Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of Central Park in New York City and hundreds of parks nationwide, is considered the father of American landscape architecture. His Louisville park system – with its 18 parks and six parkways – has been called the defining project of his career.

Olmsted’s lasting contribution to Kentucky’s largest city is the focus of a new KET special, Louisville’s Olmsted Parks, which airs on KET Monday, Sept. 21 at 9/8 pm.

Narrated by Louisville media personality Jackie Hays, the documentary celebrates the design of the parks and explores the ways that the iconic park system has been inextricably linked with Louisville’s history, society and economy.

The program also spotlights how Olmsted was brought to Louisville and examines his motivation and inspiration behind the eventual design of the parks.

Those interviewed for the program include Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer; Mimi Zinniel, CEO Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy; John Swintosky, landscape architect, Louisville Metro Parks; Michael Heitz, former director, Louisville Metro Parks; Patricia Dalton Haragan, botanist and author, The Olmsted Parks of Louisville: A Botanical Field Guide; Eric Burnette, author of Parks for the People! Frederick Law Olmsted in Louisville; Chip Rogalinski, president, Shelby Park Neighborhood Association; and, Merv Aubespin, journalist and author, Two Centuries of Black Louisville.

The program is a KET production, produced by Jayne McClew, Gary Pahler and Angelic Phelps.

KET is Kentucky’s largest classroom, serving more than one million people each week via television, online and mobile. Learn more about Kentucky’s preeminent public media organization on Twitter @KET and facebook.com/KET and at KET.org.

Contact:

Todd Piccirilli
Senior Director, Marketing and Communications
859-258-7242
tpiccirilli@ket.org