Library of American Landscape History
BOOKS AND FILMS • SPRING/SUMMER 2017
lalh.org CONTENTS
Introduction 6
FORTHCOMING Lawrence Halprin Kenneth I. Helphand 7 Ellen Shipman and the American Garden Judith B. Tankard 8
BACKLIST Warren H. Manning: Landscape Architect and Environmental Planner Edited by Robin Karson, Jane Roy Brown, and Sarah Allaback 9 James Rose Dean Cardasis 10 Ruth Shellhorn Kelly Comras 11 Landscapes of Exclusion: State Parks and Jim Crow in the American South William E. O’Brien 12 Apostle of Taste: Andrew Jackson Downing, 1815–1852 David Schuyler 13 John Nolen: Landscape Architect and City Planner R. Bruce Stephenson 14 Arthur A. Shurcliff: Design, Preservation, and the Creation of the Colonial Williamsburg Landscape Elizabeth Hope Cushing 15 The Best Planned City in the World: Olmsted, Vaux, and the Buffalo Park System Francis R. Kowsky 16 Community by Design: The Olmsted Firm and the Development of Brookline, Massachusetts Keith N. Morgan, Elizabeth Hope Cushing, and Roger G. Reed 17 A Genius for Place: American Landscapes of the Country Place Era Robin Karson 18 A Modern Arcadia: Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and the Plan for Forest Hills Gardens Susan L. Klaus 19 Graceland Cemetery: A Design History Christopher Vernon 20 The Native Landscape Reader Edited by Robert E. Grese 21 Mission 66: Modernism and the National Park Dilemma Ethan Carr 22 Fletcher Steele, Landscape Architect: An Account of the Gardenmaker’s Life, 1885–1971 Robin Karson 23 Design in the Little Garden Fletcher Steele 24
2 Silent City on a Hill: Picturesque Landscapes of Memory and Boston’s Mount Auburn Cemetery Blanche M. G. Linden 25 Henry Shaw’s Victorian Landscapes: The Missouri Botanical Garden and Tower Grove Park Carol Grove 26 A World of Her Own Making: Katharine Smith Reynolds and the Landscape of Reynolda Catherine Howett 27 Midwestern Landscape Architecture Edited by William H. Tishler 28 Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England Frederick Law Olmsted 29 The Muses of Gwinn: Art and Nature in a Garden Designed by Warren H. Manning, Charles A. Platt, and Ellen Biddle Shipman Robin Karson 30
ASLA CENTENNIAL REPRINT SERIES Landscape for Living Garret Eckbo 31 New Towns for Old John Nolen 32 Landscape-Gardening O. C. Simonds 33 Country Life: A Handbook of Agriculture, Horticulture, and Landscape Gardening Robert Morris Copeland 34 The Prairie Spirit in Landscape Gardening Wilhelm Miller 35 The Art of Landscape Architecture Samuel Parsons Jr. 36 Landscape Architecture, as Applied to the Wants of the West; with an Essay on Forest Planting on the Great Plains H. W. S. Cleveland 37 The Spirit of the Garden Martha Brookes Hutcheson 38 Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect Charles W. Eliot 39 Book of Landscape Gardening Frank A. Waugh 40
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES 41
DESIGNING THE AMERICAN PARK SERIES 44 Edited by Ethan Carr
CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES IN THE HISTORY OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN SERIES 45 Edited by Daniel J. Nadenicek
3 AMERICAN SOCIETY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS CENTENNIAL REPRINT SERIES 46
NORTH AMERICA BY DESIGN FILM SERIES 47 Fletcher Steele and Naumkeag: A Playground of the Imagination 48
Designing in the Prairie Spirit: A Conversation with Darrel Morrison 49
The Best Planned City in the World: Olmsted, Vaux, and the Buffalo Park System 50
Community by Design: The Olmsted Firm and the Development of Brookline, Massachusetts 51
Ruth Shellhorn: Midcentury Landscape Design in Southern California 52
4 Library of American Landscape History is the leading publisher of books that advance the study and practice of American landscape architecture—from gardens and parks to city plans. LALH books educate the public, motivating stewardship of significant places and the environment, and they inspire new designs that connect people with nature.
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LALH Board of Directors LALH Advisers Daniel J. Nadenicek, ASLA, President George W. Curry, FASLA Athens, Ga. State University of New York, Syracuse Ethan Carr, FASLA, Vice President Julius Gy. Fabos, FASLA Amherst, Mass. Professor emeritus, University of Shannon Hackett, Treasurer Massachusetts Amherst New York, N.Y. Robert E. Grese Barbara Shear, Clerk University of Michigan New York, N.Y. Kenneth I. Helphand, FASLA Craig Barrow III University of Oregon Savannah, Georgia Francis R. Kowsky Dede Delaney SUNY/Buffalo Windham, Conn. Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, OC, FCSLA, Cynthia A. Hewitt FASLA, BCSLA Yorklyn, Del. Vancouver, B.C. Mary Carter McConnell Witold Rybczynski Rapidan, Va. University of Pennsylvania Keith N. Morgan Robert A. M. Stern Boston, Mass. Yale University Darrel Morrison, FASLA David C. Streatfield, RIBA Madison, Wis. University of Washington Elizabeth Barlow Rogers William H. Tishler, FASLA New York, N.Y. University of Wisconsin Natalie Shivers, AIA Suzanne L. Turner, FASLA Princeton, N.J. Professor emerita, Louisiana State University Sarah L. Turner Los Angeles, Calif. LALH Staff Ann Wilhite Robin Karson, Hon. ASLA, Executive Director Ann Arbor, Mich. Sarah Allaback, Senior Manuscript Editor Mark Zelonis Carol Betsch, Managing Editor Indianapolis, Ind. Neil Brigham, Office Manager Emeritus Michael Jefcoat Laurel, Miss. Catalog design: Jonathan D. Lippincott Emerita Susan L. Klaus Richmond, Va. Emeritus John Franklin Miller P.O. Box 1323 Hagerstown, Md. Amherst, Massachusetts Emerita Nesta Spink 01004-1323 Ann Arbor, Mich. Emerita Nancy R. Turner (413) 549-4860 Essex, Conn. (413) 549-3961 fax
5 INTRODUCTION
Library of American Landscape History, the topics related to landscapes and their design, only not-for-profit organization devoted to pub- all of which are chosen for their relevance in lishing books on the history of the North Amer- the field today and their contribution to the his- ican landscape, was founded in 1992 to advance torical record. In April 2016, LALH launched its scholarship in the field of landscape studies. new Masters of Modern Landscape Design series Since then, LALH has developed dozens of with Ruth Shellhorn, the first of many volumes books, as well as touring exhibitions, films, and that will explore significant figures in American other online resources featuring North Ameri- landscape design, providing missing chapters in ca’s rich and varied landscape. In 2011, LALH our history and establishing a new understand- completed the ASLA Centennial Reprint series, ing of the historical context and basis of land- a collection of ten classic volumes selected for scape design practice today. their impact on the history of landscape design. As the LALH catalog demonstrates, the les LALH is building two groundbreaking book sons of early practitioners continue to provide series—Critical Studies in the History of Envi- insight into the development of design solutions ronmental Design, in partnership with the for the twenty-first century as well as the preser- University of Georgia Press, and Designing the vation of historic landscapes. The books featured American Park, with the University of Massa- in LALH’s catalog reflect its mission—to advance chusetts Press—which extend our understand- the study and practice of American landscape ing of landscape architecture by focusing on architecture, motivate stewardship of significant public spaces and social issues. Other mono- places and the environment, and inspire new graphs published by LALH address a range of designs that connect people with nature.
