Montreal’s sprawling and picturesque Mount Royal Park is part of a new digital guide created to celebrate the legacy of its designer Frederick Law Olmsted.
The noted landscape architect is being honoured for what would have been his bicentennial birthday on April 26.
The initiative, dubbed What’s Out There Olmsted, is an online guide to more than 300 landscapes across North America. The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s (TCLF) project allows users to explore works by alphabetical order, designation, landscape type and style.
Each entry includes detailed illustrations and short descriptions of national historic landmarks to other unsung projects by the architect and his successor firms.
The majority of Olmsted’s and his successors’ works — from parks, cemeteries to contemporary zoos — are all over the United States, including New York City’s Central Park.
“The impact of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., on the nation’s identity and the profession of landscape architecture is inestimable,” said Charles A. Birnbaum, TCLF’s President and CEO, in a statement.
But the digital guide also includes Montreal’s famous Mount Royal Park, which was inaugurated in 1876. It is one of two mountain parks designed by Olmsted.
It describes how Olmsted sought to turn the area right in the middle of a developing Montreal into “a series of distinctive experiences” designed to give users a “sense of removal” from the city.
Mount Royal Park was only partially developed into what the architect had initially envisioned, but the 200-hectare greenspace evolved in the years that followed. This includes Beaver Lake, designed by Frederick Todd, who was a Olmsted Brothers apprentice.
The green space, which not only boasts views from different vantage points, is also four-seasons friendly. Mount Royal is dominated by walkers from winter through summer, and it offers an array of year-round activities. It’s also a popular spot for picnics, and informal tam-tams most Sundays in the summer.
The park, which can be accessed from a few different neighbourhoods, brings in both locals and tourists.