3 comments about Zen in Your Garden: Creating Sacred Spaces.

1. This book has more in common with a glossy gardening magazine than a book of either oriental style landscaping or zen philosophy. There's lots of pretty pictures (which you may find inspirational) but the advice in the text if fairly shallow. The connection to zen is a bit nebulous... and seems to exist mostly to add some sort of deeper legitamacy to the book.



2. After reading this as a library book I wanted it in my personal library. A Japanese garden is not my goal - a serene and calm landscape is. I found inspiration and sound principles to work with in ZEN IN MY GARDEN. A pleasure to read.



3. I am a beginner at Zen, but from what I know of the underlying ideas and principles from reading several authors, this book captures the essence of what one would need to create a place for quiet contemplation. Stunning pictures!

4 comments about The Country in the City: The Greening of the San Francisco Bay Area (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books).

1. THE COUNTRY IN THE CITY: THE GREENING OF THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA should be a 'most' for any San Francisco Bay Area or comprehensive California library, whether it be a college-level or public lending collection. Students of California history and geography alike will appreciate this story of how the Bay Area's greenbelt was planned into an urban environment - and how each piece of it was fought for. From environmental battles which spread out to affect urban policies across the country to the involvement of businesses and individuals like, THE COUNTRY IN THE CITY is packed with insights on how early conservation affects today's urban environment, making it a fine pick for any collection interested in urban planning, ecology, or Bay Area history alike.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



2. This book really helped me understand the world I was born into--Berkeley in the late 1950s. As Richard Walker points out, that world reflected the work of countless Bay Area activists reaching back to John Muir. Many were civic-minded and dedicated women, and some started or built environmental organizations with national impact. This book describes it all: the people, the organizations, the issues, the victories (always temporary), the challenges, and the movement's shortcomings and unintended consequences.
   
   Always attuned to class issues, Walker acknowledges that these movements were mostly led by upper class folks and ultimately turned parts of the Bay Area (e.g., Marin and Napa) into lightly populated enclaves for the well off. Working families in the Bay Area have had great access to public parks and the coast, but activists so far have done little to impede the siting of toxic nastiness in low-income neighborhoods. Walker questions the link between efforts to slow or stop growth and the Bay Area's high housing prices, but he notes that the growth that has occurred--in the eastern part of Contra Costa County and the San Joaquin Valley, for example--isn't very smart and may be linked to the inner Bay Area's aversion to virtually any growth at all. At the end of the day, though, it's hard to resist Walker's conclusion that Bay Area residents have plenty to be thankful for. Highly recommended.



3. Professor Walker's book is a solidly researched, comprehensive history of the environmental movement in the Bay Area. Written in a clear, accessible style, the book covers a century of landsaving, from the early days of the Sierra Club to the exciting years from 1965-75 when most of our environmental protection laws were passed, to the recent use of land trusts , conservation easements, and urban growth boundaries to safeguard the Bay Area's precious green heritage. This book will stand, along with John Hart's "Legacy" and Amy Meyer's "New Guardians for the Golden Gate" as the canonical texts in the environmental history of California for years to come.



4. While this book was a bit academic and long on details, I found it a pleasant and easy read. I am a Bay Area resident and a NYC transplant and have marveled at the accessibility of the Bay Area's natural beauty and recreation.
   
   I love the SF Bay Area for its beauty and outdoors and I wanted to know how it happened and who to thank. Now I know.
   
   Another book worth considering, which is much more specific to the creation of one area is New Guardians for the Golden Gate: How America Got a Great National Park

3 comments about Designing Outdoor Environments for Children.

1. 2007 PA/DE Chapter ASLA President's Award Winner
   Jury Comments:
   The book is wonderfully illustrated and chock full of very useful information. This will be a great tool in the training and knowledge of a landscape architect in a very practical manner--good for every day use.



2. "Designing Outdoor Environments for Children" is a thorough investigation of how spaces for children aid in the development of necessary motor skills, intellectual and imaginative stimulation, and an early exposure to nature that will foster lifelong appreciation. No topic is untouched - history, design process, sustainability, case studies, and fundraising are all included. Not only is the text written in a clear, concise manner with many insightful images, but the text also provides the seeds with which a revolution in children's play will occur, hopefully soon. Designers, parents, principals, and teachers should all read, and will undoubtedly benefit from the unique concepts presented here. The environments for our children can become more inspirational, more nurturing, and should be made over; the authors tell you why and show you how.



