So next it's my pleasure to
introduce our next speaker.

Dr for it.

Starner is the dean in the School of
Architecture at the University of Texas at

Austin and his talk is entitled The Long
View the North American landscape and

it's a pleasure to have you with us.

The

people here at Georgia Tech who have
been wonderful host and for inviting me.

I recognize that I probably put more

Frederick's on one slide there
than then normally is the case

and let me begin with the man.

Frederick Law Olmstead.

And one of the challenges
I have as a teacher and

also a frequent reviewer
of journal articles.

Is the spelling of name and there is or

was Fred Olmstead with an A and
his name and this is him and

he played for the Chicago White Sox
in one thousand nine hundred nine.

And it was part of the infamous
throw in the World Series

that caused the White Sox such a problem.

So I'm not going to be talking about
Fred Olmstead the baseball player.

I'm going to talk about
Frederick Law Olmstead SR.

And so far most of the images we've seen
of Olmstead have been the old Olmstead So

this is the young woman says will be like
Elvis you have the young Olmstead and

the old Olmstead and
the young Olmstead is much

sharper looking in many ways and
not sort of the older guy the.

It's sort of spaced out and
looking out to a distance.

One can hardly imagine a more on likely.

Get appropriate person to be honored

with a by a name chair at a major
university than Frederick Law Olmstead SR.

His own education was an Orthodox and

extended many years by
an indulgent father.

However his singular brilliance and
scope of accomplishment

are certainly worthy of this
honor which will be realized.

Thanks to the generosity of Michael and
Jenny minister here at Georgia Tech.

In addition to his
contributions as a writer and

one of the founders of what
became the American Red Cross.

Almost Dead led innovations in seven areas
that have contributed much to our culture.

In each He took a long view of design and
planning.

And these seven areas we more or
less take for granted today but

were quite revolutionary in our time and
so what I'm going to do is go through

these seven areas which build
on the ones that Professor Allen

provided earlier the seven areas
our public city parks state and

national parks Metro Politan scale
planning new community design

campus design World's Fair design and
large scale landscape conservation

began with Central Park which has
been noted a few times already.

One in the competition which he
was responsible for organizing

it and he did this in
partnership with the architect

Calvert Vox it involved
a big team of people.

And I think one of the fascinating things
about Central Park many fascinating

thing one is the assumption that it was
just a green space that was left over and

built around it was it was all designed
it was a completely designed landscape.

And one of the ways that Olmstead was
able to sell it politically was how

was going to really increase the real
estate values around Central Park and

as we know those real estate
values continue to be increasing

to a point where the integrity
a part of the park is under threat.

It's for anyone who's been
there assume most of you have

a marvelous place but also in many
ways Central Park was beginner's luck.

Olmstead had done many things and

I've been very successful at any of
them before designing Central Park.

I think that back.

He had been a very successful writer but
not a very successful farmer and

not successful in other areas and but

with Prospect Park by the time he
did Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

As with Old Ribbon ski and
others have pointed out

was quite an accomplished designer and
the success of Central Park meant

that across North America cities
wanted their own Central Park.

So Olmstead and

vox were quite successful another image of

Prospect Park which in my view was
a more successful designed and

a more mature designed
then Central Park and

one of the things that's stead the sort

of flexibility in design and your ability
to adapt over time in Prospect Park

there's this wonderful skating
rink that recently was redone by.

The architects Todd Williams and
Billy Chan with the landscape architects

from Brooklyn Park from Prospect Park and

it's sort of a wonderful
updating of Ted's ideas and

accessibility to new
generations of Brooklynites

and one could go on and
on with a number of parks that his son.

Frederick Law Olmstead Jr and John C.
and his longtime partner

Calvert Fox designed polluting
montréal mount Royale.

And it's kind of hard
to imagine these cities

Manhattan without Central Park Brooklyn
without Prospect Park

montréal without Mount Royal and
so on and so on.

And today.

Maybe a contemporary
counterpoint to Central Park

is the High Line in New York an incredible
success we've already heard about

the number of visitors and
what's interesting is the number of cities

around the country now around the world
that want their own high line as if it.

And it has been just a terrific success.

So the first contribution
is taking this this study

which almost dead largely borrowed
from the English landscape

a pastoral statics that had been
used in a state that states in and

using that for public parks in
the United States and Canada.

The second big contribution

was that of state and
national parks me start with this.

This is what Niagara Falls
look like before all instead.

And it's kind of hard to imagine today.

It was basically a bunch of factories and

what was interesting is one of the things
Olmstead was able to do is he basically

was able to convince
the local government and

state government to tear all
this down to basically go in and

take away from factories this is
a middle of the industrial revolution.

So the political will that Olmstead had
and a political acronym was quite amazing.

So did the plan for
Nader fault which was to become

the first state park in the United States
and subsequently influenced.

State parks around the world.

And this is what Niagara Falls.

Looks like today in large part thanks
to the efforts of Olmstead and

his colleagues.

So he was the founder of
the state park movement but

also the founder of the Nash
our national parks.

This is Olmstead here on a journey

to used them in the valley and
he had went to work and

used them in the in the eight hundred
sixty S. and later put in place the.

Foundation for the national park system.

Starting with you.

Seventy.

And his son
Frederick Law Olmstead Jr would write

much of the legislation for the national
park system in the National Park Service.

So there's a wonderful sort
of father to son passages

that ideas that Olmstead Sr
had that is said son.

Frederick Law Olmstead Jr
who by the way was

the Charles Elliott professor of landscape
architecture at Harvard University.

So he had a chair as well.

And it was named for Charles Elliott
who will return to in just a moment.

In addition to public city parks and

state and national parks and as

Dr Daniels pointed out the scale of
the firm's work started to increase and

they began to be involved in park and
parkways systems on a metropolitan

scale so sort of the precursor of today
what we would call regional planning.

And it first these these
part way systems and

parkway systems connected parks but

with the emerald necklace in Boston
which is then mention a much more

ambitious sort of undertaking
was initiated and

owned stead did this with young colleague
Charles Elliott Charles Charles Elliott

happened to be the son of the president
long time president of Harvard University.

Olmstead probably successor was going
to be Charles Elliott a brilliant guy.

Fortunately died at
a relatively young age.

That's how son became a Charles Elliott

professor is the father established

professorship and
Olmsted are in the Elliotts honor.

Anyway the.

The whole emerald necklace.

The interesting thing about it was
it was much more than a park system.

It was a flood control system it
was of water quality system it was

a public health system and in addition to

the wonderful sort of
amenity that this created for

the cysts city of Boston and
adjacent cities.

It also has been very effective in.

Controlling floods and
also protecting water.

And here in Atlanta probably your
swivel in to the emerald necklace or

the Buffalo or the little of all
park systems is your very ambitious

effort here to create the belt belt

line system and that's very impressive and
very inspiring effort indeed.

Also I think with the Emerald Necklace
what stead was promoting is something that

we would today call ecosystem services and
the idea of ecosystem services

is to value those things that nature
provides more or less to free free for

us in the idea ecosystem services
are can be provided in urban areas as

well as mountain and
wilderness areas and so

we see with the emerald necklace and we
see with ideas about ecosystem services.

How do we create environments
how do we create places

that don't detract from ecosystem
services but give back and create

ecosystem services I think this is one of
the most important challenges of our time.

How do we create places
that regulates global and

local climate that the talks advise and
claim cleans the air the soil and

water how to regulate water
supply how to control erosion and

and retain sediment and
how to provide refuge and

habitat all of these things I think
can be done through design and

through what increasingly is called green
infrastructure in New York City and

other cities have undertaken
efforts to plan for

green infrastructure and
to the examples like Seoul and

Madrid where highways have been taken.

Alvin Greene systems have
been built to replace them.

The fourth area.

That homestead made a really important
contribution is a new community design

is best example is this plan for
Riverside it's outside of Chicago.

It's a short commute by train.

It takes about eight minutes.

Even today to go between downtown
Chicago and reverse Riverside.

The structure of the community is around
this train station there is higher

density development around the train
station and lower density development

in the winding roads that
that go out from the center.

A number of very well known architects

designed houses in Riverside this
is maybe the most magnificent

most most of our more humble than this but
this is Frank Lloyd Wright so

with the landscape
designed by the brilliant

Chicago landscape
architect Jens Jensen and

that plan would influence
new community thinking to

today this is from
the Stapleton Airport in Denver and

the plan for Stapleton in many
ways you can look at it and

look at the work of Riverside Illinois and

see a direct lineage of
new community design and

from Olmstead to the present
the next area that

Olmstead pioneered and really his son's
really took this to another level.

Was the plant planning for
campus design and Olmsted's

probably biggest accomplishment in this
area is to design for Stanford campus.

He and Leland Stanford had lots of
debates about the line for Stanford.

But the basic.

That and Olmsted was very familiar
with the climate in California.

And instead of using the pastoralist
of Thetic that he had used for

his public parks in the East and
other areas.

He used a design it was
very appropriate for

the Mediterranean climate of California.

So there was a lot of emphasis
on courtyard says that this

wonderful sort of entryway
to Stanford campus but

the use of courtyards throughout
the campus and then his sons would do

many more campus designs and for those
of us who are involved in campus design.

Today we are still sort of following the
tradition that the OEM Stet set down and

they were building to some extent on
Thomas Jefferson and their predecessors.

This is the one nine hundred
thirty three plan for

the University of Texas at Austin done
by the brilliant Philadelphia architect

Paul Cray which pretty much shaped
our campus to the present for

the last several years I've been deeply
involved in the new campus plan all

the burnt orange buildings on
this our new buildings and

I've been working with the firms Saki and
also in Massachusetts the Boston area

to do a new plan and
we're building a new medical school.

But again it's the old stats
that laid the groundwork for

the scale this type of campus
planning one more image.

One of the fun things I got to do
with this plan is we have a very ugly

basketball arena.

It's called the Irwin Center
it's a multi-band used facility.

It's bad for basketball it's bad for

graduation is bad for
a Lady Gaga concert somewhere.

We're tearing it down.

So anyway that's one of the fun parts.

We have a challenge where to put
the stadium tax which working on.

Another of his accomplishments Olmsted's
accomplishments was World's Fair.

At the world's Colombian exposition of

eight hundred ninety three he was
involved with an incredible team.

The architects included Daniel Burnham
Charles McCoy Kim Sophie Hayden

artists like Augustus gardens were
involved in this particular design

and any of you who have hope of
Red Devil in the White City know this

story kind of fun book because I'm stunned
by this point is real little bit older and

a little cranky or and
kind of funny character

this the world's Colombian
exposition would influence.

Many people including Walt Disney among
others and you can sort of see the whole

evolution Disneyland going back to
some ideas that influence very young.

Walt Disney when he visited this.

It also had a huge impact on city planning

it gave birth to what we called the city
beautiful movement cities around

the country wanted to use ideas from

the world's Colombian exposition in
the design of their civic spaces.

This is Washington D.C.
the Washington D.C.

that we know today was a largely
an outgrowth of the McMillan Commission

report which was done in one
nine hundred thirteen and

he sort of designer of that team
was Frederick Law Olmstead Jr so

much of city planning history
can be traced back to certainly

Olmstead seen here but
also his sons junior and.

And see Olmstead one of
the last projects that

homestead SR worked on was to
build more estate for Vanderbilt.

And this was an incredible undertaking.

If nothing else the sort
of scale of the the chateau

that that that Vanderbilt.

And one of the interesting
things that homestead did is he.

He had if you look close to the building
the gardens are very French They're very

sort of very formal
approach to landscape and

then you get a little bit out
of the main garden area and

it's more of an English landscape
style like this area but

then the larger area stead
work with different Pincio and

different Pincio was really the first
forester in the United States.

He directed it would later direct the U.S.

Forest Service very strong
connections with Teddy Roosevelt and

Gifford Pincio came up with the notion
of multiple use and sustained

yield it's really sort of the precursor
of today's sustainable development.

So stead working with a pinch O. and

Vanderbilt conceived to
plan a very grand plan for

the Biltmore estate that had to do
with multiple use to stay in deal

Briley progressive Forest Practices and
farming practices and today.

Things like this is
stable sites initiative.

The second volume of the Sustainable
sites initiative will be out about a week

from now maybe two weeks and
this is an effort is basically lead for

the outdoors very science
based approach to.

Site assessment.

This is the.

Sort of grading system that is put in
place one hundred fifty projects that were

pilot projects thirty of which have been
certified that that laid the groundwork.

I'm going to end with one other project
I almost took the Passaic River

because it's a great.

It's a really good point out really
polluted awful place but instead ice.

I chose another really badly polluted
places to go on this canal in Brooklyn and

to go on this canal is
also a Superfund site.

If you watch if you're a fan of Law and
Order or C.S.I.

they're always digging up a point out of
body parts from the go on this canal.

It's very very highly polluted place and

a firm called De Land studio in Brooklyn
has developed what they called the sponge

park concept for
they go on this canal there

essentially a series of green
water filtration systems

built along to go almost canal
in order to clean the water and

create a manatee and
these sort of diagrams show

some of the ideas the first phase
of this project is now being built.

They did a wonderful job of linking

these interventions are very
small scale interventions to.

Wildlife what wildlife would be
attracted as well as water quality.

And I guess the big success of the project
so far as a Whole Foods is moved in.

So when whenever
a Whole Foods is moved in.

You know the neighborhood has changed.

Frederick Law Olmstead and this is
the old Olmstead I'll end with him was

a transformational figure in our
culture with half the world's popular.

Ation now living in urban region his
ideas for creating more humane places for

us to live remain timely Olmstead took
a long view of design and planning.

Making a park or a new community or
a campus requires such vision and

the realisation that that vision
will take time to materialize.

We can learn much from
the body of his work.

Based on systems thinking
that is how to connect

complex information to construct
a whole list a portrait of phenomena.

He then applied that knowledge to improve
the human condition the few the fruits of

his life parks and park systems state and
national parks new communities and

college campuses are all forms of green
infrastructure we need to expand green

infrastructure of growing cities in order
to sustain and enhanced ecosystem services

rather than to believe that Georgia
Tech Frederick Law Olmstead chair and

Civil and Environmental Engineering offer
such a prospect for advancing ecosystem

services and green infrastructure to
improve the health safety and welfare and

happiness of communities landscapes
cities and regions Thank you.

For any questions.

Thank you.
Outstanding.

Any questions for a sustainer.

From the audience.

I have a question and
it may not make sense.

I am a civil engineer.

If you were designing parks today what
would he do differently do you think.

Differently then

Olmstead what would you do
now what would he do given.

Well I think he would be attracted to
places like to put it is to say River and

the canal I think.

It's what do we do with places that we.

Destroyed in the twentieth century.

So how do we.

And I think the Highline is an example.

It's a relates to very
used to pastoralists

the Thetic borrowed
largely from the English.

I think he would be interested in
a new aesthetic that that makes.

The ecology more visible and

how we interact with natural
systems more visible.

So I think that I think that
he would do differently.

And I think.

As has been alluded to his interest
in people was very inclusive.

I think that aspect of his work
would end in his interest in power.

And how you get things done.

I think those things would be consistent.

I think he would he was very much
interested in how broad swath of people

would use his work and
how they would get implemented.

But I think he would be very interested in

urban places that have been degraded
during the last hundred years.

QUESTION Thank you.

You mentioned wildlife is part of the
design and ecological the planning but.

I want to bring that up a bit
more because most of the things

we've seen here is not
very animal friendly.

It's very plant friendly.

And I wanted to see what your perspective
is on that one thing is driving me on this

question is a recent
program about beavers.

And how they retain water upstream and
unchanged deserts and

meadows and so that that's an issue and
I was wondering about sort of a toll.

Watershed management approach to bring
animals into the whole design like.

I didn't he designed Berkeley's
campus also U.C. Berkeley.

I think he did play experts.

I think he didn't like people
live much better design.

When you say that's my model get
my plug in for Berkeley next.