HEALING POWERS
Digging into Olmsted ’ s landscape design philosophy , you quickly learn that he recognized that access to nature and the outdoors is an essential ingredient to a person ’ s well-being .
In a project report for Yosemite — two decades before his Biltmore project — he wrote that “ the enjoyment of scenery employs the mind without fatigue and yet exercises it ; tranquilizes it and yet enlivens it ; and thus , through the influence of the mind over the body gives the effect of refreshing rest and reinvigoration to the whole system .”