No comments about The Urban Text (Chicago Institute of Architecture and Urbanism Books).

No comments about A Paradise Lost: The Imperial Garden Yuanming Yuan.

No comments about Gardens of Ninfa.

No comments about The American Man's Garden.

No comments about From Tavern to Courthouse: Architecture and Ritual in American Law, 1658-1860 (Creating the North American Landscape).

No comments about Landscape Architecture in Scandinavia: Projects from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland.

1 comments about Complete Garden Guide to the Native Perennials of California.

1. This book is essential to any California gardener who wants to learn how to introduce some of California's many beautiful native perennials into his or her garden. Mr. Keator, a guru of native gardening in California, offers practical advice on selection, propagation and culture of the most garden-worthy native perennials. The text is interesting (riveting for native enthusiasts) and well-written. Only the black-and-white line drawings and lack of photos leave the reader wanting more.

4 comments about Landscape Architecture Construction (3rd Edition).

1. I know one of the authors; he was actually a professor of mine before he retired. I know that he knows his stuff, so I'm praying that this mess of a book is the fault of the publisher.
   
   The typos alone make this text incomprehensible. Add to that illegible diagrams and a complete disorganization between text and headings, and you end up with headaches from just trying to read this silly thing. Unfortunately, this text is the only one of its kind, as far as I can tell.
   
   This book is meant as a comprehensive landscape architecture construction text for students and professionals and covers everything from grading to irrigation to structural load, although not deeply enough to be your only reference.



2. It is unbelievable that this book is $80. I agree with the other reviewers that this book falls short of what a professional reference should be, and the typos are plentiful. For the money, Time Saver Standards is a much better buy.
   
   Unfortunately, there are not a lot of other good options for a construction reference at the time being, so if you run across a cheaper copy of this book it still might be worth picking up. Though none of the topics are treated with great depth, it does manage to get the ideas across and could be helpful for someone just entering the profession or needing a general refresher.
   This book is just a very basic overview of construction, and other supplemental references about the topics covered would definitely be a must.



3. this text is filled with so many errors. sentences end in the middle of an explaination leaving you without any conclusion. this text is a required purchase for my landscape construction class at my university and i can't believe the errors have not yet been corrected! without a knowledgeable instructor to correct the many errors, this book will confuse anyone who is trying to learn from it. i do not recommend this book.



4. Without a doubt, this is the worst edited publication I have ever read. While the information contained in this book is valuable, the editorial missteps and omissions are maddeningly distracting. Some examples include sentences that don't finish with periods, formulas with typos, poorly reproduced graphics, mathematical errors (in the examples!), objects omitted from sentences, and a contour map that requires a mirror to decipher (figure 3-5). As a teaching tool, this text inspires confussion and frustration rather than delivering clarity and instruction. A 4th edition might correct the many errors, but this edition is far too expensive for it's lack of professionalism.

No comments about Build Your Own Outdoor Structures in Brick (Build Your Own Series).

1 comments about America's Original GI Town: Park Forest, Illinois (Creating the North American Landscape).

1. This is a planner's history of this unique American village, located about thirty miles South of Chicago. Gregory Randall has the advantage of growing up in Park Forest, which gives him some insight into the community that an outside observer might miss. He also has the training and experience as an urban planner to understand and appreciate the complexities of creating a new town.

   Randall places Park Forest in the contex of planned communities in England and the United States. His discussion of Riverside, Illinois, is good; but he ignores Pullman, Illinois, and Marktown, Indiana, as earlier planned communities in the Chicago area. His treatment of Harvey, Illinois, includes the minor error of listing the Chicago lumberman, Turlington W. Harvey, as an evangelist, although he was associated with the evangelist, Dwight Moody.

   He also does not deal with the demogragrahic changes that been pronounced on the South Side of Chicago and the South Suburbs. This racial and ethic movement has affected the developments that the planners did not anticipate. Perhaps, this is beyond the scope Randall's book, and deserves a monograph of its own.

   As a resident of Park Forest for twenty-six years I learned much about the origins and development of my town. I was especially interested in the how the lack of cooperation from the Illinois Central Railroad, forced the planners to drop their first chice for the location of the Park Forest Plaza. Thus, many of Park Forest's problems with a declining downtown area can be understood. I recommend this book to all who have an interest in the post-World War II period, and especially to all those who live Chicago area.