The Pasadena Public Library, in partnership with the Pasadena Garden Club, is hosting a virtual presentation to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., social reformer, founder of American landscapes and designer of parks, on Thursday, June 23, 5 to 6 p.m.
Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. is regarded as the Father of Landscape Architecture. In this event, Dr. Christine Edstrom O’Hara, Professor at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, will explore Olmsted’s living legacies and the hundreds of landscapes and parks that Olmsted inspired across the United States.
After nearly two decades of diverse experiences, in 1865, Olmsted turned full-time to the practice of landscape architecture. That year, he returned to New York from California to finish Central Park and to design Prospect Park with his business partner, Calvert Vaux.
Over the next 30 years, Olmsted created hundreds of designs, literally defining the field of landscape architecture and illustrating the many ways it could improve the human condition.
To Olmsted, parks were to provide city dwellers “a sense of enlarged freedom” and to be restorative in nature, working unconsciously to contribute to people’s well-being. Gently curving paths, an expanse of meadow, an indefinite boundary of trees and gracefully contoured terrain were, to Olmsted, essential pieces of a public park.
“We want a ground to which people may easily go after their day’s work is done, and where they may stroll for an hour, seeing, hearing and feeling nothing of the bustle and jar of the streets, where they shall, in effect, find the city put far away from them,” Olmsted said in 1870.
Attendance at the virtual event on Thursday is free, but registration is advised.
To sign up, go to https://pasadena.evanced.info/
For more information, call (626) 744-4066.