Olmsted (who later was credited with being the "father of landscape architecture") believed that in order to have a rich and fulfilling 1ife, one needed to be surrounded by nature. He felt that the well planned suburb, not the cities of the day, was the place where one could find "most attractive, most refined, most wholesome form of domestic life". In Riverside, he set out to create a new community that would illustrate his ideas of "harmonious cooperation of men in a community and the intimate relationship and constant intercourse and interdependance between families".

Olmsted visited the site and prepared the Preliminary Report for Riverside. He states, "the city (Chicago) as yet has no true suburb in which rural and urban advantages are agreeably combined".

Swan Pond (near present day library site)