6 FORTHCOMING
Lawrence Halprin Kenneth I. Helphand LAWRENCE HALPRIN
A volume in the series Masters of Modern Landscape Design
November 2017 University of Georgia Press in association with LALH A Bruce and Georgia McEver Fund for the Arts and Environment Publication Paperback $26.95 ISBN: 978-0-8203-5207-7 To order: University of Georgia Press tel. 1-800-848-6224
KENNETH I. HELPHAND
During a career spanning six decades, Lawrence Halprin used his conception of a Sierra stream Halprin (1916–2009) became one of the most as the catalyst for the Portland (Oregon) Open prolific and outspoken landscape architects of Space Sequence, a series of parks featuring great his generation. He took on challenging new fountains that linked housing and civic space in project types, developing a multidisciplinary the inner city. practice that experimented with adaptive reuse A charismatic speaker and passionate artist, and ecological design in relation to shopping Halprin designed landscapes that reflected the malls, the freeway, and urban renewal. In his democratic and participatory ethic characteris- lifelong effort to improve the American land- tic of his era. He communicated his ideas as well scape, Halprin celebrated the creative process as in lectures, books, exhibits, and performances, a form of social activism. and he consulted on important urban commis- A native New Yorker, Halprin earned degrees sions throughout the country. Along with his from Cornell and the University of Wisconsin contemporary Ian McHarg, Halprin was his gen- before completing his design degree at Harvard. eration’s great proselytizer for landscape archi- In 1945, he joined Thomas Church’s firm, where tecture as environmental design. Throughout he collaborated on the iconic Donnell Garden. his long career, he strived to develop poetic and Halprin opened his own San Francisco office in symbolic landscapes that, in his words, could 1949. Halprin’s firm initially focused on residen- “articulate a culture’s most spiritual values.” tial commissions in the Bay Area, completing close to three hundred in its inaugural decade. “Lawrence Halprin will be enormously useful to By the 1960s, the firm had gained recognition teachers and students of landscape architecture for significant urban renewal projects such as around the world, as well as attractive to pro- Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco (1962–68), fessional landscape architects, architects, urban Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis (1962–67), and designers, and the educated public.” Freeway Park in Seattle (1970–74). In 1965, —Laurie Olin, FASLA
7 FORTHCOMING
Ellen Shipman and the American Garden ELLEN SHIPMAN Judith B. Tankard AND THE AMERICAN GARDEN
A revised edition of the LALH classic
Spring 2018 University of Georgia Press in association with LALH A Bruce and Georgia McEver Fund for the Arts and Environment Publication Cloth $39.95 ISBN: 978-0-8203-5208-4 To order: University of Georgia Press tel. 1-800-848-6224
JUDITH B. TANKARD
The Gardens of Ellen Biddle Shipman, published in In response to the popularity of Tankard’s 1996, introduced a generation of garden lovers book and its increasing scarcity, LALH is pub- to Ellen Shipman (1869–1950), a Philadelphian lishing an updated edition that covers several who discovered her remarkable talent for land- gardens designed by Shipman that were discov- scape design in the artists’ colony in Cornish, ered as a result of the original edition—among New Hampshire. Beginning her career as a them, the Italian Garden at the Cummer Mu- hands-on gardener, Shipman received drafting seum of Art & Gardens (Jacksonville, Fla.) and instruction from Charles A. Platt. In time, she Tranquillity Farm (Middlebury, Conn.). The was collaborating with Platt, Warren H. Man- revised edition also features a new full-color ning, and other landscape architects, who in- introduction and an expansive new design. corporated her sumptuous flower borders into their estate layouts. The scope of Shipman’s PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION: practice and gardenmaking grew as she set up her professional office in New Hampshire. “It is a handsome book, valuable not only to his- In the early 1920s she moved to New York torians and garden designers, but also to every City, where she attracted clients throughout garden maker. The details and explanations the United States, eventually recording more offered by Tankard reveal much of the garden than 650 commissions. Judith B. Tankard’s designer’s art.” award-winning book was the first to present —George Waters, Pacific Horticulture Shipman’s achievements and in doing so illu- minated a neglected topic: women and Ameri- “Fascinating, historic, poignant.” can landscape architecture. —Maxine Kumin, The New York Times
8 NEW
Warren H. Manning, Landscape Architect and Environmental Planner Edited by Robin Karson, Jane Roy Brown, and Sarah Allaback Featuring new photographs by Carol Betsch
A volume in the series Critical Perspectives in the History of Environmental Design
University of Georgia Press in association with LALH A Bruce and Georgia McEver Fund for the Arts and Environment Publication WARREN H. MANNING Cloth $39.95 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT AND ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNER ISBN: 978-0-8203-5066-0 EDITED BY ROBIN KARSON, JANE ROY BROWN, AND SARAH ALLABACK
To order: University of Georgia Press PHOTOGRAPHS BY CAROL BETSCH tel. 1-800-848-6224
Warren H. Manning’s (1860–1938) national trained several influential designers, includ- practice comprised more than 1,600 landscape ing Fletcher Steele, A. D. Taylor, Charles Gil- design and planning projects throughout North lette, and Dan Kiley. After Manning’s death, his America, from small home grounds to estates, reputation slipped into obscurity. Contributors cemeteries, college campuses, parks and park to the Warren H. Manning Research Project systems, and new industrial towns. Manning worked for more than a decade to assess current approached his design and planning projects conditions of his built projects and to compile a from an environmental perspective, conceptu- richly illustrated compendium of site essays that alizing projects as components of larger regional illuminate the range, scope, and significance of (in some cases, national) systems, a method that Manning’s notable career. contrasted sharply with those of his stylistically oriented colleagues. In this regard, as in many “Manning has always been something of a cipher others, Manning had been influenced by his in landscape architectural history, and this book years with the Olmsted firm, where the founda- does a good job in clearing away some of the tions of his resource-based approach to design murkiness that has existed around him and his were forged. Manning’s overlay map methods, career. The overview essay, in particular, pro- later adopted by the renowned landscape archi- vides new insights into Manning’s life, person- tect Ian McHarg, provided the basis for comput- ality, and motivations; it also sheds light on the er mapping software in widespread use today. nature of ‘office practice’ in the profession’s early One of the eleven founders of the American years, as Manning moves from junior designer Society of Landscape Architects, Manning also at the Olmsted firm to sole practitioner.” ran one of the nation’s largest offices, where he —Heidi Hohmann, Iowa State University
9 NEW
James Rose Dean Cardasis JAMES ROSE
A volume in the series Masters of Modern Landscape Design
University of Georgia Press in association with LALH A Bruce and Georgia McEver Fund for the Arts and Environment Publication Paperback $26.95 ISBN: 978-0-8203-5095-0 To order: University of Georgia Press tel. 1-800-848-6224
DEAN CARDASIS
James Rose, the first biography of this important sion, including the concept of sustainability and landscape architect, explores the work of one of the wisdom of accommodating growth and the most radical figures in the history of mid- change. century modernist American landscape design. James Rose includes new scholarship on An artist who explored his profession with many important works, including the Dicken- words and built works, Rose fearlessly critiqued son Garden in Pasadena and the Averett House the developing patterns of land use he witnessed in Columbus, Georgia, as well as unpublished during a period of rapid suburban development. correspondence. In letters to his mother, Rose The alternatives he offered in his designs for reveals a tenderness toward nature and faith in hundreds of gardens were based on innovative spiritual harmony that belies his reputation as and iconoclastic environmental and philosophic an alienated social critic. Throughout his career principles, some of which have become main- Rose refined his conservation ethic, seeing recy- stream today. cled materials and waste reduction as opportu- A classmate of Garrett Eckbo and Dan Kiley nities to create landscapes for contemplation, at Harvard, Rose was expelled in 1937 for refus- self-discovery, and pleasure. At a time when ing to design landscapes in the Beaux-Arts issues of economy and environmentalism are method. In 1940, the year he before he received even more pressing, Rose’s writings and projects his first commission, Rose also published the are both relevant and revelatory. last of his influential articles forArchitectural Record, a series of essays written with Eckbo and “This is the book that the history of a half cen- Kiley that would become a manifesto for devel- tury of American landscape architecture is oping a modernist landscape architecture. Over missing. We all owe a great debt to Professor the next four decades, Rose articulated his phi- Cardasis for his decades-long work to protect losophy in four major books: Creative Gardens and extend the legacy of James Rose.” (1958), Gardens Make Me Laugh (1965), Modern —Patrick M. Condon, Chair, Urban Design American Gardens (1967), and The Heavenly Envi- Program, University of British Columbia ronment (1987). His writings foreshadowed School of Architecture and Landscape many principles since embraced by the profes- Architecture
10 BACKLIST
Ruth Shellhorn Kelly Comras RUTH SHELLHORN
A volume in the series Masters of Modern Landscape Design
University of Georgia Press in association with LALH A Bruce and Georgia McEver Fund for the Arts and Environment Publication Paperback $26.95 ISBN: 978-0-8203-4963-3 To order: University of Georgia Press tel. 1-800-848-6224
Winner, American Society of Landscape Architects Southern California Chapter Honor Award KELLY COMRAS
In a career spanning nearly sixty years, Ruth of her profession, working tirelessly to achieve Shellhorn (1909–2006) helped shape Southern state licensure for landscape architects. In her California’s iconic modernist aesthetic. This is own practice, she collaborated closely with the first full-length treatment of Shellhorn, who architects to address landscape concerns at the created close to four hundred landscape designs, earliest stages of building design, retained long- collaborated with some of the region’s most cel- term control over the maintenance of com- ebrated architects, and left her mark on places pleted projects, and considered the importance ranging from college campuses to Disneyland’s of the region’s natural environment at a time Main Street. of intense development throughout Southern Kelly Comras tells the story of Shellhorn’s California. life and career before focusing on twelve proj- ects to explore her approach to design and aes- “Kelly Comras’s book on Ruth Shellhorn will, thetic philosophy in greater detail. The book’s at long last, put her in proper perspective as an case studies include designs for Bullock’s important pioneer in landscape design and plan- department stores and Fashion Square shopping ning in California. The book is totally engaging, centers; school campuses, including a multiyear with clear, direct writing, based on impeccable master plan for the University of California at research and documentation.” Riverside; a major Los Angeles County coastal —Darrel Morrison, FASLA, Professor planning project; the western headquarters for Emeritus, University of Georgia Prudential Insurance; residential estates and gardens; and her collaboration on the original “Comras provides the context (cultural and plan for Disneyland. physical) that allows the reader to comprehend Shellhorn received formal training at Ore- the legendary Shellhorn as a person and as a gon State and Cornell University and was influ- designer and to recognize the value of her con- enced by such contemporaries as Florence Yoch, tribution to the California landscape—and thus Beatrix Farrand, Welton Becket, and Ralph Dal- to America’s national landscape design heritage.” ton Cornell. As president of the Southern Cali- —Noel Dorsey Vernon, ASLA, Professor fornia chapter of ASLA, she became a champion Emerita, Cal Poly Pomona
11 Landscapes of Exclusion: State Parks and Jim Crow LANDSCAPES in the American South OF EXCLUSION William E. O’Brien STATE PARKS AND JIM CROW IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH
