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Writer's pictureNancy Spanovich

Carrying on the Olmsted design principles in Olmsted Legacy



Omsted Legacy is the culmination of deep concentration of environmental practice throughout the western U.S. Pacific and intermountain western states. Nancy Olmsted Spanovich’s 30-year commitment to the environment evolved so that she now promotes all development within the Olmsted design principles.


Charles E. Beveridge, Ph.D. is the preeminent scholar and expert on the life and work of Frederick Law Olmsted. He has been studying and writing about Olmsted’s career for more than five decades, including 35 years as series editor of The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted. He summarizes the Olmsted design principles in seven Ss:


  • Scenery: design that gives a sense of movement through a series of spaces, large and small, that constantly open up to new views using the indefinite boundaries and the play of light and shadow

  • Suitability: respect for the local site and its natural scenery, vegetation, and topography

  • Style: the use of different techniques with specific purposes: “pastoral” for soothing and “picturesque” for a sense of richness and bounteousness of nature and for a sense of mystery

  • Subordination: the relegation of all elements, features, and objects to the overall design; the landscape was to be the most important feature, not the buildings or other design elements of the parks

  • Separation: division of areas designed in different styles; separation of movement to ensure safety; separation of conflicting or incompatible issues, active and passive

  • Sanitation: sites were designed for adequate drainage and engineering, not just surface arrangement; designs were meant to promote physical and mental health of the users

  • Service: design serves the community’s direct social and psychological needs


Simply put, Olmsted’s principles set the framework for context-sensitive and sustainable solutions that provide energy savings and use natural ecosystems as integral infrastructure elements. His principles, still alive today at Olmsted Legacy, elevate developments that aim for “zero net energy” usage and support the communities in which they are developed.

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