| Frederick
Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) defined and named the profession
of landscape architecture and designed many of America's most beloved 19th century
parks and landscapes including New York's Central Park, Brooklyn's Prospect Park,
the Biltmore Estate, the U.S. Capitol grounds and many others. During his remarkable
forty-year career, beginning in the mid-1880s, Olmsted
and his partners and employees created the first park systems, urban greenways
and suburban residential communities in this country. He was also a pivotal figure
in the movement to create and preserve natural parks such as Yosemite, Yellowstone
and Niagara Falls; and he contributed to the design of many college campuses and
university grounds. Calvert
Vaux
Calvert
Vaux (1824 - 1895) was born in London, England. He apprenticed under London architect
Lewis Nockalls Cottingham. In
1850, Vaux was introduced to Andrew Jackson Downing, a well-known American designer
and writer, who was an architect to join him in a design and architectural practice
he was forming in Newburgh, New York. Vaux
accepted the position, and moved to the United States, and by 1851, Vaux had been
named partner. Tragedy struck Downing that next year though, when he was killed
in a fire which destroyed the Hudson River steamboat Henry Clay. Vaux took up
the full reigns of the firm and eventually moved to New York City. By
1856 he had married, and became a U.S.citizen. During 1857 he published Villas
and Cottages, an influential pattern book. His work as well as the book helped
to establish standards for what was to come to be regarded as "Victorian Gothic"
architecture. In
1858, The City of New York opened a contest to design a new park. Vaux offered
to work with a then little known Olmsted, who was to be the Superintendent of
the park. Eventually, their plan, entitled "Greensward", was chosen as the winner.
Much to chagrin of Vaux, the untrained Olmsted was subsequently named Architect-in-Chief
of Central Park, while Vaux was his assistant, later being named Consulting Architect.
The two men worked on the construction of the park, with few interruptions from
1858 to 1878. In
1865,Brooklyn leaders invited Vaux to consult on the preliminary design of what
became Prospect Park. Vaux agreed and eventually was commissioned to design the
park itself. He then proposed to Olmsted, who was then in California managing
the mining operation at Mariposa, that he return and work on it as well. They
formed the Olmsted, Vaux and Company partnership. Under this partnership, they
designed one of the first suburbs of Chicago, Riverside, Illinois. In
1868, the Olmsted and Vaux firm was commissioned to design a major park for Buffalo,
New York. That initial design turned into three major public grounds all interconnected
by a system of parkways. For this project, Vaux designed several structures which
were used to embellish the system. Vaux
dissolved his partnership with Olmsted in 1872. Later, he and architect George
Kent Radfordand formed a new firm, which was expanded in 1880 with Samuel Parsons,
Jr. as associate. This new firm worked primarily in building, rather than landscape,
design. | 