A volume in the series Designing the American Park
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $39.95 ISBN: 978-1-62534-155-6 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
Winner, J. B. Jackson Book Prize from the Foundation for Landscape Studies WILLIAM E. O’BRIEN
Winner, American Association for State and Local History Award of Merit
During the 1930s, the state park movement the imprint of segregated state park design and the National Park Service expanded public remains visible throughout the South. access to scenic American places, especially dur- O’Brien illuminates this untold facet of Jim ing the era of the New Deal. However, under Crow history in the first-ever study of segrega- severe Jim Crow restrictions in the South, Afri- tion in southern state parks. His book under- can Americans were routinely and officially scores the profound disparity that persisted for denied entrance to these supposedly shared decades in the number, size, and quality of state sites. In response, advocacy groups pressured parks provided for black visitors in the Jim Crow the National Park Service to provide some facili- South. ties for African Americans. William E. O’Brien shows that these parks were typically substan- “State park design in the South during the Jim dard in relation to “whites only” areas. Crow era is a highly significant chapter in the As the NAACP filed federal lawsuits that cultural history of American parks, and one demanded park integration and increased pres- that has received almost no scholarly attention. sure on park officials, southern park agencies Many state parks or park areas created under reacted with attempts to expand segregated the “separate but equal” doctrine were sub- facilities, hoping they could demonstrate that sequently altered so that their origins are not these parks achieved the “separate but equal” immediately apparent today. O’Brien’s remark- standard. But the courts consistently ruled in able work of scholarship makes it possible for favor of integration, leading to the end of seg- us, finally, to understand this formerly obscured regated state parks by the middle of the 1960s. category of American parks.” Even though the stories behind these largely —Ethan Carr, author of Mission 66: Modernism inferior facilities faded from public awareness, and the National Park Dilemma
12 Apostle of Taste: Andrew Jackson Downing, Schuyler Apostle 1815–1852 of Apostle of tAste Taste Andrew Jackson Downing anDrew David Schuyler JackSon 1815–1852 Downing 1815–1852 NEW EDITION
LALH/University of Massachusetts Press Paperback $24.95 ISBN: 978-1-62534-168-6 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
library of american lanDscape history DaviD Schuyler
Through his many books and in the pages of impulse toward a native architectural style, the Horticulturist, the nation’s first journal about Schuyler also demonstrates the influence of landscape gardening, Andrew Jackson Downing Downing’s ideas on the period’s gardens and, (1815–1852) preached a gospel of taste, promot- more broadly still, analyzes the complications ing a naturalistic style of landscape design as the of class implicit in Downing’s prescriptions for “modern” alternative to the classical geometry American society. The new edition is illustrated of the “ancient” gardens of Italy and France. with more than a hundred drawings, plans, and Together with his longtime collaborator, Alex- photographs. ander Jackson Davis, Downing also contrib- uted to an architectural revolution that sought “The vast amount of visual evidence combines to replace the Classical Revival with the Gothic with the material and personal history of Down- Revival and other romantic styles. Downing cel- ing to make Apostle of Taste a must for scholars of ebrated this progression not simply as a change architectural and landscape history.” in stylistic preference but as a reflection of the —Pennsylvania History nation’s evolution to a more advanced state of civilization. “Schuyler’s excellent study of Downing’s writ- In this compelling biography, issued in a ing and career, complete with excellent illustra- new edition with a new preface, David Schuy- tions and an extensive, annotated bibliography, ler explores the origins of the tastemaker’s ideas will serve as one major starting point for future in English aesthetic theory and his efforts to studies of Downing.” adapt English principles to American climate —Winterthur Portfolio: A Journal of American and republican social institutions. Tracing the Material Culture
13 John Nolen: Landscape Architect and City Planner R. Bruce Stephenson
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $39.95 ISBN: 978-1-62534-079-5 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
Winner, J. B. Jackson Book Prize from the Foundation for Landscape Studies
John Nolen (1869–1937) studied economics, planning experiments in England, Europe, and philosophy, and public administration at the the United States during the first decades of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsyl- twentieth century. vania, where his keen intelligence and remark- In his forthcoming book, Bruce Stephen- able administrative abilities were immediately son analyzes the details of Nolen’s experiments, recognized. In 1903, at the age of thirty-four, illuminating the planning principles he used in Nolen enrolled in the new Harvard University laying out communities from Mariemont, Ohio, program in landscape architecture, studying to Venice, Florida. Stephenson’s conclusion dis- under Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and Arthur cusses the potential of Nolen’s work as a model Shurcliff. Two years later, Nolen opened his of a sustainable vision relevant to American office in Harvard Square. civic culture today. Over the course of his career, Nolen and his firm completed more than 400 projects, includ- “The long overdue and definitive biography of ing comprehensive plans for twenty-nine cities one of America’s most prominent and influen- and twenty-seven new towns, all of them in the tial urbanists. . . . Stephenson effectively posi- United States. Like other reformers of the Pro- tions Nolen between the classical practitioners gressive Era, Nolen looked to Europe for mod- of the nineteenth century and the modern eco- els to structure the rapid urbanization defining logical focus of the twentieth century (which he modern life into more efficient and livable form. helped to establish).” Nolen’s mutually influential relationship with —Keith N. Morgan, coauthor of Community by Raymond Unwin, England’s preeminent garden Design: The Olmsted Office and the Development of city planner, typified the “Atlantic Crossings” Brookline, Massachusetts that produced a host of intensely interesting
14 Arthur A. Shurcliff: Design, Preservation, and the Creation of the Colonial Williamsburg Landscape Elizabeth Hope Cushing
A volume in the series Designing the American Park
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $39.95 ISBN: 978-1-62534-039-9 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
In 1928, the landscape architect Arthur A. communities. He designed recreational spaces Shurcliff (1870–1957) began what became one in and around Boston, including significant of the most important examples of the American aspects of the Franklin Park Zoo and the Charles Colonial Revival landscape—Colonial Williams- River Esplanade, one of Shurcliff’s major proj- burg, a project that stretched into the 1940s and ects in the region. included town and highway planning as well as In Elizabeth Hope Cushing’s richly illus- residential and institutional gardens. Shurcliff trated biography, we see how Shurcliff’s early graduated from MIT with a degree in engineer- years in Boston, his training, his early design ing in 1894 but was drawn to landscape archi- and planning work, and his experience creating tecture. Because no formal programs existed at an Arts and Crafts–style summer compound in the time, on the advice of Frederick Law Olm- Ipswich led to Colonial Williamsburg, his larg- sted and with the aid of his mentor, Charles Eliot, est and most significant contribution to Ameri- he went on to piece together courses at Harvard can landscape architecture. College, the Lawrence Scientific School, and the Bussey Institute, earning a second B.S. two years “This is a very good piece of work and it will later. He then spent eight years working in the be a singularly important contribution to the Olmsted office, acquiring a broad and sophisti- literature concerning what I believe is still our cated knowledge of the profession. least understood period of urban landscape Opening his own practice in 1904, Shurcliff architecture.” emphasized his expertise in town planning, —Gary R. Hilderbrand, author of Making a preparing, through the years, plans for towns Landscape of Continuity: The Practice surrounding Boston and for several industrial of Innocenti & Webel
15 The Best Planned City in the World: Olmsted, Vaux, THE BEST PLANNED CITY IN THE WORLD and the Buffalo Park System KOWSKY Olmsted, Vaux, and the Buffalo Park System Olmsted, Vaux,Olmsted, Buffalo the and Park System WORLD BEST THE CITY IN THE PLANNED Francis R. Kowsky
A volume in the series Designing the American Park
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $39.95 ISBN: 978-1-62534-006-1 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS PRESS * LIBRARY OF AMERICAN Winner, J. B. Jackson Book Prize from the LANDSCAPE HISTORY FRANCIS R. KOWSKY Foundation for Landscape Studies
Beginning in 1868, Frederick Law Olmsted and present Niagara Falls State Park. Two years later, Calvert Vaux created a series of parks and park- Olmsted and Vaux teamed up again, this time ways for Buffalo, New York, that drew national to create a plan for the area around the Falls, a and international attention. The improvements project the two grand masters regarded as “the carefully augmented the city’s original plan with most difficult problem in landscape architecture urban design features inspired by Second Empire to do justice to.” Paris, including the first system of “parkways” to Utilizing original plans, drawings, photo- grace an American city. Displaying the plan at graphs, and copious numbers of reports and let- the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Olm- ters, Kowsky brings new perspective to this vast sted declared Buffalo “the best planned city, as to undertaking, analyzing it as a cohesive expres- streets, public places, and grounds, in the United sion of the visionary landscape and planning States, if not in the world.” principles that Olmsted and Vaux pioneered. Olmsted and Vaux dissolved their historic partnership in 1872, but Olmsted continued his “The Best Planned City in the World is well orga- association with the Queen City of the Lakes, nized, very well written, and has the advantage designing additional parks and laying out of the author’s long acquaintance with Freder- important sites within the growing metropolis. ick Withers, Calvert Vaux, and Frederick Law When Niagara Falls was threatened by indus- Olmsted. It is a valuable study.” trial development, he led a campaign to protect —David Schuyler, author of Sanctified Landscape: the site and in 1885 succeeded in persuading Writers, Artists, and the Hudson River Valley, New York to create the Niagara Reservation, the 1820–1909
16 Community by Design: The Olmsted Firm and the Development of Brookline, Massachusetts Keith N. Morgan, Elizabeth Hope Cushing, and Roger G. Reed
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $39.95 ISBN: 978-1-55849-976-8 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
Winner, Ruth Emery Award from the Victorian Society in America
In 1883, Frederick Law Olmsted moved from tecture as his vehicle for development, his son New York City to Brookline, Massachusetts, a and namesake saw Brookline as grounds for Boston suburb that anointed itself the “richest experiment in the new profession of city and town in the world.” For the next half century, regional planning, a field that he was helping until his son Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. relo- to define and lead. Little has been published cated to California in 1936, the Olmsted firm on the importance of Brookline as a labora- received more than 150 local commissions, serv- tory and model for the Olmsted firm’s work. ing as the dominant force in the planned devel- This richly illustrated book provides important opment of this community. From Fairsted, the new perspective on the history of planning in Olmsteds’ Brookline home and office, the firm the United States and illuminates an aspect collaborated with an impressive galaxy of sub- of the Olmsted office that has not been well urban neighbors who were among the regional understood. and national leaders in the fields of architecture and horticulture, among them Henry Hobson “Chock full of details (with hundreds of repro- Richardson and Charles Sprague Sargent. duced photos and plans) and meticulously Through plans for boulevards and parkways, researched, the book exposes the multiple webs residential subdivisions, institutional commis- of influence; wealth, social hierarchy, design sions, and private gardens, the Olmsted firm genius and high-minded ideals that came carefully guided the development of the town, as together to guide the development of Brookline they designed cities and suburbs across America. at a time when booming population and street- Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. and Jr. and their asso- cars brought rapid change. The authors trace the ciates represented a new cohort of professionals relationships among the leading trend-setters in who worked well in tandem with the wealthy, architecture, municipal governance, landscape ensuring both the visual quality and the social design, engineering and horticulture as they hierarchy of the community. converge in Brookline at the turn of the 19th While Olmsted Sr. used landscape archi- century.” —Linda Pehlke, Brookline Perspective
