Greenscapes

The American Olmsted landscape legacy stretches from Central Park in New York to Seattle, Spokane and Portland park systems on the West Coast, all created more than a century ago. Frederick Law Olmsted, considered the “father” of the landscape architecture profession, was also stepfather and mentor to John Charles Olmsted. Both steadfastly believed that pastoral spaces are integral to healthy urban life. Enthusiasm regarding Central Park kindled a nationwide movement to beautify cities, and in 1903, John Charles Olmsted traveled to Portland and Seattle, submitting master plans for park systems in both. He produced designs for several of the region’s university campuses and smaller cities, as well as Spokane’s premier Riverside Park System. His success was jeopardized by political and practical mine fields such as changing park boards, escalating land costs, and dwindling funds. Meticulous, intensely observant, industrious, and visionary, John Charles Olmsted’s finesse with members of the societal elite influenced property purchases, political appointments, and municipal funding levels. His careful attention to natural vistas, topography, and native plants still allow these verdant havens to yield a renewing connection to the outdoors. "Greenscapes" is the first book to focus on John Charles Olmsted’s landscape architecture output—conveying the story of a shy, dutiful protégé carrying on the family business for an ailing patriarch, shaping the West in the Olmsted image. Staying in clubs and hotels for months at a time, he wrote his wife every evening after long days in the field. The hundreds of preserved letters utilized as source material detail each encounter and setback, describe the characters who shaped the region’s cities, and provide a front row seat to regional history and turn-of-the-century growth pains.