Olmsted Walk

Frederick Law Olmsted, the renowned landscape architect who designed the basic layout and flow of the Zoo, shaped its green spaces, natural atmosphere, and curving lines to create changing views focused on landscape rather than architecture. In the late 1880s, the Smithsonian approached him for preliminary counsel in designing the National Zoo, and he reportedly replied promptly and enthusiastically that the site was a place of great natural beauty he had known for 30 years and had hoped would become a park. The Zoo’s main visitor path later evolved from a carriageway and, as late as the 1950s, still served as a road for cars before becoming a walkway.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States