It's the perfect time of year to enjoy the outdoors, and while there are endless options across the state to do so, Western New York is home to a unique urban oasis recognized worldwide. Kaitlyn Lionti takes us to Buffalo's Olmsted Park System, as we explore New York.
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- What is now 850 acres of green space throughout the Queen City, all started in 1868, when Frederick Law Olmsted saw its potential.
"As the story goes, Buffalo wanted their own version of Central Park, so they asked Olmsted to come, he took a look at the layout, and he said, you know what? I think the city deserves more than one big park," said Stephanie Crockatt, executive director of the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy.
So he created the country's first urban park system, which includes six parks, seven parkways and eight landscaped traffic circles.
"When people walk around here, they can completely let go of all of their tensions, it's a very relaxing, calm, soothing, theraputic experience which is exactly what Olmsted had wanted," said Crockatt, "Because of the way Olmsted designed it, everything was connected, so you could move from park to park without feeling like you had never left the green space."
It's an atmosphere that attracts millions of visitors and hundreds of events from races to weddings each year.
"This is a free gem basically for everybody to come out and enjoy their parks and recreate for free. So we believe there are many, many values to having this healthy park system in Buffalo and that it really is a masterpiece that we need to continue to preserve and take care of," said Crockatt.
And as the conservancy prepares to celebrate 150 years in 2018, they're considering ways to make the system even more special.
"Where we're standing, is the hill for Spire Head Gazebo. This was a Calvert Vaux designed, beautiful gazebo...and it burned down. We would like to see maybe that restored as a signature project," said Crockatt.