17 A Genius for Place: American Landscapes of the Country Place Era Robin Karson
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $39.95 ISBN (cloth): 978-1-55849-636-1 Paperback $29.95 ISBN (paper): 978-1-62534-048-1 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
Winner, J. B. Jackson Book Prize from the Foundation for Landscape Studies
In the early twentieth century, new fortunes homegrown antecedents. And we are that much made it possible for wealthy Americans to com- richer for it.” —The American Gardener mission country estates as a means of aggran- dizing social status. These private havens also “Karson’s magisterial book shows the magni- offered their owners respite from crowded cities tude of the Country Place Era landscape heri- and a way to preserve and celebrate places of tage and confirms its importance as a major distinctive landscape beauty. The commissions chapter in the history of American landscape provided burgeoning numbers of landscape design.” —SiteLines architects with opportunities to experiment with stylistic influences derived from Beaux- “The most important book on American gar- Arts, Arts and Crafts, and even Asian principles. dens for at least a decade, this giant tome spans Analyzing these designs in context with one the first 40 years of the 20th century. . . . Super- another and against the backdrop of the profes- lative black-and-white photographs by Carol sional and cultural currents that shaped larger Betsch, taken in the 1990s, already have a clas- projects, Karson creates a richly comprehen- sic look about them.” —London Telegraph sive picture of the artistic achievements of the period. Striking black-and-white photographs “Altogether, text, visuals, and format work to by Carol Betsch capture the spirit of these coun- produce a significant and beautiful book. . . . try place landscapes today, and hundreds of Landscape historians will devour what’s here; drawings, plans, and period photographs illu- others should find inspiration in planting minate their histories. schemes, design details, scale relationships, and photography. This is a feast to be savored and “Yet again Robin Karson has hit the ball out digested slowly, over time.” of the park. . . . In this book, as in her previ- —Landscape Architecture ous works, Karson redirects us toward our own
18 A Modern Arcadia: Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and the Plan for Forest Hills Gardens Susan L. Klaus
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $39.95 ISBN (cloth): 978-1-55849-314-8 Paperback $24.95 ISBN (paper): 978-1-55849-443-5 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
Winner, Center for Historic Preservation Book Prize
Winner, New York City Book Award for Landscape History
Conceived as an experiment that would apply Drawing on his father’s visionary ideas but the new “science” of city planning to a subur- developing his own perspective, the younger ban setting, Forest Hills Gardens was created by Olmsted redefined planning for the modern era the Russell Sage Foundation to provide housing and became one of the founders of the profes- for middle-class commuters as an alternative sion of city planning in the United States. to cramped flats in New York City. Although it has long been recognized as one of the most “The scholarship in this work is exceptionally influential planned communities in the United thorough. . . . A Modern Arcadia will make a sig- States, this is the first time Forest Hills Gardens nificant contribution to the fields of landscape has been the subject of a book. and planning history.” Susan L. Klaus’s fully illustrated history —Cynthia Zaitzevsky, author of Frederick Law chronicles the creation of the 142-acre devel- Olmsted and the Boston Park System opment from its inception in 1909 through its first two decades, offering critical insights into “A Modern Arcadia illuminates the fascinat- American planning history, landscape architec- ing intersection of social and aesthetic reform ture, and the social and economic forces that movements in the Progressive Era, as well as the shaped housing in the Progressive Era. Klaus early career of a prolific and influential planner focuses particularly on the creative genius of and landscape architect.” Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., who served as plan- —David Glassberg, author of Sense of History: ner and landscape architect for the project. The Place of the Past in American Life
19 Graceland Cemetery: A Design History Christopher Vernon
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $39.95 ISBN: 978-1-55849-926-3 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
Graceland Cemetery in Chicago was founded in landscape was developed over many genera- 1860 and developed over several decades by a tions, casting new light on the careers of several series of landscape gardeners whose reputations important landscape architects. today figure among the most important in the field. An exemplar of the rural cemetery type, “Vernon’s book places this important work of Graceland was Chicago’s answer to its eastern landscape architecture within the context of counterparts, Mount Auburn in Cambridge and Chicago’s growth as a commercial epicenter, Laurel Hill in Philadelphia. While the initial gracefully untangling the threads of Graceland’s layout of the cemetery was the work of Wil- evolving design which, by the turn of the nine- liam Saunders, designer of Laurel Hill, the cem- teenth century, had become the impetus for the etery is most often associated with a later style Midwest’s first regional movement in landscape of design that featured exclusive use of native architecture: the Prairie School.” plants. Graceland was considered one of the —William H. Tishler, editor of most perfect expressions of this design approach, Midwestern Landscape Design hailed as the most “modern” cemetery in exis- tence and “the admiration of the world.” In this “Indeed, the research that grounds Graceland book, Christopher Vernon carefully recovers the Cemetery: A Design History is impeccable, as evi- history of Graceland and the many hands that denced by the range of contemporary historic helped to shape its influential layout. and archival sources consulted. Consequently, Known as the “Cemetery of Architects” even the notes make interesting reading (at because so many notable ones are buried there, least for landscape history geeks) with nugget Graceland remains a heavily visited attraction. after nugget of supplemental information and This richly illustrated book helps readers under- intriguing detail.” —Landscape Journal stand how the influential and still beautiful
20 The Native Landscape Reader Edited by Robert E. Grese
A volume in the series Critical Perpectives in the History of Environmental Design
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Paperback $29.95 ISBN: 978-1-55849-884-6 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
In this volume Robert E. Grese gathers together rience of discovery. His introduction provides writings on nature-based landscape design and perspective on the context of these writings conservation by some of the country’s most sig- and the principles they espouse, and his conclu- nificant practitioners, horticulturists, botanists, sion illuminates their relevance today with the and conservationists of the late nineteenth and emerging emphasis on sustainable design. This early twentieth centuries. Written with a strong collection will appeal to general readers inter- conservation ethic, these essays often originally ested in the issues of sustainability, horticulture appeared in obscure, short-lived publications and gardening, and landscape design and pres- and are difficult to locate today, comprising a ervation, as well as to historians, practitioners, rich but hidden literature. and specialists. Over many years of pioneering research into the work of Jens Jensen, O. C. Simonds, “The relevance of these writings to the current and other early landscape architects who advo- issues of biodiversity, native plants, and sus- cated for the use of native plants and conser- tainability cannot be overemphasized. . . . This vation, Grese encountered and began collecting extensive collection is a valuable addition to these pieces. With this volume, he offers readers landscape scholarship and practice.” his trove. Purposely avoiding literature that is —Robert L. Ryan, coauthor of With People in widely available, Grese shares as well his expe- Mind: Design and Management of Everyday Nature
21 Mission 66: Modernism and the National Park Dilemma Ethan Carr
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $39.95 ISBN: 978-1-55849-587-6 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
Winner, J. B. Jackson Book Prize from the Foundation for Landscape Studies
Winner, Elisabeth Blair MacDougall Book Award from the Society of Architectural Historians
A Choice Outstanding Academic Title
In the years following World War II, Americans But Mission 66 was also the last system-wide, visited the national parks in unprecedented planned development campaign to accommo- numbers, yet Congress held funding at prewar date increased numbers of automotive tourists. levels and park conditions steadily declined. Whatever our judgment of Mission 66, we still To address the problem, in 1956 a ten-year use the roads, visitor centers, and other facilities billion-dollar initiative titled “Mission 66” was the program built. Environmental and park his- launched, timed to be completed in 1966, the torians, architectural and landscape historians, fiftieth anniversary of the National Park Ser- and all who care about our national parks will vice. The program covered more than one hun- enjoy this copiously illustrated history of a criti- dred visitor centers (a building type invented by cal period in the development of the national Mission 66 planners), expanded campgrounds, park system. innumerable comfort stations and other pub- lic facilities, new and wider roads, parking “This book deserves high praise and wide circu- lots, maintenance buildings, and hundreds of lation because of its intellectual scope and ana- employee residences. To a significant degree, lytical, as well as documentary, content. Ethan the national park system and the National Park Carr’s framing of the subject within the wil- Service as we know them today are products of derness vs. recreation dialectic makes the book the Mission 66 era. valuable beyond the immediate subject. Mission Mission 66 was controversial at the time, 66 addresses an issue that is central to many of and it continues to incite debate over the policies us today and one that will continue to be vigor- it represented. Hastening the advent of the mod- ously debated well into the future.” ern environmental movement, it transformed —Richard Longstreth, George Washington the Sierra Club from a regional mountaineer- University ing club into a national advocacy organization.
22 Fletcher Steele, Landscape Architect: An Account of the Gardenmaker’s Life, 1885–1971 Robin Karson
LALH/University of Massachusetts Press Revised Paperback Edition Paperback $34.95 ISBN: 978-1-55849-413-8 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
Winner, American Society of Landscape Architects Honor Award Named one of the 75 Best Garden Books by the American Horticultural Society
