Buffalo NY... planning a city of good neighbors

 

Our stay in the Elmwood Village area of Buffalo, New York has been one of our most restful and pleasant city sits to date.  Our local neighborhood guide, a sweet dog named Paloma, would take Jer on early morning tours of the surrounding area - with the highlight being the 200 foot wide Chapin Parkway and Gates Circle where they sometimes would stop and take in the morning sunrise. 

We hadn't yet visited a city that had so many connected parks radiating from it's center - and with a little research we discovered why.  Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), revered as the father of landscape architecture in America, believed the purpose of urban parks was to “refresh and delight the eye and through the eye, the mind and spirit.” In 1858, he and his partner Calvert Vaux(1824-1895) had given form to this idea with their renowned design for Central Park in New York City. In 1868, Olmsted modified his views and convinced Buffalo’s leaders that multiple parks would best serve the city’s needs, as opposed to one large park, as in New York City. In essence transposing a park in the city to a city nestled in the parks!

As we continued to research Olmsted, we realized that we had encountered his handiwork in a number of cities we've visited, particularly West Seattle (and embarrassingly, not realizing it while we lived there, that he designed parks in Chicago!). 

Olmsted developed the tree-lined parkways and avenues in order to link the six main parks and integrate the park system with the city. Olmsted wanted visitors to travel from one park to another without abandoning the green space of the parks, with roads and parkways feeling “more park-like than town-like.”

The parkways that linked the parks are residential streets that extend greenspace beyond the parks into the city. The major ones, the “Park Approaches,” are 200 feet wide, shaded by multiple rows of trees—mostly American elms—and divided into separate lanes for carriages, equestrians and pedestrians (now wide avenues - as carriages have given way to cars).

Olmsted believed parks functioned as the “lungs of the city,” offering spaces that could foster physical and mental well-being. As the country became more urban and industrial, he saw the need to restore people’s connection to nature. 

Wanting these parks to be for everyone, rich or poor, they needed to be as close as possible to the city residents so that all people could get to them easily. Olmsted hoped that when people met each other in the park, a sense of community would develop.

Olmstead also purposely planned for the grand Victorian homes lined up on the parkways to be zoned with smaller feeder streets (with homes lined up much like Monopoly properties - or in this case Sears catalog homes from the early 1900s!) that had access to the parkways so that all classes of citizens could enjoy the beautiful open spaces. 

Olmsted's legacy and intentions of creating a nurturing environments was evident during our stay, bringing smiles to our faces as we observed the sometimes whimsical yard displays (Barbie gardens, violins in the trees - and numerous examples of chalk art).

It inspired us to be much more conscious of the planned urban spaces that we want to spend time within... spaces that inspire joy, and good neighborly greetings and a breath of fresh air! 

Hats off to Buffalo (you got a lot more going than just chicken wings)!