Map of “The Emerald Necklace,” from The University of Massachusetts, at umass.edu.

The Big Dig wasn’t the first attempt to green Boston with outdoor spaces for recreation and relaxation. Frederick Law Olmstead, perhaps one of the most prolific American landscape architects, played a major role in creating the system of parks known as “The Emerald Necklace” that winds through Boston. He is perhaps best known for his work on Central Park in New York City, but the eastern seaboard  is not the only area lucky enough to have been touched by Olmstead’s green thumb. Perhaps due in part to his love of travel, his designs can be found across the country.  To find out more about Olmstead’s work and where to visit, please see:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/travel/jewels-of-olmsteds-unspoiled-midwest.html (a midwest focus) and http://www.nps.gov/frla/index.htm

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.