Revisiting Riverside: A Frederick Law Olmsted Community
Chapter 7 Design Giants in Riverside: Olmsted, Wright, and the Architects
Prairie
Landscape
Riverside is not only graced with the design work of Olmsted and Vaux, but is home to the work of other famous architects and landscape architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright and Jens Jensen. Wright, an architect, and Jensen, a landscape architect, are renown as pioneers of the prairie style of architecture and landscape architecture, respectively. The presence of these historic homes and landscapes within the greater landscape of Riverside itself can be a source of confusion for some residents and village officials. How does the landscape architectural style of Olmsted and Vaux compare to that of Wright and the prairie landscape architects Can they coexist The Midwestern movement in landscape architecture, which became known as the prairie style of landscape design, originated with the work of Ossian Cole (O.C.) Simonds. Simonds studied civil engineering and architecture, graduating with a civil engineering degree from the University of Michigan in 1878. He was first employed by Jenney in Chicago. His engineering work at Chicago's Graceland Cemetery eventually led to his position as superintendent of the cemetery in 1881. As superintendent, he had full authority for the development of the cemetery. Simonds used thickets of native shrubs and trees with gently sculpted landforms and bodies of water in his attempt to make Graceland a quiet, restful image of the midwestern landscape (Grese 35). Simonds became so well known for his naturalistic design at Graceland cemetery that Chicago's wealthiest families demanded his services to design naturalistic grounds for their estates (Gelbloom 7). However, little documentation exists of Simonds designs. Although Simonds began designing prairie style landscapes four years before Jensen immigrated to America from Denmark, it is Jensen who is generally considered the founder of the prairie style. This is because the self-effacing Simonds usually submerged his own unique ideas

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