/d/sp/i/1169/pid/1169 3. Manuscript fragment, Olmsted Papers, LC
** http://www.olmsted.org/ht/d/sp/i/1169/pid/116 9 FLO to Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer (draft, [June 1893]), Frederick Law Olmsted Papers, Library of Congress
*** Park Maker: A Life of FLO, by Elizabeth Stevenson p 266-273
**** Stevenson p 21
Olmsted's influence on the Berkeley campus and his designing of Monte Vista Cemetery rooted within the people of the East Bay the concept of preserving the natural beauty of Earth.
In the wake of an early 19th century horticulture revolution, gardens filled with imported species, and had become as Frederick Law Olmsted said "a display of novelty, of fashion, of scientific or virtuoso inclinations." Olmsted loved natural scenery.* His work, as he put it, offered "extraordinary opportunities for cultivating susceptibility to the power of scenery."**
Imagine spending your whole life creating projects that grow so slowly, you will never live to see them mature. Honoring the time-scale of Earth was how Frederick Law Olmsted became the foremost, and one of the finest landscape architects to inspire humanity. His plans and his greatness sprang from his ability to envision Nature's growth--he saw land and trees in his designs as they would be when they matured hundreds of years down the road. With this long-sight, he embraced the native shape of each environment he worked with.
Of his visions, time has told its own story. Oakland's Mountain View Cemetery is one of his great works. The cemetery, chartered in 1863 during Olmsted's tenure in California is without argument, the most beautiful of Olmsted's burial sites. Even so, what he designed is not what it has become. He designed a flowing central road alongside of which, "the heaven-pointing spires of the immortal cypress would prompt the consolation of faith."*** So now, there is a flowing central road, but there are no immortal cypress. Instead, magnolias, palm trees and other non native species have been planted by short-sighted administrators who needed big, now. Maybe that will be corrected some day...
Frederick Law Olmsted hinted at a beautiful concept in his 1866 report to the University of California. He spoke of the creation of "sylvan lanes", a park concept about preserving the canyons and watersheds of the East Bay hills for their natural beauty. "The road is designed to be laid out in such a way as to make the most of the natural features, while preserving their completely sylvan and rural character, being carried with frequent curves in such a way as to make the best use of the picturesque banks of the arroyas (sic) and the existing trees upon them."**** Now, this certainly sounds like the East Bay Regional Park District that is so loved by the people nowadays.
Vast and influential were Olmsted's visions.
* http://www.olmsted.org/ht/d/sp/i/1169/pid/1169 3. Manuscript fragment, Olmsted Papers, LC
** http://www.olmsted.org/ht/d/sp/i/1169/pid/116 9 FLO to Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer (draft, [June 1893]), Frederick Law Olmsted Papers, Library of Congress
*** Park Maker: A Life of FLO, by Elizabeth Stevenson p 266-273
**** Stevenson p 21