1 comments about Contemporary History of Garden Design: European Gardens Between Art and Architecture.

1. 
   
   Contemporary History of Garden Design: European Gardens between Art and Architecture.
   
   Penelope Hill
   Birkhauser
   ISBN 3-7643-711-x
   
   261pages.
   All colour.
   
   
   
   Just when you thought there couldn't be another coffee table book of recent designer gardens Penelope Hill, a Harvard alumni, pushes the others aside and bangs this one on the table. Large, lavishly illustrated, well written and comprehensive, the `Contemporary History of Garden Design' hopes to be definitive; the magnum opus of creativity in garden design that occurred in Europe at the close of the 20th century. Practitioners and students will make great use of this collection in not only understanding what is arguably a renaissance of the garden, but also in approaching their own designs and offering examples to clients.
   
   Beginning with an essay that locates late 20th century experimental garden design within a glossed history of landscape architecture, Hill then organises the work in to categories - categories that were always going to struggle to hold true. They are; New Designs on Classic Themes, Architecture and the Landscape, The Vertical Garden, Leaping the Fence, The Planting Revolution, Art and the Garden, The Contemporary Garden as Art and finally, the most disappointing of all, Forums for the Future, where she can only conclude that Garden Shows are good test beds. Within each of these main chapters are sub-categories that go further toward defining the main typologies of contemporary landscape (garden) design.
   
   Thus the book tries to categorise and historicise an unwieldy plethora of work which is, as the title suggests, neither art nor architecture but something in between. To be "in between" was a trendy but not unimportant theoretical position in the 1990's. Landscape architecture is by definition made up of--or, if you like-- in between many things and while Hill has done a remarkable job in terms of researching, categorising and interpreting so much work, her analysis of exactly where in-between is remains cursory. To properly (academically) establish the nature of being inbetween, one would need to turn to the polarities, in this case art and architecture, alas, little is said of either.
   
   But if an academic can find her theory lacking such criticism must be countered by an appreciation of the remarkable fact that nowhere in her book does she dumb projects down, as is so often the case with coffee table heavy weights. So, even if you think you have seen all most of the projects in this book many times before (and most will have) remember that her descriptions and interpretations make this arguably the most intelligent survey of late 20th century garden design yet produced for a general readership. Every project is explained with a genuine understanding and appreciation of the designer's aims and strategies. This is a rich account of a great range of projects.
   
   Even though the book is not written for them, academics, as they are wont to do, would also complain that the book lacks what they would call, "a critical curatorial agenda". Ultimately her position is simply that all the work she has collected is good because it's essentially innovative, though in fact, this is a harder won accolade than much of the work suggests. Whereas Hill rightly enthuses over the vibrancy of formal experimentation in recent work, she never really questions the work, nor the society that creates and consumes it. Where she is dazzled by the fireworks others might see shrapnel.
   
   The book Penelope Hill has written wants to be historically definitive and therefore more than a catalogue, but her approach lacks the discrimination necessary to the task. Instead of what is a timid and overly general introduction she should have more studiously set out the criteria upon which she has made her selections-- and for that matter--her omissions. This then is not the last word on late 20th century European garden design, and we await a book that lifts the vagaries of being "inbetween" and calls bad art by its name, a book that upholds fewer projects for the mantle of historical significance.
   
   This book is nonetheless a major, if not now the major celebration of a period of immense creativity in European landscape design. Indeed, if John Beardsley's Earthwork's and Beyond began a popular interest in environmental art for landscape architects, Hill's book maps its end point, that is, its manifestation in garden design - the place Smithson probably dreaded it would all end up. Garden design is of course not landscape architecture's whole story and it's a pity she hasn't put her mind to a broader range of the work we do.
   
   By announcing what is, books also announce what is about to pass and the conclusion she has not written is that after the creatively cathartic period of the end of the 20th century, we can now move to a period of less image and greater substance. For, like the image on the cover, this whole book makes one wonder whether much of what landscape architects have done after the seminal works of environmental art is really profound or simply empty.
   
   But these are academic problems, not the book's. There can be no question that within the pulp fiction world of garden design publications and generalist histories of landscape architecture, Hill has produced an excellent survey, one that could well be used to push all the others off the table.

1 comments about Baseball and Softball Fields: Design, Construction, Renovation, and Maintenance.

