“The Beauty of Homes Beautiful Collectively”: The Olmsted Firm and the View from the Suburban House

Abstract

Abstract The landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and his sons John Charles and Frederick Jr. changed the prevailing understanding of the view from the suburban home. Historically, such vistas reflected a sense of isolation in nature, an experience that the early suburban communities of the nineteenth century attempted to replicate. In contrast, the elder Olmsted, in his first suburban design, posited the need for the neighborhood to be visible and distinguishable from the houses; it would form the foreground of views into more distant landscapes. This article examines the lineage of this vista and how Frederick Law Olmsted’s sons, through their firm Olmsted Brothers, later came to replicate it systematically in their suburban projects. A comparison with possible antecedents of this particular view shows that the Olmsteds not only made it a fundamental design factor but also endowed it with ethical and aesthetic qualities.