In November of 1999, while on the 21st mile of the Seattle Marathon, someone beside me shouted, "wow!, where are we? What's this called?" Though the stabbing pain in the back of my head made vision in one eye difficult, and my confidence was long gone, having been passed by a novelty runner in an enormous bunny suit during mile 8, I smiled. "Interlaken," I gasped, "it's Interlaken Boulevard ... it's ... it's, an OLMSTED." The small group of runners struggling around me looked up and around. In the midst of our self-inflicted suffering, we were silently moved, and for the next few minutes, no one spoke, or even grunted.

In 1903, the Olmsted Brothers, descended from Frederick Law Olmsted (John Charles Olmsted, the primary designer in Seattle, was his nephew), conceived a city-wide park system in Seattle. Many of this city's best known and beloved open spaces and boulevards (including a good portion of the Seattle Marathon route), remain testament to their extraordinary and enduring plan.

Seattle's system of parks is one of the best preserved examples of the Olmsted Brothers' work in this county. Woodland Park, Volunteer Park, the Washington Park Arboretum, Seward Park, and Green Lake are all designed by the Olmsteds. The Friends of Seattle Olmsted Parks, the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department, the Center for Urban Horticulure and a number of other local organizations (including Historic Seattle) have planned a series of engaging and educational programs for 2003 to celebrate the significance of the Olmsted Brothers' contribution to Seattle's history and identity.

An Introduction

The name "Olmsted" is synonomous with significant urban landscape designs of the late 19th and early 20th century in this country. Frederick Law Olmsted (1822 - 1903) is considered by many to be the United States' greatest landscape architect. Olmsted's popular designs include Central Park, UC Berkeley's campus, and the 100,000 acre Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. Olmsted was more than a designer. He was a social reformer and an ecologist long before the concept of environmentalism and green design entered mainstream consciousness.

Frederick Law Olmsted asserted that the ideal city should be configured around a system of parks, which he called "the lungs of the city." Nephew, John Charles Olmsted (1852-1920) and son Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870-1957) assisted Frederick Law senior until his death, and evidenced much of his philosophy and design sensibilities within their scheme for Seattle's park system.

The West was opening up during Olmsted senior's career, as the presence of transcontinental railroads made travel much faster and safer than before. The Pacific Northwest was ripe for Olmsted's approach to city and park planning because many soon-to-be cities, such as Portland, Tacoma, and Seattle were still in their earliest stages of development. While East Coast cities such as New York and Boston were home to some of Olmsted senior's most famous parks, these new towns provided a near-tabula rasa of undulating topography with spectacular water and mountain views in the middle and far distances.

The Olmsted Brothers had the unique opportunity to shape much of Seattle in 1903. Seattle's first real population boom did not occur until 1907, and transcontinental railroad passenger traffic was still relatively light. Seattle's city government and its citizens agreed that a park system was a priority to preserve and enhance the connection between the natural environment and Seattle's residents. Land values were still low on the outskirts of downtown (in 1900, the northern border was slightly above Green Lake, and the southern border was above Columbia City). They reasoned that land values were only going to go up.

Emerald City

Seattle's nickname, The Emerald City, postdated the Olmsteds' design, but their work, its legacy, and the mindset that directed its commission and implementation, reflect a longstanding relationship between Seattle's residents, the surrounding environment, and urban "green" sensibilities. Much of Seattle's early growth and success was directly related to extractive industries which exploited the natural environment. Paralleling and then superceding this view of nature was a current of reverence, appreciation for, and scientific interest in the environment.

While the popularity of Frederick Law Olmsted, and later, the Olmsted Brothers can be attributed to the City Beautiful Movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the meaning of Seattle's Olmsted parks is much more specific to this city. While the national urban ideal was perfectly suited (channeled through the Olmsteds) for Seattle's topography, many of Seattle's residents found (and continue to find) a close relationship to nature that makes the Olmsteds' park system much more than the lungs of the city.

As I and my fellow runners understood while running up Interlaken Boulevard, these green spaces, which are both natural and man made, are soul-inspiring, and are as much the heart of the city as any singular landmark.

For more on the 2003 Olmsted centennial celebration, visit the Friends of Olmsted Park's regularly updated website. For more on the history of the Olmsteds in Seattle, visit HistoryLink. To register for the Seattle Marathon, start training now by running the Olmsted-heavy race route, and visit http://www.seattlemarathon.org.

View last month's Preservation & Environment article

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