For sixty years, Fletcher Steele practiced land- account of one of America’s greatest modern scape architecture as a fine art, designing nearly garden designers as well as an inspiring refer- seven hundred gardens, from Boston to Detroit, ence of garden-making as a fine art.” from North Carolina to Canada. Often brilliant, —Public Garden always original, Steele’s work is considered by many to constitute the essential link between “This is a book to be savored, to be read and re- nineteenth-century Beaux-Arts formalism and read for enjoyment and consulted repeatedly for modern landscape design. inspiration. The text is uncommonly readable, the descriptions of the gardens and their maker “A book to give for Christmas, or as the grandest consistently perceptive and insightful. . . . [An] of house presents; it’s a book to keep as well. . . . exceptional volume.” —Pacific Horticulture [Karson] has written a wonderful read and, in doing so, has revived an entire era in all its “Makes available to students and teachers of detail. Intelligent, theatrical, infuriating, amus- landscape design a wealth of material: plans, ing—and loveable—Steele struts off the page, drawings, photographs, and correspondence, giving life to his own work.” —Garden Design as well as interviews with Steele’s family, his clients and their family members, office staff “Karson has done a magnificent job in inte- and associates, and collaborators in architec- grating carefully chosen archival drawings ture, gardening, art, and sculpture. Moreover, and pictures with contemporary photographs the text places Steele’s gardens in the context of of many gardens. Planting plans and plant lists major threads of American socioeconomic his- are offered as additional information for many tory and of the development of the young pro- of the gardens with a comprehensive list of cli- fession of landscape architecture.” ents. We are given simultaneously a revealing —Landscape Journal
23 Design in the Little Garden Fletcher Steele
Reprint of the 1924 edition, with a new introduction by Robin Karson
LALH/University of Massachusetts Press Cloth $20.00 ISBN: 978-1-55849-907-2 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
Among the many books published about gar- mending several innovative strategies for subur- den design, few manage to get at so many vital ban house design. aspects of the topic so pungently as Fletcher Steele organized his book for clarity and Steele’s Design in the Little Garden. First published ease of use. Brief chapters focus on both process in 1924, and reissued here with a new introduc- (“Buying Land”) and features (“The Flower Gar- tion by Robin Karson, the book captures the den,” “Rock, Wild, and Wall Gardens,” “Grading, sense of possibility that Steele and his landscape Steps, Walks,” “Toolhouse, Cold Frames,” etc.). architectural colleagues felt as the nation’s pop- In the course of guiding an imaginary couple ulation swelled and the middle class spilled out through the exercise of buying a new home and of the cities into new suburbs. designing, planting, and maintaining the sur- One of the foremost landscape designers of rounding yard, he gives life to the guiding prin- the early twentieth century, Steele published ciples of cohesion and utility. frequently in both popular and professional Written in an engaging voice, with a sharp magazines, on topics that ranged from horti- wit sometimes tempered by affectionate exas- culture to conservation, civic improvement, peration, Design in the Little Garden provides a modernism, and space composition. In this slim concise summary of Steele’s design principles volume, he tackles the challenges of designing and a delightful read for anyone interested in the residential landscape, while also addressing garden design at any scale. architectural and planning issues and recom-
24 Silent City on a Hill: Picturesque Landscapes of Memory and Boston’s Mount Auburn Cemetery Blanche M. G. Linden
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Paperback $39.95 ISBN: 978-1-55849-571-5 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
Original edition, winner, Historic Preservation Book Award and American Society of Landscape Architects Merit Award
Originally published in 1989, this book offers an many other aspects of nineteenth-century Amer- insightful inquiry into the intellectual and cul- ican culture. . . . Each of the eleven chapters— tural origins of Mount Auburn Cemetery, the especially the seven or eight that separate out first landscape in the United States to be designed for consideration specific strands of intellectual in the Picturesque style. Inspired by develop- and aesthetic influence, such as that of the Eng- ments in England and France and founded in lish garden, the French ‘cult of ancestors,’ or 1831, Mount Auburn became the prototype for the American sensibility to melancholy—could the “rural cemetery” movement and was an stand on its own as an interesting study.” important precursor of many of America’s pub- —New England Quarterly lic parks, beginning with New York City’s Cen- tral Park. This new edition has been completely “No one in the future will be able to write about redesigned in a larger format, with new photo- nineteenth-century cemeteries in the United graphs and a new epilogue that carries the story States without first studying this book. . . .Silent forward into the twentieth century. City on a Hill is a lavishly satisfying scholarly book.” “In illuminating the furthest reaches of Mount —Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians Auburn’s meaning, the author also sheds light on
25 Henry Shaw’s Victorian Landscapes: The Missouri Botanical Garden and Tower Grove Park Carol Grove
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $39.95 ISBN: 978-1-55849-508-1 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
Winner, Independent Publisher Bronze Medal
A Choice Outstanding Academic Title
At the age of eighteen, Henry Shaw (1800–1889) Carol Grove chronicles Shaw’s remark- left his home in Sheffield, England, to import able story, from his early love of plants to his manufactured goods from St. Louis on the Mis- rising social conscience and his determined sissippi and Missouri Rivers. Two decades of quest to create a place of unsurpassed beauty financial success allowed him to retire and take and distinction that would educate and thereby up more genteel pursuits. In 1840, he began improve Americans. Beautifully illustrated with nearly ten years of travel, which exposed him to contemporary and historical photographs, this museums and botanical gardens in Europe, Asia volume offers an insightful cultural history of Minor, and Russia. He vowed to create a similar Shaw’s landscapes, among the most important cultural enterprise in St. Louis. examples of the gardenesque in America. Shaw’s Garden (now the Missouri Botanical Garden) opened in 1859 to legions of enthusi- “This study by Carol Grove significantly advances astic visitors. Over the next thirty years, Shaw our understanding of the background of Tower expanded the plantings, drawing on species Grove Park and the Missouri Botanical Garden. introduced by the era’s great plant hunters. In Her research has marshaled known sources and 1867, he began work on Tower Grove Park on also made some new connections that help to 276 acres adjacent to the garden, designing in illuminate this period in the history of Ameri- a gardenesque method that emphasized plants can landscape design through the prism of one as specimens, in keeping with his educational visionary philanthropist’s experiences.” mission. —John Karel, Director, Tower Grove Park
26 A World of Her Own Making: Katharine Smith Reynolds and the Landscape of Reynolda Catherine Howett
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $39.95 ISBN: 978-1-55849-520-3 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
Only a few years after marrying tobacco magnate Thomas W. Sears, a highly regarded Philadel- R. J. Reynolds, young Katharine Smith Reyn- phia-based landscape architect. The estate even- olds (1880–1924) began to plan a new home for tually expanded to cover more than 1,000 acres. her family. Not many young women of the day The process of planning Reynolda paralleled sim- found themselves with almost unlimited wealth ilar efforts in other parts of the United States, as to construct their dream home, but Katharine’s new towns, parks, campuses, and country estates sense of purpose for her vast resources was even were laid out during the century’s first decades. more unusual. She envisioned the founding Catherine Howett’s study analyzes the sin- of a model community that would emphasize gular convergence of influences that occurred health, modern technology, mixed-crop scien- in the imagination of a highly unusual woman. tific farming, education, and rural beauty. The book provides welcome insight into the In 1904, when Katharine embarked on her culture of the New South and into a richly estate project in Winston (now Winston-Salem), inventive period in the history of American North Carolina, the South was still feeling the landscape architecture. effects of the Civil War and a century of sin- gle-crop farming. After conducting exhaustive “Brilliantly written—uplifting and riveting— research, which included wide-ranging read- this books brings out of obscurity a ‘new woman’ ing in agricultural journals and trips to other of the South, who dedicated her brief life to the American estates and model farms, she began creation of a place called Reynolda. . . . Read- to lay out her property, Reynolda. Her plan was ers, especially women, will find inspiration in inspired, in part, by the rural landscapes of Eng- its pages.” land that had captured the imagination of Fred- —Barbara B. Millhouse, author of American erick Law Olmsted. Originals and president, Reynolda House Beginning in 1915, Katharine was aided by Museum of American Art
27 Midwestern Landscape Architecture Edited by William H. Tishler
University of Illinois Press in cooperation with LALH Cloth $37.50 ISBN: (cloth) 978-0-252-02593-8 Paperback $19.95 ISBN: (paper) 978-0-252-07214-7 To order: University of Illinois Press tel. 1-800-545-4703
At the turn of the twentieth century, many Law Olmsted, Olmsted Brothers, O. C. Simonds, landscape architects developed approaches to H. W. S. Cleveland, Warren H. Manning, Elbert design that celebrated the native midwestern Peets, and Annette Hoyt Flanders. Midwestern landscape. In this illustrated volume, thirteen Landscape Architecture also details the contribu- historians have contributed essays that illumi- tions of those who championed conservation nate their biographies and the important design and ecological awareness in an effort to promote and conservation contributions made by these scenic resources, such as Jens Jensen, Wilhelm innovators. Miller, and Genevieve Gillette. Parks, cemeteries, estates, and recreation areas throughout the region were created by “Tishler has done a tremendous service to his individuals intrigued by the prairies, lakes, and profession and to the general public by assem- native plants of the Midwest: Adolph Strauch bling many of the best landscape historians in introduced the revolutionary “lawn plan” at North America as contributors to Midwestern Cincinnati’s Spring Grove Cemetery; William Landscape Architecture. They make history come Le Baron Jenney created the West Parks in Chi- to life.” cago as an armature of order and respite from —Robert Scarfo, Washington State University the burgeoning industrial city; George Kessler’s image of the City Beautiful combined European “For those interested in the history of the pro- and American influences in Dallas, Houston, fession this is a ‘must have.’” Kansas City, St. Louis, Denver, Cincinnati, Indi- —William J. Grundmann, Council of Educa- anapolis, and elsewhere. Other major design tors in Landscape Architecture practitioners in this collection include Frederick
28 Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England Frederick Law Olmsted
Reprint of the 1852 edition, with a new introduction by Charles C. McLaughlin
LALH/University of Massachusetts Press Paperback $27.95 ISBN (paper):978-1-55849-380-3 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
Before he ever dreamed of becoming a landscape “In this book we get not only a young Ameri- architect, Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903) can’s vivid impressions of mid-nineteenth- visited southern England and Wales during century England, but also the first glimmers a month-long walking tour. A gifted writer, of Frederick Law Olmsted the observant jour- he recorded his impressions of the trip in this nalist and future landscape designer. Charles richly detailed volume, which has long been out McLaughlin’s erudite introduction usefully puts of print. all this in the proper perspective.” The new introduction clarifies the links —Witold Rybczynski, author of A Clearing in between Olmsted’s developing Picturesque aes- the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and thetic, social conscience, and reformer’s passion America in the Nineteenth Century for change. Charles C. McLaughlin persuasively argues that Olmsted came to adapt many of the “It is fascinating to see Olmsted here absorbing features of the cultivated English countryside— and recording firsthand impressions of Eng- first seen on this trip—in designed landscapes land’s rapidly changing countryside and grow- such as New York’s Central Park. ing industrial cities. McLaughlin’s gracefully This edition provides extensive annotations erudite introduction to this timely republication to the original text, furnishing background provides a vivid portrait of a young mid-nine- and context to the people and places Olmsted teenth-century traveler.” encountered during his journey. McLaughlin’s —Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, Foundation notes are based on his own trips through Eng- for Landscape Studies land, undertaken over two decades to retrace the author’s original route.
