Add to ORKGInternational audienceAlthough the works of Frederick Law Olmsted – such as Central Park, Prospect Park, Franklin Park, Riverside – are today widely recognised and appreciated, certain of them having in fact been the object of important restoration work, the thinking which engendered them is much more unfamiliar, notably in light of its complexity. The mission of landscape architecture, as it is defined by Olmsted, is above all social: to improve the living conditions of the population, beginning with the most unfavoured. It is not just a matter of providing breathing spaces, but of allowing people to experience places capable of appeasing their minds