1. I used this technical reference book for a course in Contracts and Procurement, in which I had to write detailed specifications for a baseball park. These specifications were part of a Request for Proposal to a fictitious group of general contractors.
   
   This book left no stone unturned, educating me on all aspects of building and maintaining a ball diamond. My professor, who had seen many similar papers before, was impressed and I received a perfect mark.
   
   I also interviewed a general contractor who was building 8 baseball fields, and found I was able to talk intelligently with him, and knew all the various terms and types of materials used in a baseball field, as a direct result of reading this book.
   
   I was impressed with the overall knowledge of the authors, starting with how to grade the park for maximum drainage and playability, fencing, types of turf required for various weather zones in North America, pest and weed prevention, layout, dimensions, equipment used for maintaining and marking the field -- there wasn't one thing I wanted to know that I couldn't find in this book.
   
   I recommend it very highly.

1 comments about The Struggle for Modernism: Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and City Planning at Harvard.

1. Modernism in architecture is so closely identified with a handful of hero figures (like Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe) that we often forget that the real story behind its development is a complex and contentious one. In this wonderful and much-needed book, Anthony Alofsin deftly illustrates that the arrival of European architects in the U.S. in the 1930s cast a shadow over emerging progressive trends in American architectural design and education. At Harvard in particular, this led to an amnesia that convinced students and professors alike that it was Gropius who brought modern ideas to the Graduate School of Design when he began teaching there in 1937. "The Struggle for Modernism" shows clearly, though, that the kernels of these modern ideas were present in the Harvard design programs from their beginnings in 1900. It was not from the Bauhaus that Harvard developed its interdisciplinary approach to design that insisted on collaboration amongst architects, landscape architects, and city planners. Instead, it was Americans like Herbert Langford Warren, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., George Harold Edgell, and, most importantly, Joseph Hudnut who over decades created the influential and rigorous design programs. This is a fascinating and most welcome book that sheds much new light on a subject that many have incorrectly assumed was already well-understood. Highly recommended.

1 comments about Pedestrian Malls, Streetscapes and Urban Spaces.

1. This book is a good source for the architects and developers who are in business for an open air shopping complex. It gives ideas and examples from different aspects such as development, feasibility analysis and design elements. Case studies include description, development strategy and design features of the project. Probably one of the most useful chapters is the comparative analysis of the examined cases from the points of cost/blocks, land user areas, benefits and degree of success. On the other hand, I think this book should be in color.

No comments about Throw your trimmer away!.

1 comments about Key Moments In Architecture.

1. This book offers a fairly comprehensive overview of the development of the city from the first stepping stones of Jericho, the Ziggurat at Ur, and Babylon, to the city of the future and the never ending search for utopia. It's a broad history and it's also the foundation for the understanding of ourselves. Cities are "a curiously potent compound of buildings and people. The way people create, use and interact with the fabric of their urban concentrations make for a single entity." This book uses the "medium of architecture" to take a very informative look at that single entity. It's also a well illustrated look with over 200 photographs and drawings - at least one per page and most in full color.

   There are chapters on Greek, Roman, and Islamic styles which touch on domes, columns, vaults, arches, and the first attempts at urban planning. Next we see the contrasts of dark Medieval architecture and its Gothic cathedrals with Renaissance Italy where churches were less grand but the vaulted domes were no less glorious. Emerging from classicism we look next at style and Baroque architecture and then comes an emphasis on the importance of structure. Other chapters look at how the experience of empire influenced style. This is the period beginning in the early 19th century when many of the great cities were laid out and some of the worlds best known landmarks were erected. Finally there is discussion of the International styles of Expressionism and Modernism and following that Post-modernism. Add in short fact files on architectural details as well as mini profiles on some important names in the field (Brunelleschi, Bernini, Wren, Frank Lloyd Wright, Gropius, Mies, Graves, and Sir Norman Foster) and you have here a well planned and thoughtful book.

   Urban planners, geographers, designers, and of course architects will thoroughly enjoy this book. So will those of us who simply want to know more about the built environment we see around us everyday. The book says it best: "architecture is the visible and tangible expression of our society's taste, culture, politics and preoccupations. City architecture, quite simply, is a continuing monument to what we are."

1 comments about God's Own Junkyard: The Planned Deterioration of America's Landscape.

