Tag: Olmsted
tuesday august 19th 2008
Olmsted in Buffalo
In his 2007 book City on the Edge, Mark Goldman describes the paradox of progress in Buffalo: Sometimes, to move towards a brighter future for the city, it’s crucial to embrace the treasures of Buffalo’s past. The promise for a new Buffalo, he writes, lies where “an awareness of the past and a belief in the future inspire people to identify with a place and to dedicate themselves to its improvement.”
This is true downtown, for example, where the Erie Canal Harbor offers visitors a walk through the ruins of a place that made Buffalo’s emergence possible many years ago, but sat buried and forgotten ever since.
It’s certainly true when thinking about the Olmsted park system in Buffalo, as well. When it was first designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the late 1800s, the six parks, eight connecting parkways, and nine circles provided a stunning green sanctuary in the midst of a booming city. During the 1901 Pan American Exposition, Buffalo was celebrated not only as the City of…
