ARTIST OF THE ENVIRONMENT: FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED

Most works of art are shown to students in a visual dark-room with slides presentation. Art educators talk about tactile qualities, but they seldom have opportunities to permit first-hand, tactile observations. One form of art that is created to be totally experienced is landscape architecture. Examples of environmental design are found in every large city and their easy access provides endless, and changing, examples of texture, color, space, shape, line, and composition-- a truly kinetic art form. Parks have been part of human experience for thousands of years. There are references to "Hanging Gardens " in Babylon and gardens around and upon the palaces and ziggurats of Mesopotamia. The Persian hunting parks or "paradises " fascinated Greeks. Remains of early landscape architecture can be found at the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, at Deir-el-Bahari in Egypt, built about 1500 B.C. During the early years of American history, parks were small, private, garden-like expanses that provided environmental pleasure to the owners an