Saturday, September 12, 2026

Question: Detroit’s Belle Isle, the beloved island park in the Detroit River, was laid out in the 1880s by the same landscape architect who designed New York’s Central Park. Who was he?

Answer: Frederick Law Olmsted. Hired by Detroit in the early 1880s, Olmsted drew up a plan to keep the island largely wild and wooded, though the city ended up carrying out only parts of it. He remains best known for co-designing Central Park with Calvert Vaux.