TY - JOUR
T1 - The Olmsted firm in Canada
T2 - A correction of the record
AU - Pollock-Ellwand, Nancy D.
N1 - Funding Information:
*Nancy Pollock-Ellwand was educated at the Universities of Guelph, Manitoba and Waterloo. Her work focuses mostly on cultural landscapes – their conservation and history; and facilitating community involvement in heritage landscape issues. Her historical research includes the production of a co-authored e-book (with Susan Preston) called Landscape Legacies: Created Spaces from The Prehistoric To The Present (University of Toronto Press, 2005). This recently won a National Citation Award from the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects. Through the support of a Social Science and Humanities Research Council grant, she has been researching the work of the Olmsted firm in Canada. This study, which forms the basis of the present paper, aims to determine the nature of the impact of this famous American landscape architectural practice on the development of Canadian suburban communities, open space networks and civic and protected areas.
Funding Information:
The research was funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council. The author would also like to acknowledge the assistance of archivists across Canada and the USA for the quiet and essential work they did, while the depths of primary but delicate sources were dug in Vancouver, West Vancouver, Brookline, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Prince Albert, Lethbridge, and Ottawa.
PY - 2006/7
Y1 - 2006/7
N2 - This paper refines the Canadian portion of the definitive Master List of Design Projects of the Olmsted Firm, 1857-1950. This correction then informs a consideration of this American firm's influence on Canadian planning and landscape architecture. The paper also offers a broader perspective on the transfer of ideas during the early days of the parks movement, planned community expansion, and town planning. It is already well known that Olmsted Sr was one of the leading advocates for urban change throughout North America. To this social consciousness, the Olmsted sons and their associates, who did most of the firm's work in Canada, added a good measure of business acumen. Their Canadian practice was sustained by public projects, most notably in town planning and suburban development, and numerous private residential commissions. The Olmsteds played a key role during the formative period of the Canadian planning which saw the creation of the Commission of Conservation in 1909. As well as the direct influence they exerted in their 95 projects in Canada, and their persuasive writings and public addresses, they counselled many cities to adopt formalized planning processes and agencies. Their former employees, and one could argue, 'disciples', also played leading roles in establishing town planning and landscape architecture in Canada. Three in particular, Frederick Todd, Rickson Outhet and Gordon Culham, established thriving Canadian practices. Overall, it is arguable whether the Olmsteds were the most influential foreign landscape design and planning professionals, given the contributions in particular of the British planner Thomas Adams. However, they were the most prolific foreign practitioners in terms of the number of projects and the legacy they passed on to the country's founding town planners and landscape architects.
AB - This paper refines the Canadian portion of the definitive Master List of Design Projects of the Olmsted Firm, 1857-1950. This correction then informs a consideration of this American firm's influence on Canadian planning and landscape architecture. The paper also offers a broader perspective on the transfer of ideas during the early days of the parks movement, planned community expansion, and town planning. It is already well known that Olmsted Sr was one of the leading advocates for urban change throughout North America. To this social consciousness, the Olmsted sons and their associates, who did most of the firm's work in Canada, added a good measure of business acumen. Their Canadian practice was sustained by public projects, most notably in town planning and suburban development, and numerous private residential commissions. The Olmsteds played a key role during the formative period of the Canadian planning which saw the creation of the Commission of Conservation in 1909. As well as the direct influence they exerted in their 95 projects in Canada, and their persuasive writings and public addresses, they counselled many cities to adopt formalized planning processes and agencies. Their former employees, and one could argue, 'disciples', also played leading roles in establishing town planning and landscape architecture in Canada. Three in particular, Frederick Todd, Rickson Outhet and Gordon Culham, established thriving Canadian practices. Overall, it is arguable whether the Olmsteds were the most influential foreign landscape design and planning professionals, given the contributions in particular of the British planner Thomas Adams. However, they were the most prolific foreign practitioners in terms of the number of projects and the legacy they passed on to the country's founding town planners and landscape architects.
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U2 - 10.1080/02665430600731203
DO - 10.1080/02665430600731203
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33745088382
SN - 0266-5433
VL - 21
SP - 277
EP - 310
JO - Planning Perspectives
JF - Planning Perspectives
IS - 3
ER -