Downing Vaux

Son of Calvert Vaux, he was named after his father’s mentor and former partner, Andrew Jackson Downing. Shortly after his birth, his father and Fredrick Law Olmsted, Sr., began collaboration on their plan for Central Park. Vaux attended boarding school with Olmsted’s stepsons, John Charles and Owen. By the mid-1880s he joined his father’s office, collaborating as well with architect and engineer George Radford and landscape architect and horticulturist Samuel Parsons, Jr. As a senior member in Vaux & Company, he designed the landscape for Wilderstein in Rhinebeck, New York. Like his father, Vaux practiced both as an architect and a landscape architect, designing parks and cemeteries, and institutional, residential, and recreational grounds. He often worked in the Picturesque style. Along with John Charles Olmsted, Vaux collaborated on the final project of the Olmsted Vaux firm, the Andrew Jackson Downing Memorial Park in Newburgh, New York. He was one of the eleven founding members of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1899. A vocal advocate for the preservation of New York’s parks, Vaux frequently spoke out about the importance of cooperation and collaboration between architects, engineers, and landscape architects from the beginning of the design process.