Photo: Zhi Ting Phua Buffalo’s incredible Frederick Law Olmsted legacy
Frederick Law Olmsted is probably the best-known landscape architect in American history. And rightly so. In 1868, after designing New York’s Central Park and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park with his partner Calvert Vaux, Olmsted was invited to Buffalo, with the hope that he would design something similar here.
Instead, inspired by Buffalo’s radial street design and also its proximity to Lake Erie and local creeks and waterways, he proposed creating a “city within a park”; his design ended up encompassing six major parks, seven parkways, and eight landscaped circles throughout the city. The country’s first urban parks system was born.
Photo: Jeffrey Krajnik Buffalo’s incredible Frederick Law Olmsted legacy
When you visit, be sure to take note of the parkways, circles and incredible green spaces. You may see some shapes, fountains and vistas reminiscent of Central Park or the Fens in Boston. And remember the bold vision of Frederick Law Olmsted — Buffalo is a city within a park.