It’s been a long time coming - nearly 100 years, to be exact - but the Olmsted Brothers parks plan for the City is finally receiving its due.
In honor of the plan’s centennial, Spokane’s Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, known as the MAC, has prepared a major exhibit on the Olmsted Brothers’ parks plan for the City, which will open to the public on October 6th. In addition, members of the National Association for Olmsted Parks will hold their annual meeting in Spokane in honor of the event.
Entitled ”Olmsted Brothers: Designing Spokane Landscapes,” the exhibit will outline the work of Fredrick Law Jr. and John Olmsted, heirs to the legacy of their father Fredrick Law Olmsted, designer of such works as New York’s Central Park, and who has been widely recognized as having pioneered the field of Landscape Architecture. Together, the brothers helped transform much of the Western United States in the same way their father had done back East. Intrigued by our region’s “strikingly picturesque” basalt outcroppings, the Olmsted firm designed parks, residential landscapes and public projects in Spokane over the course of 45 years. This exhibition features their correspondence, photographs, and planting plans and offers a personalized local story, set into the broader context of western city planning. The exhibit will be on display through August 17, 2008.
Hope you made our special members-only event that took place on September 29th - it was a great opportunity to meet and discuss the Olmsted legacy with NAOP members during a sneak preview of the exhibit. Of course, we had nice discussions on the Olmsted “Large Park” concept as expressed in Spokane’s legacy parks plan.
The Olmsted vision of Spokane’s centerpiece large park - called the “Gorge Park” by the Brothers - helped set many things in motion, from the Parks Department aquisition of much of the land prescribed for the area, to initiating the 1974 World’s Fair, to Friends of the Falls’ own recent work promoting the Spokane River Gorge Strategic Master Plan - essentially an articulated version of the Olmsted dream.
“We think people will come away amazed at how many of Spokane’s most beloved parks, neighborhoods and streetscapes were designed or influenced by the Olmsteds,” said Steve Faust, FOF Executive Director. “They may be equally amazed at how much land is already in public hands as a result of this 1907 plan, and like the Gorge area, awaits discovery and greater appreciation,” he added.
