Last updated: June 5, 2024
Place
El Tovar Hotel
Olmsted Archives
Quick Facts
Nearing the end of World War 1, the United States came to the realization that degraded housing conditions for the lower and middle classes, those assembling the much-needed supplies for the war, impeded production. Wanting to fix their mistake, the United States Housing Corporation was assembled to build accommodations for wartime industrial workers.
Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. was tasked with heading the Town Planning Division of the US Housing Corporation and, in this position, he brought about an unprecedented mobilization of landscape architects, architects, and engineers to provide plans for new communities, one of those communities being Grand Canyon Village.
Though Jr. did trust the landscape architects he brought on, every single person working for the Housing Corporation received a rough plan and suggestions from Olmsted for each community. However, El Tovar Hotel was a true Olmsted Brothers project.
El Tovar Hotel followed Olmsted Sr.’s belief that any structure in a park drawing attention away from the works of nature was inappropriate. Following the training of this father, Jr. insisted that planning of the hotel should be done through consultation of topographical and other natural features.
Grand Canyon Village epitomized the most skillful planning techniques of its day, perhaps because its early planners understood the effects of a relatively unobtrusive building in the middle of wilderness.
Source: "The Olmsteds and the National Park Service," National Park Service
For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online
Olmsted Archives on Flickr
Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. was tasked with heading the Town Planning Division of the US Housing Corporation and, in this position, he brought about an unprecedented mobilization of landscape architects, architects, and engineers to provide plans for new communities, one of those communities being Grand Canyon Village.
Though Jr. did trust the landscape architects he brought on, every single person working for the Housing Corporation received a rough plan and suggestions from Olmsted for each community. However, El Tovar Hotel was a true Olmsted Brothers project.
El Tovar Hotel followed Olmsted Sr.’s belief that any structure in a park drawing attention away from the works of nature was inappropriate. Following the training of this father, Jr. insisted that planning of the hotel should be done through consultation of topographical and other natural features.
Grand Canyon Village epitomized the most skillful planning techniques of its day, perhaps because its early planners understood the effects of a relatively unobtrusive building in the middle of wilderness.
Source: "The Olmsteds and the National Park Service," National Park Service
For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online
Olmsted Archives on Flickr