In collaboration with Vassar and his English-born associate Calvert Vaux, an architect Downing had brought to America to work with him, Downing planned and implemented a complete design for Springside. The west side of the property was designed as an ornamental pleasure ground, almost as a precursor to the urban parks that would be built across America beginning a decade later. (Indeed, it was Downing who first proposed the idea of a "Central Park" for New York City, and that park's eventual codesigners, Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, credited Downing for much of their vision.) Different landscape elements were named--Deer Park, Rock Roost, Knitting Knoll, Stone Henge, Willow Spring, Jet Vale, Walnut Row, Evergreen Park, to name a few--in order that visitors might understand the variety of features available for their enjoyment. Curving pathways directed the eye to scenic views, often perfectly framing natural or manmade objects. Through complex hydrologics, underground waterways filled fountains and ponds. Downing particularly favored irregularly shaped ponds with a small island, which he felt enlivened the view, and he created such a body of water at Springside. Such featured as rugged outcroppings embodied the "picturesque," while a swan in the Jet Vale fountain was for Downing a "beautiful" landscape element. The architectural structures--Gatehouse, Gardener's Cottage, barn complex, dovecote, bee house--were all in the Gothic Revival style, with asymmetrical elevations, board-and-batten siding, pointy gables, steeply sloped roofs, and ornamental chimneys, and were designed to complement the landscape.

Downing's partner Calvert  Vaux, from “Olmsted  in Buffalo,” by Stanton  M. Broderick

Plan for Matthew Vassar's villa at Springside, as shown in Vaux, Villas and Cottages (New York, 1857), as reproduced in Schuyler, p. 168.

Although Downing's complete designs for the site are not known, it is known that not everything he planned was executed. For example, the grand brick and stone villa (left) designed by Downing and Vaux to be the master residence was never built, as Vassar preferred the Gardener's Cottage and had it adapted to his use. It is documented that both Vassar and the many visitors to the site were very favorably impressed with the refinement of nature at Springside.

After Vassar's death in 1868, different parts of the land were owned and modified by various local families until the 1960s, when, in the face of rezoning and commercial development, a preservation movement was launched. In 1969, with its main buildings still intact, Springside was declared a National Historic Landmark because of its connection to Downing. A fire later that year, however, razed the barn complex, and other structures suffered from neglect and vandalism. Moreover, despite the landmark designation, plans to build a condominium complex that would have all but obliterated the traces of Downing's work nearly went through in 1982. Local residents and nonprofit groups challenged the plan and eventually won a compromise; condominiums were built on the farm portion of the property, and the main pleasure ground area was donated to a new nonprofit, Springside Landscape Restoration, in 1984.

Since then, Springside Landscape Restoration has worked to preserve the site and educate the public about its importance. Only the Gatehouse remains from the original buildings, and many of the pathways and manmade naturalistic features had been overgrown, but through gradual clearing they have become somewhat more recognizable. Meanwhile, trees planted a century and a half ago have matured, proving the endurance of Downing's vision.