Frederick Law Olmsted

Central Park from Rockefeller Center Historic Photo

Design in the Time of Cholera: How Pandemics Reshaped the Built Environment

Some of the most beloved public parks and essential advances in public sanitation can be traced back to their roots in the Cholera outbreaks in the 1800s.

May 8, 2020 - History

Administration building at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, on opening day, May 1, 1893

Exhibition Shows the Swagger and the Social Conscience of a Previous Era of Planning

It's rare for an entire exhibition to be devoted to the practice and history of planning. This is a big one.

July 9, 2019 - CityLab

Jackson Park

The Colliding Legacies of Olmsted and Obama

Architects will soon be hired to design Obama's presidential library in Chicago. It may turn out to be a beautiful building, but will it be worth all that is lost in the process?

February 26, 2016 - Mark Hough

An In-Depth Look at One of America's Preeminent Landscape Architects

The Atlantic's Eric Jaffe centers on James Corner's latest work in Cleveland's Public Square, and goes to describe his other well-known projects, including the High Line, and transformations of public parks and urban spaces throughout the country.

June 29, 2015 - The Atlantic Magazine

Park Advocates Face Uphill Battle Against Obama Library, Lucas Museum

Geoff Edgers details the challenge ahead for park advocates fighting to protect Chicago open space from two powerful forces: the White House and George Lucas.

May 1, 2015 - The Washington Post

Applying Moses to Modern-Day Green Space Projects

Could the Los Angeles River use its own 'power broker'?

July 28, 2014 - The Planning Report

Washington Square Park

Olmsted Redux

Adrian Benepe was recently announced as the recipient of the 2014 Olmsted Medal. Like it or not, the well-deserved and appropriate recognition is one more in the seemingly endless list of honors for the transformation of New York's urban parks.

July 1, 2014 - Mark Hough

Re-Evaluating the Dynamic Duo: Olmsted and Moses

Anthony Flint examines the commonalities—and disparities—in the historic legacies of Frederick Law Olmsted and Robert Moses.

June 24, 2014 - CityLab

130 Years on, Boston's Emerald Necklace Still a Model Linear Park

Writer Kaid Benfield used a recent trip the American Society of Landscape Architects annual meeting in Boston to reflect on what that city can teach us about designing urban parks.

November 17, 2013 - NRDC Switchboard Blog

Can One Dogged Enthusiast Polish Olmsted's Tarnished Chicago Jewel?

On Chicago's South Side, Jackson Park once inspired million of visitors to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, including a young Frank Lloyd Wright. After years of neglect, Robert Karr Jr. wants to revitalize the park along a Japanese theme.

April 25, 2013 - Crain's Chicago Business

Parks, in Need of a New Metaphor

Parks have long been likened to "the lungs of the city." But to better capture the totality of parks' role in our urban milieu a more apt metaphor is necessary.

February 19, 2013 - Steven Snell

Celebrating Central Park

A new anthology gathers writings on New York's Central Park, which includes an observation by the artist Christo that the park is "the most unusual and surrealistic place in New York City."

July 7, 2012 - The New York Times

The Designers Behind a Landscape Revolution

Rebecca Messner looks at the groundbreaking work being done by the present generation of landscape architects, and wonders why the only one most people can name died more than a century ago.

April 17, 2012 - Grist

The Burden of Frederick Law Olmsted

Mark Hough laments the chronic, debilitating inferiority complex afflicting Landscape Architects and the crutch that Frederick Law Olmsted provides.

February 8, 2012 - THE DIRT

Olmsted the Environmentalist

A new biography of Frederick Law Olmsted pulls together letters and collections from five separate archives to paint him as a pioneering environmentalist and landscape architect.

July 29, 2011 - ASLA's The Dirt blog

Frederick Law Olmsted, Close Up

Michael J. Lewis reviews a new biography of Frederick Law Olmsted, which he says reveals new facts about the man who coined the term "landscape architect."

June 13, 2011 - The Wall St. Journal

Looking at Olmsted and His Legacy

A new television documentary on Frederick Law Olmsted looks at the legacy of his Central Park and the sometimes serendipitous way he was able to leave an impact on the urban landscape of the U.S.

April 22, 2011 - The New York Times

What is Green Urbanism?

The term Green Urbanism keeps showing up unexpectedly in newspaper articles, conference session titles, blog posts, and casual conversation.  While there is an innate, intuitive sense of the meaning, green urbanism may also seem as elusive as it is evocative.  Having given this topic a fair amount of thought over the past several years, I, and my colleague and collaborator Ted Bardacke, arrived at the following working definition: green urbanism: the practice of creating communities mutually beneficial to humans and the environment

October 1, 2010 - Walker Wells

Advocates Push for Tearing Down Freeway Through Olmsted Corridor

Buffalo's Kensington Expressway cut the Humbolt Parkway neighborhood and its Frederick Law Olmsted-designed corridor in half in 1958. Activists are pushing the state to consider tearing it down and replacing it with a pedestrian-friendly boulevard.

May 5, 2010 - Buffalo News

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HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Call for Speakers

Mpact Transit + Community

New Updates on PD&R Edge

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Websites

The best of the Internet—since 2002.

Top Apps

Planning apps for a brave new world.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.