Many of the public parks and parkways system of Buffalo, New York were originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux between 1868 and 1896. They were inspired in large part by the parkland, boulevards, and squares of Paris, France. They include the parks, parkways and circles within the Cazenovia Park–South Park System and Delaware Park–Front Park System, both listed on the National Register of Historic Places and maintained by the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy.
Frederick Law Olmsted described Buffalo as being "the best planned city [...] in the United States, if not the world". [1] : 49 With encouragement from city stakeholders, he and Calvert Vaux created an augmentation of the city's grid plan by drawing inspiration from Paris, introducing landscape architecture while embracing aspects of the countryside. [1] : 52–53 Their plan would introduce a system of interconnected parks, parkways and trails, unlike the singular Central Park in New York City. [1] The largest of them would be Delaware Park, situated across the large Forest Lawn Cemetery to amplify the amount of open land planned.: 53 With construction of the system finishing in 1876, it is regarded as being the oldest in the country, [2] although some of his plans were never fully realized. In the twentieth century, the diminishing parks would be afflicted by diseases, highway construction, and weather events such as Lake Storm Aphid in 2006. [3] [1] In 1939, Buffalo's avenues were lined with hundreds of thousands of elm trees, maintained by the city's forestry division. The elms, which made up 60 per cent of the trees, were nearly all wiped out by Dutch elm disease in the 1950s. [4] From 1974 onwards, efforts were made to increase the tree cover, [5] and since 2001 the city has maintained an inventory of its urban forest. [6] The Buffalo Olmsted Park Conservancy, a non-profit organization, was created in 2004 to assist the city with protecting the 850 acres of parkland. [7] Olmsted's work in Buffalo would inspire similar efforts in cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston. [1]
The city's Division of Parks and Recreation manages over 180 parks and facilities, seven recreational centers, 21 pools and splash pads, and three ice rinks. [8] The 350 acres (140 ha) Delaware Park features the Buffalo Zoo, Hoyt Lake, a golf course, and playing fields. Buffalo collaborated with sister city Kanazawa in Japan to create the park's Japanese Garden in 1970, where cherry blossoms bloom in the spring. [9] Shakespeare in Delaware Park has run every year since 1976 and attracts more 40,000 visitors from across the country. [10] Tifft Nature Preserve in South Buffalo sits on 264 acres (107 ha) of remediated industrial land, opening in 1976. The preserve offers trails for hiking and cross-country skiing, marshland with fishing permitted, and is an Important Bird Area. [11] Also in South Buffalo is the Olmsted-designed Cazenovia and South Parks, the latter home to the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens. [12] According to the Trust for Public Land, Buffalo's 2020 ParkScore ranking showed high marks in access to parks, with 90% of city residents living within a ten-minute walk of a park. However, the city ranked lower for acreage; 7.6% of city land is devoted to parks, compared to about 15% for Minneapolis. [13] [14]
Frederick Law Olmsted was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the United States. Olmsted was famous for co-designing many well-known urban parks with his partner Calvert Vaux. Olmsted and Vaux's first project was New York's Central Park, which led to many other urban park designs, including Prospect Park in Brooklyn and Cadwalader Park in Trenton, New Jersey. He headed the preeminent landscape architecture and planning consultancy of late 19th century United States, which was carried on and expanded by his sons, Frederick Jr. and John C., under the name Olmsted Brothers.
The Staten Island Greenbelt is a system of contiguous public parkland and natural areas in the central hills of the New York City borough of Staten Island. It is the second largest component of the parks owned by the government of New York City and is maintained by the city's Department of Parks and Recreation and the Greenbelt Conservancy, a not-for-profit organization that works in partnership with NYC Parks to care for the Greenbelt and raise funds for its maintenance and programs. The Greenbelt includes High Rock Park, LaTourette Park, William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge, and Willowbrook Park among others.
Calvert Vaux FAIA was an English-American architect and landscape designer, best known as the co-designer, along with his protégé and junior partner Frederick Law Olmsted, of what would become New York City's Central Park.
Belvedere Castle is a folly in Central Park in Manhattan, New York City. It contains exhibit rooms, an observation deck, and since 1919 has housed Central Park’s official weather station.
New York State Route 198 (NY 198) is a state highway located entirely within the city of Buffalo, New York, in the United States. It is named the Scajaquada Expressway for Scajaquada Creek, which it covers as it heads across northern Buffalo. NY 198 connects the Niagara Thruway in the Black Rock neighborhood to the Kensington Expressway (NY 33) on Buffalo's east side, dividing the city's premier public park in half.
Delaware Park–Front Park System is a historic park system and national historic district in the northern and western sections of Buffalo in Erie County, New York. The park system was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux and developed between 1868 and 1876.
The Allentown district is a neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. The neighborhood is home to the Allentown Historic District.
