Main Entrance Drive Restoration
Planting Fields Foundation has launched a transformative initiative to redefine the ways our visitors experience and understand Planting Fields. To achieve these goals, we embarked on a campaign to coincide with Olmsted 200, a national celebration commemorating the bicentennial of Frederick Law Olmsted’s birth. Through this project we seek to restore the quintessential sense of place inherent to Olmsted sites, which is presently muted at Planting Fields.
Through a multi-phased fundraising campaign aimed at restoring the original monumentality yet distinctive pastoral design of the site, this first phase will reimagine the value and impact of Planting Fields by tackling first impressions. With a complete restoration of the Olmsted Brothers design for the Main Entrance Drive, implementation of multilingual wayfinding and interpretive signage, and a consolidated ADA accessible pathway system, this work will enable us to welcome our 200,000 annual visitors in a seamless and sustainable sequence elevating their understanding and experience of Planting Fields as a vibrant and singular historic site. It will reimagine key Olmsted design principles at Planting Fields including a unified composition, orchestration of use and movement, comprehensive approach, and sustainable design.
Designated on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, Planting Fields is one of the largest extant residential projects ever realized by the Olmsted Firm, creating a unique opportunity to position our site as a destination. Returning to the original intent of the 409-acre site, originally created as an integrated composition of the built and natural world, this project merges careful historic preservation with sustainable design strategies.
