Because I am a fan of PBS documentaries, a friend recently suggested that I watch “10 Parks That Changed America.” The program was very interesting, but I was most intrigued to learn about Frederick Law Olmsted. I had heard the name before, but had no idea of the magnitude of his contributions — or those of his sons — to the field of American landscape architecture.

Frederick Law Olmsted was born in Connecticut in 1822. Due to the tragic death of his mother when he was 4 years old, his early life was spent either away at school or on short family vacations in the backwoods of New England. As a young man, he also survived a bizarre incident where he suffered from sumac poisoning. Fortunately, his life improved from there.

Olmsted went on to become a true renaissance man. Among other things, he traveled on a yearlong voyage to trade with China; studied surveying, engineering, chemistry and scientific farming; wrote a book about his walking tour in Europe; and reported on the slave-holding South as a journalist. He accomplished all of this by the time he was 40.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, he not only won the competition to design New York’s Central Park, but also became its superintendent. However, before he could begin work, he left the park to become director of the U.S. Sanitary Commission (an early precursor to the Red Cross).

After the Civil War ended, Olmsted returned to Central Park and worked with Calvin Vaux to complete the design. At this time, they introduced the idea of landscape architecture as a profession. In fact, they are credited with being the first to use the term.

Trademarks of Olmsted’s designs include his intense focus on every detail in the landscape coming together to make an immersive nature experience. He wanted your emotions to be impacted by the experience of being in his landscaped spaces, especially at a time when human environments were becoming increasingly urbanized. He was heavily inspired by some of the English parks that he visited overseas, and took great pains to take into account local climate and conditions when designing landscapes.

He worked on over 500 commissions in his lifetime; among them were public and private properties, academic institutions and public parks. He was also an advocate of collaboration wherever possible. One of the most notable examples of this was his collaboration on the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. He truly lived an amazing life and, in my opinion, deserves the title “Father of American Landscape Architecture.”

But the family didn’t produce just one amazing landscape architect. His stepson, John Charles Olmsted, and his son, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., continued his work and helped run the Olmsted Brothers design firm. Of the two, John Charles adhered the closest to the principles developed by their father.

Additionally, John Charles — not his father — was responsible for many of the iconic parks and academic grounds in the Pacific Northwest. Though he closely followed the elder Olmsted’s principles, one of his major deviations was his inclusion of large native trees and a denser understory than what was typical of environments in New England or Europe. He is responsible for Laurelhurst Park in Portland, the campuses of the University of Washington and Oregon State University, the landscapes at the state capitol in Olympia, and many more.

Katie Lutz, from Hoquiam, joined the WSU Master Gardener program in 2016.

Geographicus Olmsted and Calvin Vaux envisioned Bethesda Terrace as a meeting place in the heart of New York City’s Central Park. Today, it is a popular hangout for artists and musicians.

Library of Congress Olmsted also collaborated on the design of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago.