Olmsted in Seattle: Creating a Park System for a Modern City

Jennifer Ott

Seattle was growing by leaps and bounds following the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush and city leaders didn’t want to miss the opportunity to purchase open land before it filled with homes and businesses. In 1903, the Board of Park Commissioners hired John Olmsted of the celebrated Massachusetts-based Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm to create a park system that would make Seattle a world-class city. In Olmsted in Seattle, environmental historian Jennifer Ott traces the influence that park system and Olmstedian principles have had on the city’s development of public spaces, boulevards, neighborhoods, and the character of our city from that day to the present.

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176 pages

paperback

color, 10 x 9 iinches

ISBN 978-1-933245-56-0

cover price: $29.95