Yet again, I arrived at a site only to realize that I had visited before, possibly even before they became a park unit. I also realized that I’ve been to many of his architectural landscape sites: the National Cathedral, the El Tovar Hotel, Arlington National Cemetery, the Roosevelt Memorial, the Biltmore Estate, the US Capitol Grounds, St Francis Woods, Redwood National Park, Boston Public Garden, the National Mall, Everglades National Park, Riverside Park (NYC), Central Park (NYC), Niagara Falls, Yosemite, UC Berkeley, Stanford, Columbia, Balboa Park, and a number of other sites, mostly in New England. And that’s just a tiny fraction of his work. You’ve probably visited more of his sites than you realize.

Olmsted was a self-educated big-picture guy. He presented a vision and hired experts to make it real. When I visited as a child, I felt small next to the hemlock outside his front door, cozy in his sunken garden, curious on his path into the woods, and free as I burst out on his lawn. What I learned today, is that those feelings were intentionally created with earth, rocks, trees, vines, bushes and lawns. I recognized hints of the Suzhou Gardens that Olmsted must have seen on his trip to Asia, and small design elements that he employed on a grander scale across our country. He said that “nature abhors a straight line”, and unlike the formal gardens of Europe, his designs organically blend nature together in a way that people enjoy instinctively. His home here is a good place to see what landscape he chose for his family, and the (mostly weekend) tours, both inside and outside are educational and inspirational.