29 The Muses of Gwinn: Art and Nature in a Garden Designed by Warren H. Manning, Charles A. Platt, and Ellen Biddle Shipman Robin Karson
Sagapress/Abrams in association with LALH Cloth $39.95 ISBN: 978-0-89831-034-4 To order: LALH tel. 1-413-549-4860; e-mail [email protected]
Winner, American Society of Landscape Architects Honor Award
Gwinn, one of the best-preserved estates of the a richly detailed and dramatically illustrated Country Place Era, was originally the home of account of the lakeside estate’s development. Cleveland industrialist William Mather. It has By illuminating the battle between formal and survived as an important American work of art informal design principles in creating Gwinn, that today tells a story about early twentieth- Karson reveals the larger picture of emerging century landscape style, economics, and social style in American landscape design. history. Three innovative landscape architects collab- “Readers who love landscape and garden his- orated on the project for more than two decades: tory will feel themselves transported, as if by a Charles A. Platt, the architect who adapted the tale of great adventure.” Italian villa to an American setting; Warren H. —Journal of the New England Garden History Society Manning, the well-known landscape architect, planner, and designer of parks in several states; “Karson’s examination is thorough and schol- and Ellen Biddle Shipman, who brought a new arly . . . [including} penetrating and illumi- American sensibility to the art of garden design. nating essays. . . . This is a rich period . . . and From a previously unpublished archive of Karson provides welcome new insight.” documents and images, Robin Karson presents —Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians
30 ASLA CENTENNIAL REPRINT SERIES
Landscape for Living Garret Eckbo
Reprint of the 1950 edition, with a new introduction by David C. Streatfield
ASLA Centennial Reprint Series
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $39.95 ISBN: 978-1-55849-696-5 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
Garrett Eckbo (1910–1996) was one of the tional projects, group housing from his graduate most highly respected and influential Ameri- years, work for the Farm Security Administra- can modernist landscape architects. He worked tion, and projects by the firm of Eckbo, Royston assiduously to overthrow the Beaux-Arts system & Williams. of landscape design and to develop an approach David C. Streatfield’s introduction chroni- that would address the social and economic cles Eckbo’s life to 1950, from his lonely child- challenges of the modern world. Eckbo rejected hood through his rebellious years at Harvard the centrality of nature as a psychological and and well into his distinguished early career as a spiritual source of inspiration, criticizing the landscape designer, prolific author, and commit- “palliative” introduction of nature into cities ted social activist, interpreting Eckbo’s densely in parks designed by Olmsted and other nine- written text as a reflection of this history. teenth-century landscape architects and argu- ing instead for a scientific method that would “David Streatfield has contributed both new provide a model for a new approach to land- knowledge and insightful analysis to our appre- scape design entirely free of preconceptions. ciation of the 1950 modernist manifesto through Deliberately experimental, Eckbo’s designs which Garrett Eckbo sought to persuade Ameri- were centered on the garden, which he believed can landscape architects, their clients, and the was the prototype for all landscape design. His broader public that a new era—radically trans- built work was influenced by modernist Euro- formed by science, technology, and the promise pean architecture, modern art, and vernacular of social change—demanded more than formu- landscape traditions. laic historic styles and soothing scenery in its Published in 1950, Landscape for Living pre- designed landscapes. The revolutionary temper sents a synthesis of Eckbo’s thinking and pro- and optimism of this classic work seem more fessional work and sets forth his theoretical than ever timely and inspiring.” approach to achieving the “total landscape.” —Catherine Howett, Professor Emerita, Illustrations throughout the book feature his University of Georgia own designs for gardens, parks, and institu-
31 New Towns for Old John Nolen
Reprint of the 1927 edition, with a new introduction by Charles D. Warren
ASLA Centennial Reprint Series
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $34.95 ISBN: 978-1-55849-480-0 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
John Nolen (1869–1937) was a pioneer in the The new edition of New Towns for Old con- development of professional town and city plan- tains additional plans and illustrations, a new ning in the United States. Nolen’s comprehen- index, and a new introductory essay by Charles sive approach merged the social, economic, and D. Warren, which presents biographical and physical aspects of planning while emphasizing, historical context that illuminates the diverse, in the author’s words, “versatility, special knowl- productive career of this nationally significant edge, and cooperation.” Between 1905 and 1937, practitioner. Perhaps most significantly, it fea- Nolen’s firm, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, tures Nolen’s project list, which has never before completed more than 350 commissions through- been published. out the United States. Among the best known of these is Mariemont, Ohio, whose development “Early in the last century, John Nolen planned Nolen directed from the ground up. model towns, garden suburbs, and industrial Rare and long out of print, New Towns for cities, whose refinement and design excellence Old (1927) is still of great interest to planners remain impressive to this day. In New Towns for and urban historians. The well-illustrated study Old, Nolen explained how it was done. Thought- contains an overview of the development of ful, wise, and still inspirational.” American urbanism and a concise discussion of —Witold Rybczynski, author of A Clearing in Nolen’s ideas for the improvement of towns and the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and cities. Individual chapters examine a variety of America in the Nineteenth Century towns planned by Nolen including Mariemont, Ohio; Kingsport, Tennessee; and Kistler, Penn- “Warren, a New York City based architect, pro- sylvania, as well as the new suburbs of Union vides incredible insights into the evolution of Park Gardens in Wilmington, Delaware, and Nolen’s career. . . . We would all benefit from Myers Park in Charlotte, North Carolina. The re- reading this book, especially to brush up on planned towns of Cohasset and Walpole, Massa- the planning techniques and to realize Nolen’s chusetts, are also featured. The forward-looking achievements in civic improvement.” final chapter includes material on Venice, Flor- —New Urban Review ida, one of Nolen’s most ambitious projects.
32 Landscape-Gardening O. C. Simonds
Reprint of the 1920 edition, with a new introduction by Robert E. Grese
ASLA Centennial Reprint Series
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $29.95 ISBN: 978-1-55849-258-5 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
Ossian Cole Simonds (1855–1931) was one of he saw as alarming changes in the American the country’s earliest and most important land- landscape. Through it, he hoped to teach both scape architects, the progenitor of the “middle- professional and general audiences how to read western movement” of landscape design. First the natural landscape, and to respect and pro- published in 1920, Landscape-Gardening presents tect its beauty while creating ever more harmo- Simonds’s carefully conceived and still timely nious places in which to live. ideas about an approach to landscape design in This reprint edition includes a new introduc- which nature is both partner and model. tion by Robert E. Grese, which places Simonds’s Many of Simonds’s ideas were remark- gracefully written text in historical perspective, ably prescient. He encouraged the use of native elucidating many of the broad themes of the plants; he called for the protection of land for profession’s early years. aesthetic as well as utilitarian reasons; he championed interconnected park and boule- “With the increasing interest in ecological resto- vard systems or “greenways”; he encouraged the ration, sustainable design, and the use of native planting of “nature gardens”; and he proposed plants for landscape and gardens alike, it is par- thoughtful solutions to the increasingly ragged ticularly timely to have a new edition of this edges of early twentieth-century cities, warning seminal volume by O. C. Simonds.” of sprawl long before the word was invented. —Robert Cook, Arnold Arboretum Simonds wrote his book in response to what
33 Country Life: A Handbook of Agriculture, Horticulture, and Landscape Gardening Robert Morris Copeland
Reprint of the 1859 edition, with a new introduction by William H. Tishler
ASLA Centennial Reprint Series
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $49.95 ISBN: 978-1-55849-694-1 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
Robert Morris Copeland (1830–1874) was one neering methods. Handsomely illustrated with of a small number of American landscape prac- plates and woodcuts, the book sold through six titioners whose written and built work helped editions. Copeland organized the book into an establish the foundations for city planning and agricultural year that provided practical and integrated park systems. As did his colleagues aesthetic advice on a month-by-month basis, Frederick Law Olmsted and Horace Cleveland, according to area. He dedicated the book “to all Copeland merged many of the principles of lovers of nature and to all engaged in cultivat- scientific farming with landscape gardening. ing and adorning the earth,” suggesting that a Although he died at a relatively young age, well-managed farm “can expand the mind and his accomplishments were substantial. He left ennoble the soul.” behind several important designs for cemeter- A new introduction by William H. Tishler ies, estates, suburbs, communities, and parks analyzes the importance of the book to mid- throughout New England, New York, and nineteenth-century America and chronicles Pennsylvania. Copeland’s other important achievements, In 1859, Copeland published Country Life, including his early concept for a metropoli- which quickly became a bible of scientific farm- tan park system for Boston that foreshadowed ing and landscape gardening, as it incorporated Charles Eliot’s efforts by many years. the latest agricultural practices with new engi-
34 The Prairie Spirit in Landscape Gardening Wilhelm Miller
Reprint of the 1915 edition, with a new introduction by Christopher Vernon
ASLA Centennial Reprint Series
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $34.95 ISBN: 978-1-55849-329-2 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
In 1915, Wilhelm Miller (1869–1938), an influ- eigners and Artificial Varieties!” “Restore the ential author and editor, published The Prairie Native Vegetation!”—leave little doubt about his Spirit in Landscape Gardening, a profusely illus- aesthetic position. trated book that championed the “prairie style” Christopher Vernon’s new introduction links of landscape gardening. It was the first book to the prairie style to Wright and other architects address the question of a truly American style of of the Progressive Era, arguing that Wright’s use landscape design and remains one of the most of prairie landscape elements actually preceded significant early treatises on that topic. that by Jensen, Simonds, and their peers. Ver- This handsome volume features several non shows how prairie imagery provided design projects by Jens Jensen, a Danish immigrant ideas for some and also provided a label—prai- whose ecologically based, conservation-oriented rie style—that helped promote naturalistic work approach to park and residential design had a generally. Architects, landscape architects, and strong impact in Chicago and formed the foun- garden enthusiasts will be intrigued by Vernon’s dation of the stylistic school Miller was promot- insights and inspired by Miller’s impassioned ing. The book also features photographs of O. C. call to celebrate, replicate, and conserve the Simonds’s designs for Chicago’s Graceland Cem- midwestern landscape. etery and midwestern landscapes by Walter Bur- ley Griffin, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Warren H. “Miller’s book provides a still-practical hand- Manning, among others. Before-and-after images book for Midwestern gardens that lends a strong vividly demonstrate Miller’s taste for abundant historical basis for linking such work today with use of hardy native plants in landscape design. its precedent.” His emphatic captions—”Away with Gaudy For- —Journal of the New England Garden History Society
35 The Art of Landscape Architecture Samuel Parsons Jr.
Reprint of the 1915 edition, with a new introduction by Francis R. Kowsky
ASLA Centennial Reprint Series
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $39.95 ISBN: 978-1-55849-695-8 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
Samuel Parsons Jr. (1844–1923) was one of the was an affectionate summing up of the theo- most well known names in the field of land- ries and built work that had inspired America’s scape design in the early twentieth century. A first generation of landscape architects. Parsons protégé of Calvert Vaux, Parsons worked with illustrated his book with photographs depicting the architect until Vaux’s death in 1895. As a wide range of landscapes, including several superintendent of planting in Central Park and of the park designed by the German landscape landscape architect to the City of New York gardener Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau. for nearly thirty years, Parsons was, until his A new introduction by Francis R. Kowsky resignation in 1911, the last direct link in the explores Parsons’s contributions to the nascent city to the ideals of Vaux and Frederick Law profession of landscape architecture, his cham- Olmsted. pioning of the work of Pückler-Muskau, his The most widely read of Parsons’s several defense of Olmsted and Vaux’s vision for Central books, The Art of Landscape Architecture (1915) Park, and his own successful landscape designs.
