The Atlas Obscura Podcast How Buffalo Changed City Parks Forever
Oct 29, 2025
Katie Stevenson, the Executive Director of the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, shares her insights on Frederick Law Olmsted's revolutionary vision for Buffalo’s parks. Instead of a single park, Olmsted proposed a network of interconnected green spaces, which transformed urban design. They discuss how these parks catered to diverse community needs and how Buffalo's model inspired similar projects across the country. Katie also sheds light on ongoing efforts to preserve this historic system amidst modern challenges.
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Olmsted's Surprise Proposal
- Frederick Law Olmsted walked into a Buffalo home and found 200 people waiting for him to pick a park site.
- Instead he announced a plan for multiple connected parks, surprising the crowd and changing urban design.
City Within A Park Concept
- Olmsted reframed the problem from a single park to a citywide system, imagining Buffalo as a "city within a park."
- That systemic idea reshaped landscape architecture and influenced many U.S. cities.
Scale Of Buffalo's Park System
- The Olmsted system in Buffalo comprises six major parks, seven parkways, and eight landscape circles totaling 850 acres.
- Driving the whole system can take three to four hours, showing its vast, interconnected scale.