Pioneer Information
Born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Burnap studied architecture and landscape architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cornell, and, later, at the University of Paris. He served as an Olmsted Brothers employee from 1907-08 after which he served as a landscape architect for the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds in Washington, D.C., where he was involved in the design and redesign of many of the District’s most celebrated public spaces, including the Tidal Basin, with its flowering cherry trees, and both Montrose and Meridian Hill Parks. Burnap also designed parks and park systems in Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. A lecturer on civic design at MIT, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Illinois, Burnap authored the treatise, Parks: Their Design, Equipment, and Use in 1916.
