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Conn. Legislature Passes Bill Recognizing April 26 as Frederick Law Olmsted Day06-10-05 | News
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Conn. Legislature Passes Bill Recognizing April 26 as Frederick Law Olmsted Day


Connecticut State Senator Bill Finch (D-22nd Dist.), who lives across the street from an Olmsted designed park, Beardsley Park in Bridgeport, sponsored the Olmsted bill the last four years.

On June 3, 2005, the Connecticut House of Representatives unanimously passed S.B. 794, an act establishing April 26 as Frederick Law Olmsted Day. The state senate had passed the bill on April 6. The bill now awaits Governor Rell?EUR??,,????'???s signature.

Olmsted, the father of American landscape architecture, was born in Hartford, Connecticut on April 26, 1822. Among the Olmsted urban park projects in Connecticut are Bridgeport?EUR??,,????'???s Beardsley and Seaside parks, New Britain?EUR??,,????'???s Walnut Hill Park, Waterbury?EUR??,,????'???s Hayden Homestead Park and Hartford?EUR??,,????'???s Pope Park. He also designed dozens of landscapes for institutions, subdivisions, estates and other privately owned grounds. Frederick Law Olmsted died in 1903 and was buried in Hartford?EUR??,,????'???s Old North Cemetery.

?EUR??,,????'??Perhaps no Connecticut native has impacted the United States in such a pervasive and dramatic fashion as Frederick Law Olmsted,?EUR??,,????'?? Senator Finch said. ?EUR??,,????'??He understood that people need to be connected to the natural environment.?EUR??,,????'??

There are plans for the formation of a Connecticut Olmsted Heritage Alliance, patterned after similar organizations in Maine and Massachusetts. Norma Williams, a Ridgefield landscape architect, is heading the effort, in conjunction with the Connecticut ASLA Chapter, Senator Finch, UConn?EUR??,,????'???s landscape architecture program and other partners. Plans include the development of a database, website and trail map cataloging and showcasing Olmsted?EUR??,,????'???s works; an annual conference with Olmsted scholars and speakers; promoting Olmsted-designed parks and landscapes to visitor; and publications and other educational projects to promote appreciation and stewardship of Connecticut?EUR??,,????'???s historic landscapes.

On April 27, 2005 the Connecticut Chapter of ASLA hosted a ?EUR??,,????'??birthday party?EUR??,,????'?? for Olmsted at the Legislative Office Building. The program featured a presentation on the Connecticut Olmsted legacy trail and speeches by Senator Finch and DEP Deputy Commissioner David Leff. A diverse group of Olmsted advocates attended: landscape architects, parks officials, planners, legislators, foresters, historians, tourism officials and community and nonprofit groups.

The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Connecticut is funding research this summer, directed by John Alexopoulos of the landscape architecture program. It includes further study of Olmsted sites and plans, and to create a brochure that characterizes the Olmsted design philosophy to help a Connecticut park visitor, for instance, better appreciate the vision of the designer.

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