Pioneer Information
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Whiting graduated with a bachelor's degree in business from Harvard University in 1903. Following a further year of study at Harvard in landscape architecture, he joined the Olmsted Brothers in 1905 and would spend his entire professional career with the firm. He worked as a draftsman, an assistant engineer, and a general designer before finally becoming a partner in 1920. In published articles and private correspondence, Whiting defined landscape architecture as a fine art composed of nature, climate, topography, and living materials. He worked on many types of projects throughout his long career, including park and city planning, subdivisions, institutional grounds, private estates, and cemeteries. He worked alongside John Charles Olmsted on park systems in Essex and Union Counties in New Jersey, and with Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., on Fort Tryon Park in Manhattan, Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., and on city plans for Pittsburgh and Newport. A specialist in subdivision planning, Whiting designed Oyster Harbor in Osterville, Massachusetts, Khakum Wood in Greenwich, Connecticut, Munsey Gardens in Manhasset, New York, and Indian Hills and Cherokee Gardens, both in Louisville, Kentucky. He also worked on many private estates, including Marstons Mills in Cape Cod; J.E. Aldred’s Ormston (today known as St. Josaphat’s Monastery) alongside Percival Gallagher in Nassau County, New York; and the George Cluett estate, later incorporated into Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Whiting’s designs also included institutional grounds, such as The Catholic University (now The Catholic University of America) and Trinity College (now Trinity Washington University) in Washington, D.C. He was named a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1930. Five years after Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.’s, death in 1957, Whiting, along with Artemas Richardson, Joseph Hudak, and William Marquis, formed the firm of Olmsted Associates, Landscape Architects in 1962. Following Whiting’s death that same year, the firm was renamed Olmsted Associates, Inc.
