Central Park, a verdant refuge from the teeming, ever-shaded concrete corridors that crisscross Manhattan is beloved by both tourists and New Yorkers. The 700-acre park with winding paths, undulating hills, carpets of flowers in spring-equally resplendent with fall colors-dotted with lakes, was America's first major metropolitan park.Visitors and residents owe it all to Frederick Law Olmsted, one of America's first, and certainly best-known, landscape architects. Although Central Park was his first project, the scope and breadth of his projects is nothing short of remarkable. Boston's Emerald Necklace, Yosemite National Park, the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, many universities and colleges, from Stanford to Yale, Niagra Falls State Reserve, mansions of Vanderbilt, Rockefeller and other tycoons, all bear his mark. Award-winning author Daniel Alef tells Olmsted's intriguing story of vision, creativity and remarkable success. [1,335-word Titans of Fortune article]