Park bench in Olmsted-designed Central Par
By Alysa Kleinman
Next time you visit your local park and relax on any park benches, you can thank Frederick Olmsted.
It's a name you might not immediately recognize from history class, but he's considered the father of American landscape and park design. His contributions during his lifetime spanned from Central Park to Niagara Falls, to parks in Midwestern cities like Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit, to the U.S. Capitol, and all the way out to Stanford University in Palo Alto. His contributions beyond his lifetime are un-measurable.
Setting the bar for excellence in park design very high, Olmsted's designs for Central Park continue to influence landscape architecture to this day. But to fully understand