Mosholu Parkway is a 3.03-mile-long (4.88 km) parkway in the borough of the Bronx in New York City, constructed from 1935 to 1937 as part of the roadway network created under Robert Moses. The roadway extends between the New York Botanical Garden and Van Cortlandt Park. The New York City Department of Transportation is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the roadway while the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation is responsible for the surrounding rights-of-way. The parkway is designated as New York State Route 908F (NY 908F), an unsigned reference route, by the New York State Department of Transportation.
Eastern Parkway is a major road that runs through a portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, it was the world's first parkway, having been built between 1870 and 1874. At the time of its construction, Eastern Parkway went to the eastern edge of Brooklyn, hence its name.
Fenway, commonly referred to as The Fenway, is a mostly one-way, one- to three-lane parkway that runs along the southern and eastern edges of the Back Bay Fens in the Fenway–Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, in the east-central part of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. As part of the Emerald Necklace park system mainly designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the late 19th century, the Fenway, along with the Back Bay Fens and Park Drive, connects the Commonwealth Avenue Mall to the Riverway. For its entire length, the parkway travels along the Muddy River and is part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston. Like others in the park system, it is maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Francis ("Frank") R. Kowsky is a notable architectural historian and State University of New York (SUNY) Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts at Buffalo State College, SUNY, Buffalo, New York. He has published on nineteenth-century American architects and architecture including Frederick Withers, Calvert Vaux, and H. H. Richardson, as well as the architecture and landscape of Buffalo and northwestern New York State. He is also active in historic preservation and has served on the New York State Board for Historic Preservation, the Board of Directors of the Preservation Coalition of Erie County, New York, and is currently a trustee of the National Association for Olmsted Parks.
Riverside Park is a historic park located in the Riverside neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. Located in northwest Buffalo, it is an individual park designed by the Olmsted Architectural Firm in 1898 after Frederick Law Olmsted's retirement. It is on a 22-acre (8.9 ha) site on a bluff overlooking the Niagara River. Riverside Park was designed for active recreation and periodic alterations have occurred as the community's recreation needs have changed. Despite the changes, the park retains numerous original design elements and remains as the final element completed as a part of the Olmsted plan for Buffalo's park system.
The parkway system of Louisville, Kentucky, also known as the Olmsted Park System, was designed by the firm of preeminent 19th century landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The 26-mile (42 km) system was built from the early 1890s through the 1930s, and initially owned by a state-level parks commission, which passed control to the city of Louisville in 1942.
Parkside West Historic District is a national historic district located at Buffalo in Erie County, New York. The district is architecturally and historically significant for its association with the 1876 Parks and Parkways Plan for the city of Buffalo developed by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1876. It consists of 137 contributing structures developed primarily from 1923 to 1940, as a middle class residential neighborhood. The district largely contains single-family dwellings, built in a variety of popular architectural styles, and located along the irregular and curvilinear street pattern developed by Olmsted. They include homes along Nottingham Terrace and Middlesex Road, and segments of Meadow Road, Lincoln Parkway, Delaware Avenue, and Amherst Street. The district is located to the north of Buffalo's Delaware Park.
Martin Luther King Jr. Park, originally The Parade and after 1896, Humboldt Park, is a historic park located in Buffalo in Erie County, New York. The park is located in east Buffalo and bisected by Fillmore Avenue.
Cazenovia Park–South Park System is a historic park system located in the South Buffalo neighborhood at Buffalo in Erie County, New York. The interconnected set of parkways and parks was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted as part of his parks plan for the city of Buffalo, as inspired in large part by the parkland, boulevards, and squares of Paris, France.
Utica Parks and Parkway Historic District is a national historic district located at Utica in Oneida County, New York. It consists of four contributing historic elements: a historic right-of-way known as the Memorial Parkway and the three large parks it connects: Roscoe Conkling Park, F.T. Proctor Park, and T.R. Proctor Park. The district includes seven contributing buildings, three contributing sites, 26 contributing structures, and five contributing objects. The park and parkway system was designed between 1908 and 1914 by the firm of Olmsted Brothers Landscape Associates, headed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. The Utica Zoo is located in Roscoe Conkling Park.
Park Drive is a mostly one-way, two-lane parkway in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston that runs along the northern and western edges of the Back Bay Fens before ending at Mountfort Street. As part of the Emerald Necklace park system mainly designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the late 19th century, Park Drive, along with the Back Bay Fens and the Fenway, connects the Commonwealth Avenue Mall and Boylston Street to Beacon Street and the Riverway. For a portion of its length, the parkway runs along the Muddy River and is part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston's Muddy River Reservation. Like others in the park system, it is maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.
The Architecture of Buffalo, New York, particularly the buildings constructed between the American Civil War and the Great Depression, is said to have created a new, distinctly American form of architecture and to have influenced design throughout the world.
Elmwood Village is a neighborhood in Buffalo, New York.
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