Touring Fairsted, Frederick Law Olmsted's Home

Project: Bob's Shingle Style Home, Episode 20, Part 2



The landscape hardscape is underway: a special retaining wall product provides an elevated terrace, and the lower back yard terrace gets paved with bluestone. We visit the home of Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect responsible for most of this country's great public parks.

Part 1: Installing a Retaining Wall
Part 2: Touring Fairsted, Frederick Law Olmsted's Home
Bob visits Fairsted, the Brookline, MA, home of Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect responsible for most of this country's great public parks. The tour focuses on the landscape, much of it unchanged since Olmsted's day, but Bob points out the historic house itself — an example of early Federal-period architecture from 1810—and its color scheme, similar to that of his own house.
Part 3: Installing Bluestone Pavers on the Terrace
This project centers around the remodel of Bob Vila's own gracious Shingle Style home in Cambridge, MA. It's a house with a lot of history and beautiful architectural details, many of which were obliterated in remodels of the 50s and the 70s. On the centennial of the house's construction, Bob gets together the best talents in the business to recreate and renew it to its former glory, making some important modifications along the way that will transform this into a dream house for today.

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