36 Landscape Architecture, as Applied to the Wants of the West; with an Essay on Forest Planting on the Great Plains H. W. S. Cleveland
Reprint of the 1873 edition, with a new introduction by Daniel J. Nadenicek and Lance M. Neckar
ASLA Centennial Reprint Series
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $29.95 ISBN: 978-1-55849-330-8 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
An important force in nineteenth-century Amer- prehensive scope for the new profession of land- ican landscape architecture, H. W. S. Cleveland scape architecture in its formative period. (1814–1900) has long been overshadowed by A new introduction to the text provides a Frederick Law Olmsted, with whom he worked historical backdrop to Cleveland’s concern that briefly at Prospect Park. Cleveland’s “organic” ill-considered layouts for communities along the design approach was first expressed in 1855 at rapidly developing rail lines of the Midwest and Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massa- Great Plains would negatively affect what he chusetts, where he and Robert Morris Copeland saw as the future of American civilization. developed a landscape aesthetic based chiefly on the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Landscape “The reprint and its perceptive introduction Architecture, as Applied to the Wants of the West, pub- should help landscape historians give Cleve- lished in 1873, summarizes Cleveland’s organic land the recognition he rightly deserves as one approach and its application at all scales of design of America’s foremost pioneering landscape and planning. The book is especially significant architects.” as the first attempt to define and develop a com- —Journal of the New England Garden History Society
37 The Spirit of the Garden Martha Brookes Hutcheson
Reprint of the 1923 edition, with a new introduction by Rebecca Warren Davidson
ASLA Centennial Reprint Series
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $34.95 ISBN: 978-1-55849-272-1 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
Martha Brookes Hutcheson (1871–1959) was zeal. Davidson examines the circumstances of one of the first American women landscape Hutcheson’s entry into MIT in 1900 and her architects to receive professional training. Like subsequent career until her marriage at age many of her female colleagues, she specialized forty, when she retired from active practice and in garden design, the topic of her acclaimed turned to writing and lecturing. book, The Spirit of the Garden. When first pub- Among the many beautiful photographs lished in 1923, the volume was both a critical illustrating Hutcheson’s designs are examples and a commercial success, widely praised for from Maudslay State Park in Newburyport, its articulation of the architectural principles Massachusetts; the Longfellow National Historic of garden design. “Every garden lover,” advised Site in Cambridge; and Bamboo Brook Conser- one contemporary reviewer, “should have it on vation Center in Gladstone, New Jersey—all of a most convenient table.” which are now open to the public. In an insightful new introduction, Rebecca Warren Davidson explores Hutcheson’s motives “A book remarkable for its concise and practical for becoming a landscape architect. In David- suggestions and which is at the same time bril- son’s view, Hutcheson considered fine landscape liant and entertainingly written.” design an instrument of social change and was —Architectural Record, 1923 inspired to write her book by a Progressive Era
38 Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect Charles W. Eliot
Reprint of the 1902 edition, with a new introduction by Keith N. Morgan
ASLA Centennial Reprint Series
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $50.00 ISBN: 978-1-55849-212-7 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
One of the most important figures in Ameri- offers a critical reading of Eliot’s life and con- can landscape history was Charles Eliot, whose tributions to the fields of landscape architec- story is told in this richly detailed biography. It ture and regional planning. Filling in the gaps was written by his father, the president of Har- left by Eliot’s father, he offers new insights into vard College, in 1902, a few years after Eliot’s an important chapter in American landscape death at age thirty-eight from spinal meningitis. history. Like his colleague and partner Frederick This edition includes 110 illustrations and Law Olmsted, the younger Eliot was a figure two large fold-out maps that show the distribu- of enormous talent and energy. He emerges tion of public open spaces in metropolitan Bos- from his father’s text as a brilliant though mel- ton in 1892 and 1901. ancholy young man with a passion for travel, history, and the natural landscape. Included “The book is a classic, the expression of endur- are passages from Eliot’s travel writing, pro- ing landscape values despite nearly a century fessional correspondence, and public reports, of evolutionary changes in the profession. . . . which bear witness to the range of his interests [Morgan’s is] a fine essay, scrupulously fair and and intellect. illuminating.” In a new introduction, Keith N. Morgan —Journal of the New England Garden History Society
39 Book of Landscape Gardening Frank A. Waugh
Reprint of the 1926 edition, with a new introduction by Linda Flint McClelland
ASLA Centennial Reprint Series
University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH Cloth $34.95 ISBN: 978-1-55849-521-0 To order: University of Massachusetts Press tel. 1-800-537-5487
In 1903, Frank Albert Waugh (1869–1943) “Landscape gardening is eminently a fine art,” founded an undergraduate program in “land- Waugh began each edition of the popular text scape gardening” at Massachusetts Agricultural that became a standard in professional practice. College, only the second such program in the In the chapters that follow, he covers several nation. The profession he helped to pioneer is general principles of design and discusses three now known as landscape architecture, and the basic styles—the natural, the architectural, and college has become the University of Massachu- the picturesque. setts Amherst. Waugh, who had moved to New The book achieved its broad appeal by strik- England in 1895 from his native Midwest, was ing a balance between well-known period one of the first practitioners to conceive of a his- examples and solutions that could be achieved tory of American landscape architecture. He by the professional designer, highway engineer, was a renowned teacher and horticulturalist as estate gardener, or average homeowner. Photo- well as a prolific writer on topics ranging from graphs, many of them taken by Waugh, depict design to pomology, a talented printmaker, far-ranging landscapes from Europe and Japan photographer, and flutist. Although his writ- to diverse regions of the United States. Several ings were rooted in the principles of naturalistic plant lists and an annotated bibliography of nineteenth-century landscape gardening, his landscape design sources accompany the text. theories promoted modern applications. In this edition, a new introduction by Linda The most comprehensive of Waugh’s several Flint McClelland examines Waugh’s contribu- published books, and widely considered a classic tions to landscape architecture during a period in the field,Book of Landscape Gardening was first of great technological change, growing cultural published in 1899 and revised several times. sophistication, and economic prosperity.
40 AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
SARAH ALLABACK, senior manuscript editor Cornell Institute for Digital Collections at Cor- at LALH, is author of The First American Women nell University. Architects. ROBERT E. GRESE is professor of landscape JANE ROY BROWN, former director of edu- architecture at the University of Michigan, cational outreach at LALH, is coauthor of One where he serves as director of the Matthei Writer’s Garden: Eudora Welty’s Home Place. Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum, and author of Jens Jensen: Maker of Natural Parks and DEAN CARDASIS, FASLA, is professor of Gardens. Grese is particularly interested in the landscape architecture at Rutgers, the State restoration and management of urban wilds and University of New Jersey, and director of the the role such lands can play in connecting chil- James Rose Center for Landscape Architec- dren and families with nature. He was featured tural Research and Design in Ridgewood, New as the LALH Preservation Hero in the 2010 issue Jersey. of VIEW, the LALH annual magazine.
ETHAN CARR, FASLA, is professor of landscape CAROL GROVE is adjunct assistant professor of architecture at the University of Massachusetts American art and architecture at the Univer- Amherst. A nationally recognized landscape sity of Missouri–Columbia, where she teaches historian and preservationist specializing in the courses in landscape studies. She is coauthor public landscape of the United States, he edited of a forthcoming LALH book on Hare & Hare, the eighth volume of The Papers of Frederick Law a landscape architecture firm based in Kansas Olmsted and is editor of the LALH series Design- City, Missouri, founded in 1910. ing the American Park. His previous publica- tions include Wilderness by Design. KENNETH I. HELPHAND, FASLA, is professor emeritus of landscape architecture at the Uni- KELLY COMRAS, FASLA, is principal land- versity of Oregon, where he has taught courses scape architect in the firm KCLA in Pacific Pali- in landscape history, theory, and design since sades, California. 1974. He is the author of four previous books and numerous articles. An Honorary Member of ELIZABETH HOPE CUSHING is a landscape his- the Israel Association of Landscape Architects, torian. In addition to writing cultural landscape Helphand is a former editor of Landscape Journal history reports for the Taft Art Museum, Cincin- and chair of the Senior Fellows at Dumbarton nati, the National Park Service, the Department Oaks. of Conservation and Recreation of the Common- wealth of Massachusetts, and other institutions CATHERINE HOWETT, FASLA, is profes- and agencies, she has contributed essays to Pio- sor emerita in the College of Environment and neers of American Landscape Design; Design with Cul- Design at the University of Georgia. She has also ture: Claiming America’s Landscape Heritage; Shaping edited, written, or contributed to several previ- the American Landscape; and Drawing Toward Home. ous books, including The Gardening Book of James Cushing is currently working on a biography of L. Hunter: A Southern Planter; Land of Our Own: 250 Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. Years of Landscape and Gardening Tradition in Geor- gia, 1733–1983; Residential Work of the Olmsted Firm REBECCA WARREN DAVIDSON is an architec- in Georgia, 1893–1937; and Abstracting the Land- tural and landscape historian. Formerly a cura- scape: The Artistry of Landscape Architect A. E. Bye. tor of graphic arts in Rare Books and Special Collections at Princeton University, Davidson ROBIN KARSON, Hon. ASLA, is a landscape is currently a visual collections cataloger at the historian and the founder and executive direc-
41 tor of LALH. She has published extensively on DANIEL J. NADENICEK is dean of the College American landscape architectural history and of Environment and Design and holds the Con- design, including several books and numerous stance Knowles Draper Chair in Environmental articles and essays, and is coeditor of Pioneers Design at the University of Georgia. His other of American Landscape Design. Her books have publications include more than ninety articles, received two Honor Awards from the ASLA, an reviews, reports, and proceedings in the areas American Horticultural Society Book Award, of historic preservation, landscape history, and and a J. B. Jackson Award. urban design. Nadenicek serves as coeditor of Landscape Journal and is currently working on a SUSAN L. KLAUS is an independent scholar forthcoming LALH book about the conservation with particular interest in urban and landscape work of Frederick Billings, financier and presi- history. She has published numerous articles on dent of the Northern Pacific Railway. Olmsted Jr. and the work of the Olmsted firm. LANCE M. NECKAR, professor of landscape FRANCIS R. KOWSKY is State University of architecture at the College of Architecture and New York Distinguished Professor emeritus at Landscape Architecture, University of Minne- Buffalo State College and author of Country, sota, Twin Cities, has received numerous awards Park, and City: The Architecture and Life of Calvert for excellence in teaching. Vaux. WILLIAM E. O’BRIEN is associate profes- BLANCHE M. G. LINDEN (1946–2014) was sor of environmental studies at the Harriet L. an independent scholar with special interest Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic Uni- in landscape, architectural, and urban history. versity. His work on environment and race has Her numerous publications in women’s studies, appeared in journals including Historical Geogra- visual and material culture, and American his- phy; Geographical Review; Human Ecology; Journal tory include Spring Grove: Celebrating 150 Years. of Geography; and Ethics, Place and Environment. He is a 2014 recipient of the University Award LINDA FLINT McCLELLAND is a historian for for Excellence and Innovation in Undergraduate the National Park Service and author of Building Teaching. the National Parks: Historic Landscape Design and Construction. ROGER G. REED is a historian for the National Register of Historic Places and the National CHARLES C. McLAUGHLIN (1929–2005) was Landmarks Program. His previous publications professor of history at American University and include Building Victorian Boston: The Architecture founding editor of The Papers of Frederick Law of Gridley J. F. Bryant. Olmsted. DAVID SCHUYLER is professor of American KEITH N. MORGAN is professor of art history studies at Franklin and Marshall College. He and director of architectural studies at Boston is author of Sanctified Landscape: Writers, Artists, University. He is author of Shaping a New Ameri- and the Hudson River Valley, 1820–1909; The New can Landscape: The Art and Architecture of Charles Urban Landscape: The Redefinition of City Form in A. Platt and coauthor of Boston Architecture, 1975– Nineteenth-Century America; and A City Trans- 1990. He is also editor and principal author of formed: Redevelopment, Race, and Suburbanization Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston and in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1940–1980. He has architecture editor for The Encyclopedia of New served as coeditor of several volumes of the The England. Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted.
