Louisville's Mega-Park

Fredrick Law Olmsted had a bigger influence on the greening of Louisville, Kentucky, than anyone else. He designed three flagship parks, a series of parkways, and dozens of campuses and private gardens throughout the city.

Now, a group of Louisville residents is aiming to advance Olmsted's legacy out to the city's suburban fringe. Four interconnected parks, known collectively as the Parklands, would hug much of the northeastern and southern edge of the Louisville/Jefferson County line. Totaling nearly 4,000 acres, five times the size of New York’s Central Park (which Olmstead also designed), The Parklands will include a variety of recreational areas and, hopefully, a major new civic realm in Louisville's largely undifferentiated urban fringe.