OlmstedNow: an inclusive vision for the greater Boston Olmsted bicentennial
It is hard to overstate the influence of Frederick Law Olmsted on the shape of contemporary cities. Designer of New York’s Central Park and Boston’s storied Emerald Necklace, social reformer, fervent abolitionist, journalist, traveler: Olmsted’s life and work have profoundly informed how we think of public spaces — and public life. Mythologized as the father of landscape architecture, Olmsted’s legacy is, in fact, a great deal more complex, and a great deal more relevant to our moment.
Franklin Park, part of Boston’s Emerald Necklace, hosts BAMS Fest, an Afrocentric celebration of music, wellness, and creativity.
Today, spaces that foster civic engagement, public health, and environmental resilience are more important than ever. As Olmsted’s 2022 Bicentennial approached, a consortium of parks stewards, municipal agencies, and educators asked me to help articulate the meaning and value of Olmsted’s legacy for the next generation.
In the context of a global pandemic, which galvanized public health advocates and revealed disparities in social determinants of health, the Bicentennial took on an increased urgency of addressing wellness outcomes — especially for communities traditionally excluded from access to public spaces. Additionally, the charged political climate in the US, culminating with an assault on Olmsted-designed grounds of the Capitol, further underscored the power of Olmsted’s pioneering vision of public spaces as the precondition for civil society — a literal ground of democracy.
Based in Boston, where Olmsted lived and worked for much of his life, I helped the consortium define fundamental questions: What, in our time, is the function of public space? How to communicate that shared spaces belong to everyone? And how to position the Olmsted Bicentennial not as a celebration of a bearded saint but as a provocation for today’s urban denizens?
My basic insight, which informed a yearlong public education campaign, was that the Olmsted Bicentennial should not be about Olmsted. To be relevant, we needed to foreground Olmstedian ideas rather than indulge in hero worship. “Come together and be seen,” I wrote, compressing a lengthy Olmsted quote into an urgent call to action.
My soundbite of an Olmsted quote became the central message for a public engagement campaign.
The regional campaign launched successfully, coinciding with Olmsted’s 199th birthday. After a year of hard work behind the scenes, a broad-based consortium is united by central ideas, energized by a common identity, and committed to an inclusive discussion of belonging in public spaces. The mission and vision I formulated have become robust tools in service of a greater purpose — to bring together people of all races, ages, and abilities to imagine the future of their shared places together.
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This work was guided by visionary clients at the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, National Park Service, and municipal leaders. I worked closely with the team at Ummo, who expressed the Bicentennial’s goals visually, in print and online. And the deep work of structuring an equitable process and programming was undertaken by my friends at Grayscale Collaborative.