The fascinating story of the historic Elmwood District is told for the first time, from the arrival on the Niagara Frontier of Joseph Ellicott, through the role played by Fredrick Law Olmsted' s parks and parkways, and into the decline and renewal during modern era. This lushly illustrated book educates and enlightens, telling the stories of the people who gave Elmwood its enduring character, transforming it from dense forest into one of America' s top ten neighborhoods.
The concluding volume of the monumental Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted captures some of Olmsted's greatest achievements. Choice 2015 Outstanding Academic Title In 1890, Frederick Law Olmsted, then nearly sixty-eight years old, had risen to the pinnacle of his career. Together with his partners, stepson John Charles Olmsted and protégé Henry Sargent Codman, he was involved in a number of major ongoing projects, including the Boston, Buffalo, and Rochester park systems, the campus plan for Stanford University, and numerous private estates. In July, he reported that the firm had "twenty works of considerable importance" underway, including nine large parks and six estates that he believed were "matters of public interest." Before the summer ended, the firm's commitments would expand dramatically as Olmsted and his partners were appointed landscape architects for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. As commissions for new park systems, residential communities, grounds for educational institutions, and private homes increased, Olmsted feared that their commitments would exceed the partners' ability to do their best work. Despite these fears, Olmsted's work in the final six years of his professional career would only enhance his considerable reputation, as the ninth and final volume of The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted reveals. With its impressive waterways, monumental buildings, and verdant islands and shores, the Chicago fair proved to be one of the firm's crowning achievements. The early 1890s also saw the culmination of Olmsted's wide-ranging work on one of his other great projects: the design of the grounds of George W. Vanderbilt's massive estate, Biltmore, near Asheville, North Carolina. In planning the estate's thousands of acres, Olmsted outlined new approaches to landscape design, promoted the creation of the first scientific forestry operation in the United States, designed a model residential subdivision, and proposed an arboretum that would have been the most ambitious in the nation. The Last Great Projects, 1890–1895, chronicles the history of one of the world's greatest landscape design firms while offering a fascinating retrospective on Frederick Law Olmsted's productive final years. The volume also gathers together the important documents of this last triumphant era. As Olmsted neared the end of his career, he wrote some of his most reflective letters and reports, summarizing the legacy of his involvement with the U.S. Sanitary Commission, the quality of landscape design in England and France, the biographical circumstances that proved most important to his development as an artist, and his hopes and fears for the future of his profession.
Buffalo, New York is known for its remarkable architecture. Masterpieces by world-renowned architects dot the city. From the ground, these structures are impressive. From the sky, they are breathtaking. Soar high over the Queen City via beautiful drone photography and see the city like you've never seen it before. From the sweeping grandeur of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery to the immense scalloped walls of Temple Beth Zion, discover Buffalo from A to Z.
Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) planned many parks and park systems across the United States, leaving an enduring legacy of designed public space that is enjoyed and defended today. His public parks, the design of which he was most proud, have had a lasting effect on urban America.
Detroit enjoys a reputation as one of America’s major urban and industrial centers. Yet there is much of the great outdoors in this city—even in the heart of the downtown. Easy Detroit Outdoors shares the best of The D’s outdoor pursuits. Paddle the historic canals once occupied by Detroit's notorious Purple Gang. Drive outside the busy city for a visit to U-Pick orchards, premier golf courses and gorgeous rail-trails. Or stay in the city center to experience Slow Roll bicycling with 1,000 fellow riders. Easy Detroit Outdoors promises a new perspective on the Motor City that includes urban gardens repurposed from once abandoned city lots and a sandy beach and ice skating rink in the heart of downtown. Like its predecessor, 100 Things to Do in Detroit Before You Die, this book will help you create—and complete—your very own Detroit-themed bucket list, this time in the great outdoors.
Prepare to be transported to the edge of the world in Bradley Sides' affecting and haunting debut collection of magical realism short stories, Those Fantastic Lives and Other Strange Stories. In Sides' tender, brilliantly-imagined collection, a young boy dreams of being a psychic like his grandmother, a desperate man turns to paper for a miracle, a swarm of fireflies attempts the impossible, scarecrows and ghosts collide, a mother and child navigate a forest plagued by light-craving monsters, a boy's talking dolls aid him in conquering a burning world, and a father and mother deal with the sudden emergence of wings on their son's back. Brimming with our deepest fears and desires, Sides' dazzling stories examine the complexities of masculinity, home, transformation, and loss. Bradley Sides is an exciting new voice in fiction, and Those Fantastic Lives, which glows with the light of hope and possibility amidst dark uncertainties, will ignite imaginations.
200 Iconic Landscapes That Define North America Frederick Law Olmsted is the father of American landscape architecture. His firm, and the successor firms that sprung from it, worked through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to shape some of our most beloved green spaces, including national, state, and city parks, suburban neighborhoods, and academic campuses. He is most famous for creating New York’s Central and Prospect Parks, Stanford University’s campus, and the Capitol Grounds. What is less known and surprising about his legacy is that he worked widely across North America. By highlighting 200 iconic landscapes, many of which are still open to the public today, Experiencing Olmsted brings a fresh approach to the firms’ work and philosophy. It highlights not only grand city parks, but also other public venues born out of a desire for social equity. Olmsted was an early voice for parks as democratic spaces that could be reached on foot by a large percentage of any city’s populace. He viewed parks as restorative places—what he termed “the lungs of a city.” Brimming with contemporary and archival photography as well as original drawings and plans, this truly remarkable record brings these places to vivid life.
