Buffalo Celebrates New LALH Book in Gala Style
Buffalo Celebrates New LALH Book in Gala Style
The Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy’s annual summer gala included the launch of the new LALH book, The Best Planned City in the World. Author Francis R. Kowsky signed copies and greeted fellow Buffalonians. Best Planned City is the first title in the LALH series Designing the American Park. Olmsted scholar and LALH Vice President Ethan Carr, series editor, represented LALH at the festivities.
The book takes its title from a quote by Olmsted, written when he displayed the plan for Buffalo’s parks and connecting boulevards—which included the first system of “parkways” to grace an American city—at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Buffalo, Olmsted declared, was “the best planned city, as to its streets, public places, and grounds, in the United States, if not in the world.”
Using original plans, drawings, photographs, reports, and letters, Kowsky analyzes this ambitious undertaking as a cohesive expression of the visionary design principles that Olmsted and Vaux pioneered. Published by LALH and the University of Massachusetts Press, The Best Planned City in the World is available now. Click here to order a copy. To follow author lectures and events—and to add personal observations—visit this dedicated Facebook page.
