Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System

“Cynthia Zaitzevsky’s book tells the story of a park system that was once perhaps the finest in the nation. This is a model of what such a book should be. It’s full of scholarly history, yet readable and fresh, filled with illuminating maps and plans and with achingly lovely period photographs of the magical places Olmsted created out of what had previously been, so often, dreary wastelands.”—Robert Campbell, The Boston Globe

“[Zaitzevsky] has provided a comprehensive and thoroughly absorbing account of the famous park system Olmsted developed for Boston…handsomely designed and thoughtfully organized.”—Thomas O’Connor, New England Quarterly

“Cynthia Zaitzevsky’s timely, handsome and authoritative book provides the first detailed description of the Olmsted firm’s ‘Boston work,’ and demonstrates with a wealth of archival material the extraordinary originality and vitality of Olmsted’s design solutions.”—Martha Ondras, Design Book Review

“One of the many merits of this clearly written, carefully documented, and handsomely illustrated monograph is that it represents a significant contribution to the relatively recent growth of two interrelated specializations: the historiography of landscape architecture and the practice of preservation, restoration, and adaptive reuse of historically-significant landscapes.”—Albert Fein, Landscape Journal