Take a virtual walk around Front, Columbus and Prospect Parks. Front Park is one of three original parks included in Olmsted’s initial plan for Buffalo’s park system.
Its chief feature was the semi-circular terrace designed to command a panoramic view of Lake Erie and the opening of the Niagara River. Here, Olmsted remarked, one could observe “a river effect such as can be seen, I believe, nowhere else — a certain quivering of the surface and a rare tone of color, the result of the crowding upward of the lake waters as they enter the deep portal of the Niagara.”
A CENTURY BEFORE THERE WAS AN EARTH DAY OR ARBOR DAY TO CELEBRATE, THERE WAS A MAN WHO ADVOCATED FOR THE ENVIRONMENT THROUGH THE DESIGN OF PARKS.
His driving passion was to bring nature and people into a healthy balance within a world fast becoming urban and industrialized. Read More
Enjoy a virtual walk around South Park, a 156-acre Olmsted Park designed in 1894 that included plans for an impressive arboretum. Plans also proposed a conservatory (now the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens).
Phase 1 of the South Park Arboretum Restoration Project began in 2019, with support from several founding donors along with the First Niagara Foundation, in partnership with KeyBank. Learn more here: bfloparks.org/sparp
