When landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and his business partner Calvert Vaux designed Niagara Falls State Park in 1885, they anticipated a half million visitors a year. Last year the park had 8.5 million visitors — a good example of a landscape that’s been adversely affected by the automobile and massive growth in popularity.
When landscape architect Samuel Parsons, one of Olmsted’s protégés, designed Balboa Park in 1901 (at the time called City Park), it was considered a municipal park to serve San Diego’s population of less than 50,000, not a destination park that would have the 14 million visitors a year it does today, making it the fifth most-visited park in the nation.
“And so what we have is a park that is being loved to death,” said Tómas Herrera-Mishler, new executive director and chief executive officer of the Balboa Park Conservancy.
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