Last updated: June 12, 2024
Place
University of California, Berkeley
Olmsted Archives
Quick Facts
Location:
Berkeley, CA
Significance:
Olmsted Designed School
MANAGED BY:
While in California managing the Mariposa Estate gold mine, Frederick Law Olmsted asked in 1865 by the trustees of the College of California to draw up a plan for a campus and residential area on grounds that were once used as a farm. After visiting the site in the foothills of San Francisco Bay, Olmsted proposed a plan where students live in cottages arranged in a picturesque style, with meandering roads and paths around them.
Olmsted envisioned a divided roadway curving through the base of surrounding hills, lined with private residences with landscaped grounds. The 1886 “campus park” plan established an east-west axis and characterized by the sloping terrain of the area. By integrating the campus into the surrounding community, Olmsted believed students would benefit from a balance between “a suitable degree of seclusion and a suitable degree of association” with the rest of the world.
One of Olmsted’s first campus plans, it was not implemented by Berkeley’s founders, though it would form the basis for Olmsted’s ideas on campus planning. Olmsted would depart from more traditional, symmetrical campus designs that he felt weren’t conducive to growth and expansion. As with his parks, Olmsted designed with the future in mind.
Source: "University of California at Berkeley," The Cultural Landscape Foundation
For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online
Olmsted Archives on Flickr
Olmsted Online
Olmsted envisioned a divided roadway curving through the base of surrounding hills, lined with private residences with landscaped grounds. The 1886 “campus park” plan established an east-west axis and characterized by the sloping terrain of the area. By integrating the campus into the surrounding community, Olmsted believed students would benefit from a balance between “a suitable degree of seclusion and a suitable degree of association” with the rest of the world.
One of Olmsted’s first campus plans, it was not implemented by Berkeley’s founders, though it would form the basis for Olmsted’s ideas on campus planning. Olmsted would depart from more traditional, symmetrical campus designs that he felt weren’t conducive to growth and expansion. As with his parks, Olmsted designed with the future in mind.
Source: "University of California at Berkeley," The Cultural Landscape Foundation
For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online
Olmsted Archives on Flickr
Olmsted Online