If you have ever walked though Central Park in NYC, or the Emerald Necklace parks in Boston, you have stepped into the plans of Frederick Law Olmsted. Considered to be America's first landscape architect, he carefully designed and thought out the landscapes, foliage, and paths of countless parks in this country. There is a PBS special, Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America about his design style of many public parks. You can watch a trailer for it here.

Did you know that Frederick Law Olmsted spent much of his life in Boston? His home and design studio in Brookline is now a National Historic Site that you can visit the grounds of and tour the interior spaces. Many of his models and sketches are on view to see. Because this is a special anniversary year of his birth, a 200th birthday celebration is scheduled for him at Jamaica Pond on April 27th.

I.M. Pei came to America in 1935, to go to school to become an architect, graduated from MIT, and went to graduate school at Harvard. He served in the American military in WWII, became an American citizen in 1954, and in 1955, Pei started his own architecture and design firm and began designing buildings for clients.

He lived for 102 years, and during that time created dozens of highly visited public buildings. Take a look at some of his most popular buildings, and see if you have been inside any of his designs. In 201, PBS aired an episode of American Masters: I.M. Pei: Building China Modern. In this documentary, Pei talks about the Louvre Pyramid, creating the Suzhou Museum Garden, and his Hong Kong Bank of China building.

Dot image citation I.M. Pei. Dot image citation Olmstead