The History

In 1865 Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of landscape architecture in America, conceived Piedmont Way and its surrounding neighborhood at the base of the Berkeley hills. In formulating his design, Olmsted had several goals in mind. One was to create a broad and graceful tree-lined streetscape that could serve as a southern approach to the fledgling College of California. Another goal was more philosophical; to create a residential neighborhood landscape to nurture the development of young students attending the college. Olmsted achieved these goals by designing a parkway whose path embraced the gentle natural curves of the hillside and whose landscape greeted residents and travelers with a welcoming palette of foliage and protected pedestrians from the elements, with an over-arching bowery of trees.

Bancroft Way at Piedmont Way circa 1880

The design and creation of Piedmont Way in Berkeley occupies a unique and important place in the history of landscape architecture in America and in the life of Frederick Law Olmsted.

Olmsted was a man of high and diverse aspirations. During the late 1850’s in his first attempt at a major landscape design project, he and his partner Calvert Vaux, created the most ambitious urban park in America, Central Park in New York City. Meanwhile, Olmsted also worked at a prolific pace as a writer, renowned for his work within the abolitionist movement. During the Civil War he served as head of the U.S. Sanitation Commission which oversaw a massive program of relief efforts.

Despite these great achievements Frederick Law Olmsted was unsatisfied. At the age of forty one, the man who would be one day be known as ‘the father of landscape architecture in America’, regarded landscape architecture as a temporary detour. He had also grown frustrated by his work as a national administrator. So in the summer of 1863, Olmsted resigned his position at the U.S. Sanitation Commission and set off to seek his fortune in California.

Olmsted accepted a position as manager of the vast Mariposa Company Mining Estate, where he hoped he would find his place amidst the new economic boom of California. But upon arriving in Mariposa it soon became clear that the boom at the Mariposa Mine had passed and that Olmsted did not have the power to prevent its imminent financial collapse.

Yet even in the wilds of California, Olmsted’s reputation as a landscape architect pursued him. While managing the Mariposa Estate he was offered several landscape design commissions in the growing California frontier.

Meanwhile, Olmsted’s old partner, Calvert Vaux, sent a series of letters to Olmsted imploring him to return to the East Coast to embrace the field of Landscape Architecture as his true calling. Olmsted was at a crossroads.

It was at this critical juncture, as Olmsted contemplated his future, that he accepted an invitation from the Trustees of the College of California to design their new campus and adjacent residential neighborhood to be located in Berkeley.

As part of a creative plan to raise money for their fledgling campus, the trustees of the college recruited Olmsted. First, as Olmsted suggested, they would lay out a park-like residential development alongside the campus; then from the sale of the residential lots along Olmsted’s grand, gracious parkway (Piedmont Way), the College would begin to fund development of the campus itself.
Olmsted believed that a well laid landscape plan had a civilizing effect on its inhabitants, and Piedmont Way and the Berkeley property tract were his first designs for a residential neighborhood. In this instance, he felt it essential to design a neighborhood that would nurture the development of young students attending the college.

“Scholars should be prepared to lead, not to follow reluctantly after, the advancing line of civilization. To be qualified as leaders they must have an intelligent appreciation of and sympathy with the real life of civilization. For this reason … [i]t is desirable that scholars, during the period of life when character is most easily molded, should be surrounded by manifestations of refined domestic life, these being unquestionably the ripest and best fruits of civilization.” - F.L. Olmsted, 1866

Olmsted drew the inspiration for his design from organic features at the location. He set Piedmont Way as the central feature of the design, allowing the roadway to follow the natural contours of the hillside.

“Olmsted’s plan for the ‘Berkeley Neighborhood’ went beyond his proposals for Manhattan above 155th Street, and took the form of a fully articulated proposal for making the Berkeley area a model residential suburb...with attractive house sites, pleasant drives and walks and extensive public space. Olmsted’s report also contains his first statements on the planning of residences for individual families. - (Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted: Volume V, edited by Charles McLaughlin)

The Berkeley Property Tract was the final work of Olmsted while he was still living in California. He researched and developed the project from March until September of 1865.

It was late that summer, while planning the Berkeley property, that Olmsted finally resolved to accept the pleas of Calvert Vaux. In October 1865, Olmsted returned to New York City where he and Vaux accepted a commission to create a majestic park for the borough of Brooklyn. Olmsted later considered the resulting Prospect Park to be one of their finest works together.

The Piedmont Way neighborhood [the Berkeley Property Tract] stands as Olmsted’s “first residential commission with almost fifty sub-divisions following through the mid-1890’s. His romantic spirit and quest to integrate natural beauty with daily living and community needs were initially expressed in the Berkeley Property Plan then repeatedly adapted” throughout the country.

Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association: “Piedmont Way and the Berkeley Property Tract”

The Changing Landscape of Piedmont Way

During the late 1800’s the original manifestation of Olmsted’s design for Piedmont Way was a dirt roadway divided by a planted median. Over time as new homes were built, cobblestone gutters, wooden curbs and sidewalks were added.

At the turn of the twentieth century the City of Berkeley embarked upon a modernization project by grading and macadamizing the street. The medians and road boundaries were formalized by the addition of curbing and new landscape plantings. The parkway’s name was changed to Piedmont Avenue. The project was completed in March of 1901.

Piedmont Avenue Improvment Map, circa 1900 - Note that the North ended in a cul-de-sac at Strawberry Creek.

In Piedmont Way, Olmsted envisioned a roadway sheltered from the sun and wind by “an over arching bowery of foliage”. For well over one hundred years, Piedmont Avenue and the neighborhood known as the Berkeley Property Tract served a civilizing, character moulding function for Berkeley and for generations attending the University of California, just as Olmsted envisioned in 1865.

Over time, increased residential density, a more transient residential population, increased vehicular traffic and the introduction of overhead utility lines necessitating severe pruning of the mature trees; have had detrimental effects on the once magnificent canopy of trees.

Today, with the loss of many trees, the aging streetscape needs our support in order to once again provide a nurturing atmosphere for Cal students and the community at large. One goal of Friends of Piedmont Way is to identify financial resources to revitalize the landscape of this California landmark; a historic American landscape and national treasure. Another goal is to insure that our children and grandchildren experience and learn from Olmsted’s vision of a bucolic life in an urban setting. The Friends of Piedmont Way have made the rehabilitation of Olmsted’s original vision for Piedmont Way their priority. We hope you will join us so that replanting can begin in autumn 2008.

Piedmont Avenue at Channing Circle looking Northeast circa 1920

Academic Campuses Designed by Olmsted & Sons

Olmsted immediately built upon his Berkeley experience. He and his successors designed 355 schools and college campuses in North America.

American University, Main Campus, Washington, D.C.
Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania (1895-1927)
Colgate University, Hamilton, New York
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (1867-73)
Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. (1866)
Groton School, Groton, Massachusetts
Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania
Harvard Business School, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1925-31)
Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania (1925-32)
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland (1903-19)
Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, New Jersey (1883-1901)
Manhattanville College, Purchase, New York
Middlesex School, Concord, Massachusetts (1901)
Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts (1891-1909)
Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
Rhode Island Agricultural College (The University of Rhode Island) (1894-1903)
Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts (1891-1909)
Stanford University, Palo Alto, California (1886-1914)
Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut (1872-94)
College of California, Berkeley, California (1865)
University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (1901-1910)
University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho
University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana (1929-32)
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington (1902-20)
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York (1896-1932)
Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri (1865-99)
Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts
Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts (1902-12)
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (1874-81)