Editing Frederick Law Olmsted (section)

===New York City's Central Park===
[[File:Frederick law olmstead 1857.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1|Olmsted in 1857]]
[[File:Central park manhattan 2 New York photo D Ramey Logan.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Olmsted and Vaux in 1863 adopted "landscape architect" as a professional title and used it to describe their work for the planning of urban [[park system]]s.]]
[[File:Team that Created NY Central Park.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Willowdell Arch with the team that created [[Central Park]], including (from right): Olmsted, [[Jacob Wrey Mould]], [[Ignaz Anton Pilat]], [[Calvert Vaux]], [[George E. Waring Jr.|George Waring]], and [[Andrew Haswell Green]] in 1862]]

[[Andrew Jackson Downing]], the landscape architect from [[Newburgh, New York]], was one of the first to propose developing New York City's [[Central Park]] in his role as publisher of ''[[The Horticulturist (magazine)|The Horticulturist]]'' magazine. A friend and mentor to Olmsted, Downing introduced him to the English-born architect [[Calvert Vaux]], whom Downing had brought to the U.S. as his architectural collaborator. After Downing died in July 1852 in a widely publicized fire on the [[Hudson River]] steamboat [[Henry Clay (steamboat)|Henry Clay]], Olmsted and Vaux entered the Central Park design competition together, against [[Egbert Ludovicus Viele]] among others. Vaux had invited the less experienced Olmsted to participate in the design competition with him, having been impressed with Olmsted's theories and political contacts. Prior to this, in contrast with the more experienced Vaux, Olmsted had never designed or executed a landscape design.

Their [[Greensward Plan]] was announced in 1858 as the winning design. On his return from the South, Olmsted began executing their plan almost immediately. Olmsted and Vaux continued their informal partnership to design [[Prospect Park (Brooklyn)|Prospect Park in Brooklyn]] from 1865 to 1873.<ref name="Lancaster">{{cite book |last=Lancaster |first=Clay |year=1972 |title=Handbook of Prospect Park |publisher=Long Island University Press |pages=51–66 |isbn=0-913252-06-9 |url=http://www.greenswardparks.org/books/handbook.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090827114424/http://www.greenswardparks.org/books/handbook.html |archive-date=August 27, 2009 }}</ref> That was followed by other projects. Vaux remained in the shadow of Olmsted's grand public personality and social connections.

The design of Central Park embodies Olmsted's social consciousness and commitment to egalitarian ideals. Influenced by Downing and his observations regarding social class in England, China, and the American South, Olmsted believed that the common green space must always be equally accessible to all citizens, and was to be defended against private encroachment. This principle is now fundamental to the idea of a "public park", but was not assumed as necessary then. Olmsted's tenure as Central Park commissioner was a long struggle to preserve that idea.<ref>{{harvnb|Kalfus|1991|pages=308ff}}</ref>