Frederick Law Olmsted, besides having an awesome beard, is the recognized father of American landscape architecture.

His fingerprints are all over iconic American green spaces, including Central Park, the Biltmore estate and the grounds of the White House and (above) the U.S. Capitol building.

Here are the first three:

1. Respect “the genius of a place.” This is a fancier way of saying plant the right plants.
2. Subordinate details to the whole. Each piece of your design (bricks, trees, grass) adds up to a much larger whole.
3. The art is to conceal art. The people who experience your landscape shouldn’t realize they’re experiencing it at all.

You can read the rest of them here.