The AHSS summer research program allows students to pursue independent research projects under the supervision of a faculty member. While competitive, the summer research program provides students with sufficient funding to explore topics and issues that interest them. With the AHSS program’s emphasis on independent research, students in SOAN have been particularly successful with this competitive grant program. I asked Amelia, one of this year’s recipients, to describe her project. Here’s what she had to say:
The main research questions that I will address will be: What is the scope and nature of the Olmsted legacy in Washington state. How has that legacy shaped the urban form in our state, and where is its legacy still visible in the built landscape?
The City Beautiful movement was about creating spaces where nature and humans could coexist. Before the movement, cities were not planned at all, but were instead an outgrowth of the industrial capitalist process. The City Beautiful movement was the first attempt to bring nature into the urban landscape. Frederick Law Olmsted was one of the architects for this movement. You can see his impact throughout the American landscape, in places such as Central Park. His legacy continued through his two sons — John and Frederick Jr. — who had the same interest in integrating natural spaces in densely populated cities.
The Olmsted brothers lived in Seattle, where some of their larger projects were incorporated into the 1903 Olmsted Plan and the 1908 Park Expansion Plan. These two plans included the building of seventeen parks and eighteen boulevards in the state. The Omstead brothers’ architectural legacy in Washington is truly vast. Their designs and the architecture therein reflect the current issues occurring at the time the sites were built. In my project, I will assessing their legacy and its impact nearly a century later.
What makes the Pacific Northwest so unique is the fundamental role nature has played in our urban landscapes. And while the basis of my project is investigating the Olmstedian legacy in Washington, I am also interested in more than the history of the space: I will also be exploring the enduring value and social utility of these spaces, which I will be documenting in my project.
SOAN 