1. 
   This book's fury-driven introductory essay makes many superb points about what we're doing (okay, what we've done - the book was published in 1964) to our landscape, or rather are continuing to allow to be done by soulless "business is business" types in our devil-take-the-hindmost cultural milieu.
   
   The 130+ b&w photos are stunning, in the best and worst senses of the word -- and not unmixed with nostalgia, as we note the smallish herds of 50's cars in situ, and realize that many of the "ravaged" sites shown are now viewable as nostalgia sets, compared with what's come in the decades after.
   
   A great visual treat (if you take your Tums), and a source of some interesting cultural perspectives (e.g., the story of the Seagram Building's lost "prestige tax" court battle). A must for any American cultural history library.

2 comments about Versailles Gardens.

1. The pictures in this book, by photographer Jean-Babtiste Leroux, are breathtaking. Somewhat in the style of the painter Claude Monet, many of the pictures are taken of various fountains, walk-ways, and other areas of the gardens at different times of day and in different types of weather. Another reviewer said that one can see the shadow of the photographer in some of these pictures, but they are actually reflections of nearby statues and other objects in the gardens. I only gave this book four stars because it is hard to keep open and I wish that the pictures were bigger. Although, the smaller size does allow the book to be more affordable.



2. I'm going to be honest - I bought this book to more-or-less "complete" my collection of books on Versailles. The photos in this book are okay (any tourist could have done it, and the first two photos were shot through window to the interior so you can actually see a reflection the photographer). The majority of them have been shot from places most tourists wouldn't normally think to take a picture, which is good, but they're very small because the book itself is small, so you're not going to get the feeling that you're actually standing in the gardens at Versailles. I got the hardcover edition and it is really thick for such a small book, so it's a bit hard to keep open (the paperback MIGHT be slightly easier to use). Also, there is virtually no text accompanying the photos other than the tiny captions telling when and where the photo was taken, and a bit of text in the very back of the book - as an appendix. I don't know about you, but I like to know something about what it is I'm looking at. So, if you're looking for a book with detailed discriptions of the gardens, and intense, true-to-life photos that will make you feel as if you're really there, then this is NOT the book for you. If you only want a book with decent photos and don't mind a little struggling to keep it open, then you'll probably like it. I'm not planning to return it, but I don't find myself running back to it time, and time again. Get the paperback - it's cheaper!

3 comments about EDSA Asian Classical Landscape Line Drawing.

1. 1) Technically, Mr. Smith drawing produced while he was an emplyee of the comany and get salary paid, belogs to the company ( if it is any good)
   2)Some design and graphic are very good reference.The book colected typical projects done in China, while David Chen was in Charge of the EDSA's Beijing Joint Venture Office from 2000-2006. Most of the people who's work collected in the book have left the company since 2006 Chen's leaving.They are now with Ecoland in Beijing.



2. This book, "EDSA's Classic Asian Line etc", is a total rip off. I know this because no less than 9 of my illustrations have been published without my permission. The so-called author David Chen stole these drawings from a staff of largely Chinese designers then had the book printed in Hong Kong without the permission of the mother company EDSA (located in Olando Florida). He has featured his own drawings by prominately displaying his own signature, most of which were done in the last century and erasing almost all of the others, (save two of mine 'b. smith'). He then makes comment using landscape jargon on a few pieces in order to sound academic when in reality it is a huge info-mercial for one man. Fortunately the many spelling errors reveal the fact that he has hastily put this together revealing his own stupidity. I am amazed that such a company as Amazon would not research the authenticity of an item before promoting and selling it. For shame Amazon!
   regards,
   Broc Smith



3. This is a bad book. It is, however, a good representation of what is happening to the global market economy, in the fact that a) the Chinese are knocking off everything, and b) US firms a who take advantage of the financial windfalls they recieve from working in Asia occasionally get burned. To EDSA's credit the graphics in the book are good, but there is too little content regarding process, the projects, or anything of interest to make this purchase worth $35. The text is "hirarious".
   
   Interesting fact: this book was published by an ex-EDSA employee in CHina without permission of the US firm based in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Amazon must have a warehouse full of these things, because I got this book less than 36 hours after I purchased it with standard shipping.

No comments about Garden Design for Small Spaces: From Backyards to Balconies to Rooftops.