42 R. BRUCE STEPHENSON is director of the WILLIAM H. TISHLER, FASLA, is professor Planning in Civic Urbanism masters program emeritus of landscape architecture at the Univer- at Rollins College, a landscape design consul- sity of Wisconsin, Madison, and editor of Ameri- tant, author of Visions of Eden: Environmental- can Landscape Architecture: Designers and Places. ism and Urban Planning in St. Petersburg, Florida, 1900–1995, and contributing scholar to the CHRISTOPHER VERNON is associate professor Florida Humanities film series on community, in the School of Architecture, Landscape, and Imagining a New Florida. Visual Arts at the University of Western Aus- tralia. His extensive publications address topics DAVID C. STREATFIELD is professor emeritus including the landscape architecture of Marion of landscape architecture at the University of Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin; the designed Washington. His previous publications include landscapes of Canberra, Australia; and the Prai- numerous essays and California Gardens: Creating rie School in American landscape architecture. a New Eden. CHARLES D. WARREN is an architect and JUDITH B. TANKARD is a landscape historian, author. His previous publications include Car- preservation consultant, and author or coau- rere & Hastings, Architects (as coauthor) and the thor of seven other books on landscape history, introduction to The Architecture of Charles A. Platt. including Gertrude Jekyll and the Country House Warren has taught design at the University of Garden. She taught at the Landscape Institute, Michigan and the Institute for Classical Archi- Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, for tecture, and in 1990–91 was town architect in more than twenty years. Seaside, Florida.
43 Designing the American Park Series in association with University of Massachusetts Press
From Central Park to Yosemite Valley, park possible for the public to enjoy a natural area landscapes are among the most significant while limiting the impacts of that use. Design is achievements of American art and society. The the difference between a vacant lot and a play- historical events and themes that motivated ground. Designing the American Park will not their creation—the reform of the city, the roots only be a scholarly contribution but will help of environmentalism, the changing meaning reclaim, inform, and redefine the purposes of of nature in American art—give park history a park design today. broad appeal. While parks are often touted as SERIES EDITOR “America’s best idea,” there has been no series Ethan Carr, PhD, FASLA, is a landscape his- of scholarly publications devoted specifically to torian and preservationist specializing in the the history of their design. The new park series public landscapes of the United States. He has will attract a generation of contributors who are written two books on the history of American ready to forge a mature vision of this unique park planning and design, Wilderness by Design chapter in American cultural history. (1998) and Mission 66: Modernism and the National There is a remarkable continuity in design Park Dilemma (2007), and is currently a profes- theory and process across the diversity of types sor in the Department of Landscape Architec- and purposes of American parks. The emphasis ture and Regional Planning at the University of of this series specifically on design will bring out Massachusetts Amherst. these connections, including those among the design of municipal, state, and national parks. MANUSCRIPT INQUIRIES Park design is not only understudied, its Please direct manuscript inquiries to Ethan Carr, essential purpose and character are often mis- Professor, Landscape Architecture and Regional understood. Design, after all, implies some Planning, 210 Design Building, 551 North Pleas- kind of development, and therefore a human ant Street, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, intervention that is the antithesis of the “nat- MA 01003 ([email protected]) or Robin Kar- ural.” But our “best idea” has only remained son, Director, Library of American Landscape so because it has been constantly reinvented History, P.O. Box 1323, Amherst, MA 01004 through new design. Design is what makes it ([email protected]).
44 Critical Perspectives in the History of Environmental Design Series in association with University of Georgia Press
“The land is the appointed remedy for whatever movement revealed and understood by analyz- is false and fantastic in our culture. The conti- ing the design of places, or an assessment of his- nent we inhabit is to be the physic and food of torical literature on the subject. While the focus our mind, as well as our body. The land with is the United States, international linkages and its tranquilizing, sanative influences, is to repair the evolution and transference of ideas through the errors of a . . . traditional education, and time and space are considered important to the bring us into just relations of men and things.” American story. —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1844) Because of the absolute necessity of sus- tainable living in the future, the new series is Since Emerson’s day, advocates of environmen- particularly timely. Its goal is to foster a cross- tal design have held true to the two primary disciplinary dialogue about the relationship of principles expressed in this quote: that a con- humans to nature, influencing the decisions we nection to the physical world (especially the make and the places we design today. landscape) provides physical, mental, and spiri- tual benefits and that landscape design offers a SERIES EDITOR means of orchestrating a “just relation” between Daniel J. Nadenicek is dean of the College of humans and the world. Environment and Design at the University of Our definition of environmental design Georgia. A well-known scholar in the field, includes a motivation to benefit people and Nadenicek has published many articles about place through design or preservation of the the history of landscape architecture and its landscape. It implies a conjunction of many relationship to American literary ideas. disciplines—including landscape architecture, architecture, urban planning, forestry, regional MANUSCRIPT INQUIRIES planning, engineering, ecology, horticulture, Please direct inquiries to Daniel J. Nadenicek, historic preservation, geography, and American Dean, College of Environment and Design, literature. 609 Caldwell Hall, University of Georgia, Ath- Topics in the new series might be a place ens, GA 30602-1845 ([email protected]) or (or places), a designer (or designers), other Robin Karson, Director, Library of American historical figures important to the history of Landscape History, P.O. Box 1323, Amherst, environmental design, a significant theme or MA 01004 ([email protected]).
45 American Society of Landscape Architects Centennial Reprint Series in association with University of Massachusetts Press
The series comprises a small library of influential Country Life: A Handbook of Agriculture, Horticul- books about American landscape architecture. ture, and Landscape Gardening by Robert Mor- The ten titles were selected by a committee of ris Copeland (1859) distinguished historians and practitioners who Landscape Architecture, as Applied to the Wants of the identified them as classics, important in shap- West by H. W. S. Cleveland (1871) ing design, planting, planning, and stewardship Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect by Charles W. practices in the field and still relevant today. Eliot (1902) Each is reprinted from the original edition and The Prairie Spirit in Landscape Gardening by Wil- introduced by a new essay that provides histori- helm Miller (1915) cal and contemporary perspective. The project The Art of Landscape Architecture by Samuel Par- was undertaken by LALH to commemorate the sons Jr. (1915) 1999 centennial of the ASLA. Landscape-Gardening by O. C. Simonds (1920) The series was funded by the Viburnum The Spirit of the Garden by Martha Brooks Foundation, Rochester, New York, now the Hutcheson (1923) Viburnum Trilobum Fund of the New York The Book of Landscape Gardening by Frank Waugh Community Trust, advised by Nancy R. Turner. (1926) New Towns for Old by John Nolen (1927) Landscape for Living by Garrett Eckbo (1950)
46 Film Series: North America by Design
North America by Design is a series of short doc- Grounded in core scholarship distilled from umentary films about influential North Ameri- LALH books, the mini-documentaries are can landscapes and their designers produced by hosted by historians and landscape architects LALH in association with award-winning Hott who explain the design process in accessible Productions of Florentine Films. terms that will engage nonspecialists as well as Through the magic of the camera’s move- students, practitioners, and scholars. ment, these films explore the physical reality Our goal is to educate wide audiences about and the spirit of special places and the people the fine art of landscape architecture. Each film who imagined, created, and cared for them. is also a work of art in its own right.
47 Fletcher Steele and Naumkeag: A Playground of the Imagination
Between 1926 and 1955, landscape architect South Lawn, Chinese Temple Garden, Blue Fletcher Steele and his client Mabel Choate Steps, and Rose Garden. Each of these designs created many new gardens for Naumkeag, the reflected the tempo of its time and also con- Choate family summer estate in Stockbridge, nected visitors to the beauty of the Berkshire Massachusetts. The new designs respected the Mountains, visible from any part of the land- layout of earlier gardens created c. 1885 by scape. It is a magical site, truly a playground of Nathan Barrett for the original Stanford White the imagination. “cottage.” You can read more about Fletcher Steele A vibrant relationship developed between in these LALH books: Fletcher Steele, Landscape Choate and Steele, whose work began with Architect; A Genius for Place; and Design in the Little Naumkeag’s Afternoon Garden and soon pro- Garden. gressed to other features in the landscape: the
48 Designing in the Prairie Spirit: A Conversation with Darrel Morrison
Designing in the Prairie Spirit features internation- You can read more about the “prairie spirit” ally renowned landscape architect Darrel Mor- in North American landscape design in The rison, who reflects on his childhood in Iowa and Native Landscape Reader; The Prairie Spirit in Land- the impact of Jens Jensen, Aldo Leopold, and scape Design; Landscape Gardening; and A Genius others on his career. for Place.
49 The Best Planned City in the World: Olmsted, Vaux, and the Buffalo Park System
Winner, 2015 Society of Architectural Historians Award for Film and Video
Based on the LALH book by Francis R. Kowsky, You can read more about the Buffalo Parks this film explores the development of the system in The Best Planned City in the World: Olm- nation’s first park system, designed by Frederick sted, Vaux, and the Buffalo Park System. Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in 1868.
50 Community by Design: The Omsted Firm and the Development of Brookline, Massachusetts
In 1883, Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. moved plans for boulevards and parkways, residential from New York City to Brookline, Massachu- subdivisions, institutional commissions, and pri- setts, a Boston suburb that had annointed itself vate gardens, the Olmsted firm carefully guided the “richest town in the world.” From Fairsted, the development of Brookline, at the same the Olmsteds’ Brookline home and office, the time designing cities and suburbs across North firm collaborated with an impressive galaxy of America. neighbors who were among the regional and You can read more about the work of the national leaders in the fields of architecture and Olmsted firm inCommunity by Design; A Modern horticulture, among them Henry Hobson Rich- Arcadia; The Best Planned City in the World; and ardson and Charles Sprague Sargent. Through Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England.
51 Ruth Shellhorn: Midcentury Landscape Design in Southern California
Winner, Audience Favorite Award, Modesto Architecture Festival
Over the course of her nearly sixty year career, pers with the promise of the “Southern Cali- modernist landscape architect Ruth Shellhorn fornia experience.” Shellhorn also worked to (1909–2006) created close to four hundred preserve the region’s coastline, and in 1955 landscape designs and collaborated with some she helped lay out Disneyland. A year later, of the most celebrated architects in Southern she became supervising landscape architect for California. the University of California at Riverside. Shell- Today she is best remembered for her Bull- horn’s landscape legacy is unique and largely ock’s department store designs—lush gardens unknown. You can read more about this impor- and fountain-filled courtyards that lured shop- tant practioner in Ruth Shellhorn.
52