Ithaca-based landscape architecture and planning firm Trowbridge & Wolf Landscape Architects (TWLA) has been awarded a 2008 Honor of Excellence Award from the New York Upstate Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. The award was given in recognition of TWLA’s participation in the development of a document titled The Olmsted City – The Buffalo Olmsted Park System: Plan for the 21st Century which is a long-term restoration and management plan for every major park and parkway in the Olmsted Buffalo Park and Parkway System in Buffalo, N.Y. The system includes six major parks and a series of smaller parks, linked by broad, tree-line parkways. It comprises nearly 75 percent of the City of Buffalo parkland.

As an integral member of a multi-disciplinary project team assembled by the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, TWLA participated in a series of workshops that included examination of historical documents, site visits, inventory and analysis, programming considerations, and management strategies. The goal was to develop strategies for maintaining the historic park and parkway system as an integral part of the contemporary city fabric. Additionally, TWLA provided final graphics for all park plans used in the final report.

The Buffalo Olmsted Park System is a unique cultural landscape designed by renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and architect Calvert Vaux , and later the Olmsted Brothers firm, between 1869 and 1915. It was the first connected system of parks and parkways in America and still is remarkably intact. The Buffalo Olmsted Park System was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

TWLA currently is working on another historic landscape management plan for Goat Island in the Niagara Reservation State Park in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Frederick Law Olmsted also drew up the original plans for that park.