Olmsted Network

Managing partner/olmsted bicentennial. In 2022, we celebrated the bicentennial of the birth of frederick law Olmsted. During this year, we served as the managing partner of the celebration, known as Olmsted 200, both in america and abroad. Working with nine national partners and a distinguished honorary committee, naop oversaw hundreds of tours, concerts, conferences and other events to raise awareness of Olmsted's many contributions. We launched an Olmsted 200 celebration website, and grew our social media, adding a popular instagram account which will be folded into our regular social media efforts after the bicentennial concludes. We produced a national exhibit in conjunction with oak spring garden foundation which will be used by communities after the bicentennial. And we launched a popular series, conversations with Olmsted, which will continue in 2023. Our outreach efforts were expansive, including a national carillon composition competition as well as a student essay competition and vigorous engagement with the academic community which focused on Olmsted's life and work during 2022. At the same time, naop aggressively grew its Network by partnering with over 100 local parks and landscapes from coast to coast. Since 2019, our Network has nearly quadrupled in size with a diverse array of parks, and landscapes, scholars and authors, conservancies, urban planners, landscape architects, national organizations and community groups coming together to champion Olmsted work and principles. Supporting Olmsted partners. Olmsted Network partners received an array of benefits educational resources, networking opportunities, conferences, coordination of regional events, and monthly open exchange meetings where partners share experiences and learn about best practices. Educational offerings have included presentations by prospect park's landscape architect christian zimmerman, staff at the buffalo Olmsted parks conservancy on the use of ai; central park historian sara cedar miller, and longwood gardens on teaching mindfulness through nature. These programs were recorded and made available on you tube.

Education. Naop is dedicated to educating academics, park professionals, landscape architects and the park-loving public about the work and enduring principles of frederick law Olmsted. This work offers critical support to local and national preservation and rehabilitation efforts. In 2020, we completed the final volume of the definitive 12-volume papers of frederick law Olmsted. To ensure broad access to these important texts, we partnered with the university of Virginia press, rotunda imprint, to digitize the first 10 volumes of these papers and to make them available to the public online. We are now working to make them open access. Our master list of design projects continues to serve as a key resource for Network members and others interested in researching the vast work of the Olmsted firm nearly 6000 projects in all. This list provides concise and informative summaries of the diverse work undertaken. Through Olmsted online, our digital portal, www.olmstedonline.org. We connected landscape architects, scholars and the broader public to Olmsted parks and places, featuring plans, designs and correspondence. During 2022, olmstedonline added numerous descriptions and documents, as well as national register nominations and flickr folder links. We continued to build our relationship with the smithsonian institution, refining finding aides, and adding images from three collections within the archives of american gardens. Through our regular website, olmsted.org, we made available a wide array of primary sources and historical documents, as well as digital and printed publications that provide analysis and commentary. We also worked with fairsted, known as the frederick law Olmsted national historic site, to continue the critical digitization of Olmsted records and make the voluminous Olmsted resources available to the public. Nearly 4000 plans were recently scanned, adding dramatically to the ability of the public to access this national resource while decreasing the need to handle fragile historic documents. As part of our educational outreach, in 2022, we published two newsletters monthly, featuring everything from upcoming events and advocacy efforts to partner initiatives and local project updates. We also engaged in numerous speaking engagements across the country. Stewardship. In order to further the protection of Olmsted landscapes by and for future generations, we launched a new initiative, Olmsted forward, focused on expanding our audience to younger and more diverse audiences on college campuses and amongst young professionals. We partnered with the professional grounds management society to launch an important new Olmsted award recognizing exemplary maintenance of historic landscapes. And we honored four distinguished individuals across the country for their incomparable service to protecting and preserving Olmsted landscapes. Strategic planning. To strengthen our focus, we also undertook strategic planning, receiving feedback from many constituencies over several months. From this effort, we adopted a new five-year plan, identifying key audiences, a strategic purpose and external and internal objectives. We expanded the staff with two new hires. Investments. In 2022, over $80 million dollars were invested in Olmsted parks and landscapes, in what will be a major springboard for our future efforts. In the years ahead, we expect to build on the partnerships and many investments in 2022 through advocacy, education and stewardship.

Advocacyin 2022, naop engaged in robust advocacy for Olmsted parks and places threatened by development, neglect, and climate change. Since our founding, we have weighed in alongside local friends groups and park stewards, seeking to protect and preserve Olmsted parks and places and to have them listed on the state and national historic registers, where appropriate. 2022 was a busy year as naop took many prominent stands. We testified successfully for the naming of the Olmsted way in milwaukee's Washington park and called publicly for the inclusion of Olmsted landscape experts as the community examines the park footprint and the reimaging of a federal expressway that cuts through the park. We partnered with the midway plaisance park advisory council in chicago to oppose proposed construction of massive playground equipment in the midway. We weighed in on an integrity study regarding pinehurst, nc released by the national park service calling on the community to end future construction in and around the village green. We successfully supported the listing of the Olmsted- beil farmhouse on ny state and national historic registers. We also submitted public comments in matters affecting the capitol grounds in olympia wa, the funding of the Olmsted beil farmhouse on staten island, and improvements to the arborway project in boston. We regularly support partners' grant requests and did so in 2022. We also worked closely with both the library of congress and national park service in their ongoing and important initiatives to document, digitize and make Olmsted records available to the public.