Frederick Law Olmsted and Chicago | Riverside and the World's Columbian Exposition

Olmsted and Vaux design a residential community that would be called Riverside. It’s among the first of the utopian garden suburbs. Later Olmsted and Vaux’s design for a Chicago park system were interrupted by the great Chicago Fire, but when the city began to play the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 they called on Olmsted once again.
To Olmsted, a park was both a work of art and a necessity for urban life. Olmsted’s efforts to preserve nature created an “environmental ethic” decades before the environmental movement became a force in American politics. With gorgeous cinematography, and compelling commentary this film presents the biography of a man whose parks and preservation are an essential part of American life.
This WNED PBS production premiered in June 2014.
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Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America has been made possible by major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor and The Margaret L. Wendt Foundation. With funding provided by HSBC, The Tiffany & Co. Foundation and The C.E. & S. Foundation. With additional support from The Peter C. Cornell Trust and Mass Humanities.
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