In 1988, the Canadian Centre for Architecture began an extraordinary photographic commission: to photograph the present state of the parks, private estates, subdivisions, and cemeteries designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), North America’s most important landscape architect. Photographers Robert Burley, Lee Friedlander, and Geoffrey James spent seven years visiting and revisiting Olmsted’s landscapes—from the best known, such as Central Park in New York and the Emerald Necklace in Boston, to the lesser-known Lake Park in Milwaukee and Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland. This book accompanies an exhibition of 160 photographs from the archive of over 900 images now in the CCA collection.

“Burley who works in color, faced perhaps the most daunting task: how to avoid producing calendar ready images. Consider the scattered placement of figures across The Tennis House, the Long Meadow, Prospect Park, New York City, 1990, one of whom appears only as a shadow, recalls Edgar Degas’ compositions in the way that it suggests a public space devoid of public encounters. Or consider the homeless person’s shopping cart in The Terrace Bridge, Prospect Park, New York City, 1990, that – paradoxically – disrupts the winter landscape by blending in, both compositionally and chromatically, with its silver branches, cobalt blue bridge, and pale gold foreground.”    Ernest Pascucci, Artforum Magazine, 1997

Winner of the AIA 8th Annual International Architecture Book Award (Related Arts Category) and Winner of the 1998 Quill & Trowel Award, sponsored by the Garden Writers Association of America (GWAA)