Rowan Moore, in his list of the world’s best urban green spaces, notes that Buffalo’s Olmsted Parks, crafted by Frederick Law Olmsted in the late 19th century, embody the City Beautiful movement. Their appeal lies in pastoral landscapes, winding paths, and scenic views, offering urban solace and educational opportunities for environmental awareness.

Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux are best known as the creators of Central Park in New York City, but their greatest work is the co-ordinated system of parks and parkways, the first of its kind in the United States, in what was then the boom town of Buffalo. The idea was to integrate the network of green space with the fabric of the city, so that you were never far from it. Buffalo fell on hard times in the last century, but the parks still fulfil Olmsted’s idea that nature could “refresh and delight the eye and through the eye, mind and spirit.”