Genius of Place (75 page)

 

Start at Grand Army Plaza. This is Olmsted and Vaux's original park entrance, though the monument dates to 1892, after their involvement in the project. Head into the park and pass through Endale Arch, a subtle, rustic stonework designed by Vaux. Emerging from Endale Arch you'll be
in the Long Meadow. It remains one of Olmsted and Vaux's finest creations, nearly a mile of stretching, rolling, invitingly green lawn. Note the sunken pathways. They're a canny original touch that keeps the view across the Long Meadow unbroken. When the park first opened, visitors were intrigued by the fact that, thanks to the sunken pathways, one couldn't see people's feet moving as they walked. A woman in one of those long nineteenth-century dresses would appear to glide across the meadow.

 

NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK

As an environmentalist, a role separate but related to his better-known work as a landscape architect, Olmsted was deeply involved in the preservation of this place. The plan he and Vaux drew up covered more than just Niagara Falls. Olmsted especially loved the islands in the headwater rapids before the water plunges over the falls. Visit Goat Island. You might also want to stop at the nearby Three Sisters Islands, which are especially unspoiled. In 1875, Olmsted took a trip here with H. H. Richardson. Together, they spent many hours enjoying the scenery on these headwater islands. This was Olmsted's idea: He knew the falls would be like an exclamation point, overwhelming anything else they might see. So he wanted to work his way to them by way of some quieter, gentler scenery.

 

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK

One of Olmsted's favorite concepts was “passages of scenery.” Highland Park features one of his greatest passages. Enter at the Lamberton Conservatory. Walk down the stairs and then proceed to wend your way through a series of “rooms” of trees. Each room is a small, open space surrounded by groupings of the same species, or visually complementary species of trees. The tree rooms have various gaps. Think of these gaps as doors. What's on the other side, you naturally wonder? That's just what Olmsted wanted. Walk through a door and you'll be in another, different, room of trees. Repeat. Repeat again. Pretty soon, you'll have experienced “passages of scenery.”

 

Olmsted was drawn to the idea of building a park along the bank of a river, and he thought this stretch of water—sometimes called the “cannon of the Genesee”—was perfect. Go past the zoo, and near the Trout Lake, pick up one of the wooded paths. Walking along, trees all around, great view of the Genesee River below, you might half expect to see someone paddle by on a wooden raft. This is a little slice of the nineteenth century right in downtown Rochester.

 

ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA

Enjoy the meandering three-mile approach road, incredibly faithful to Olmsted's original route. The lush planting scheme—rhododendrons, white pines, even bamboo—is also faithful. Olmsted designed the approach to be full of visual variety, while shutting out all distant vistas. He wanted to save those for the house itself. Once inside, proceed to the loggia for an amazing view. Incredibly, much of the woodland you see stretching for miles didn't exist when George Vanderbilt bought the land. It was scruffy, abused for generations. Vanderbilt agreed to Olmsted's idea to plant trees as part of America's first experiment in managed forestry. Today, much of Vanderbilt's original acreage has become Pisgah National Forest. But the estate's 8,000 acres still contain plenty of woodland. Make your way down through the Olmsted-designed gardens on the hillside beneath the South Terrace. At the base of the hill, you can pick up the Woodland Trail for a short walk through forest planted by FLO.

 

MONTREAL, QUEBEC

Enter the park at the intersection of Rue Peel and Avenue des Pins, at the edge of McGill University's campus. Make the brief walk to Chemin Olmsted. When the park opened, this was a carriage road. Olmsted was furious that it didn't follow his intricate scheme. But it still turned out
plenty winding, plenty Olmstedian, and nowadays, it's for pedestrians only. Follow Chemin Olmsted to the chalet, requiring a winding gentle-grade climb of roughly a mile and a half. From here the view is amazing. You immediately grasp why Olmsted was so taken with this mountainpark site. Montreal is arrayed below, and in the distance, across the St. Lawrence River, Mont St. Bruno and Mont St.-Hilaire are visible. From the chalet, you can return via Chemin Olmsted or take a shortcut, marked
sentier de l'escarpment
—a steep stairway that will take you quickly and dramatically down the mountainside.

 

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Coming off the Mall, enter the Capitol grounds via Pennsylvania Avenue. Walk up the hill until you find the Summerhouse. Olmsted devoted a great deal of thought and energy to this little gem, making sure it was just so. The Summerhouse is a great place to sit down and rest after a long day of seeing the sights. Make sure and explore the rest of the grounds, too, still nearly exactly as Olmsted designed them. Take a look at the photo insert in this book, where Olmsted's 1874 plan and a modern aerial shot are presented side by side for comparison.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Justin Martin is the author of two other biographies,
Greenspan: The Man Behind Money
and
Nader: Crusader, Spoiler, Icon
. As one of the few journalists to gain access to Greenspan, Martin produced a best-selling biography of the secretive Fed chairman that was also selected as a notable book for 2001 by the
New York Times Book Review
. Martin's Nader biography served as a primary source for
An Unreasonable Man
, an Academy Award–nominated documentary. Martin's articles have appeared in a variety of publications, including
Fortune
,
Newsweek
, and the
San Francisco Chronicle
. Martin is a 1987 graduate of Rice University in Houston, Texas. He was married in Central Park, Olmsted's masterpiece. He lives with his wife and twin sons in Forest Hills Gardens, New York, a neighborhood designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.

Copyright © 2011 by Justin Martin

 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information, address Da Capo Press, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142.

 

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Martin, Justin.
Genius of place : the life of Frederick Law Olmsted / Justin Martin.—1st Da Capo
Press ed.
p. cm.
“A Merloyd Lawrence book.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-0-306-81984-1

1. Olmsted, Frederick Law, 1822–1903. 2. Landscape architects—United States—
Biography. 3. Social reformers—United States—Biography. 4. City
planning—United States—History—19th century. I. Title.
SB470.O5M37 2011
712.092—dc22

2011002246

 

Published as a Merloyd Lawrence Book by Da Capo Press
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
www.dacapopress.com

 

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