Ecological Planning in 1920s California: The Olmsted Brothers Design of Palos Verdes Estates

Cultural landscape scholars might look to the Olmsted Brothers design for Palos Verdes Estates, California, as an important early example of a landscape architecture firm’s environmentally sensitive approach to community design. In this important project, Olmsted Brothers applied a sophisticated methodology gleaned from climate and soil studies, employing native plants and designing roadways and public spaces to better infiltrate stormwater. The firm’s plan arguably foreshadowed Ian McHarg’s ideas and contemporary green infrastructure planning. Previous scholarship on the origins of environmentally based practice has either ignored or misconstrued the firm’s important environmental contributions.