3. I have found 'Designing Outdoor Environments for Children' to be an excellent addition to my library. I will include this publication as a part of the 'Introduction to Horticultural Therapy' class I am teaching. It will be very useful in helping students understand the essential role outdoor environments can play in teaching children about nature. The book is also an excellent resource in my own work designing residences and school playgrounds. Children, more than ever, need to reconnect with nature. The need to strengthen our interaction with nature cannot be overstressed today!

No comments about Urban Landscape.

3 comments about Park and Recreation Structures : Administration and Basic Service Facilities : Recreational and Cultural Facilities : Overnight and Organized Camp.

1. The golden era of handcrafted log construction was 1920's and 30's, and this wonderful book details, in project after project, the structures that had been built in America's National and State parks during that time. Cabins, lodges, visitor centers, even bridges, drinking fountains, fire pits, outhouses, and log benches-they all get photos, drawings, and commentary in this encyclopedic work.
   
   Albert H. Good wrote several books as Architectural Consultant for the National Park Service, and 3 of them are bound into one huge book here--it is the size of a library dictionary. More than 600 pages, and countless photos and drawings, the publisher used high quality paper and library binding. It feels like an expensive book!
   
   For me, the drawings are the gems. B&W photos must be difficult to scan and reproduce from the original, and some of the photos in this book, while generally very good, have suffered just a little. But this is nit picking.
   
   This book is a treasurehouse of handcrafted stone and log structures--these were craftsmen working at the peak of their abilities. And the designs are superb-they have the human scale, the warmth, and the charm that current architects could learn from. Great log homes don't need to be 4000 square feet, or have 20-foot ceilings. This book is proof of that.
   
   Save up and buy this book. Use it when designing your own log home or cabin. Share it with friends. I have been building log homes, and writing about log home construction, for 23 years and each time I browse this book I learn something new.
   
   Robert W. Chambers, author, Log Construction Manual



2. This is a beautiful book and an excellent reference. It is a reprint of the three volume set published in 1938. "Patterns From the Golden Age" is a cheaper reprint of the same thing - but the quality of the photos in this version is well worth the extra money.



3. This is the best source book for the architectural projects and site concepts produced during the 1930's for the Works Projects Administration (WPA)and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Albert Good's narrative provides insight into the motivating forces that employed thousands of out of work architects, engineers, skilled craftsmen and laborers to produce projects that now form the core of our national and state park systems.

   Most of the work produced under this program is enjoyed by today's tourist as the premier and most desirable destinations for outdoor experiences. Few new park facilities can duplicate the environments created by these dedicated workers on superbly selected and planned sites during the darkest days of the "Great Depression". The hand crafted, and sometimes intricately decorated, architecture and natural landscape planning evolved from talented designers and often unskilled laborers who lavished their work with love that only the lack of deadlines, the motivation of an empty stomach, a belief in the benefit for their fellow countrymen and the need to build with on site materials can produce. These buildings are truly "green buildings" before the term and recent politically correct notion became fasionable.

   Any architect, engineer, conservation and environmental supporter or depression era historian can benefit from this publication which brings one in contact with a nation faced with financial ruin and the effect on the hopes and spirit of its citizens. It demonstrates that when given a chance, the work ethic that has and hopefully will always exist in this nation produces fantastic results..........that we can roll up our shirt sleeves and pull on our boots to produce marvelous and lasting accomplishments even under great adversity.

   I recommend this book not just for the professionals whose vocations it represents but also for those who wish to understand the mountains that can be moved with a little sweat and perseverance.

1 comments about Garden of Cosmic Speculation.

1. ALOT OF TIME WENT INTO THIS GARDEN BUT I THINK THEY MISSED THE BOAT

2 comments about The City of To-morrow and Its Planning.

1. Le Corbusier has a dream for Paris, and it is a really interesting and unusual one. He creates a model for the cities, and his model has been living for almost a century. Although, you may reject to see it built, put aside living in it, it is a complete (well, almost complete) model. In this book, Le Corbusier presents his model city in detail from streets to building codes. He not only talks about the physical structure, but also the life style it would create. The mass of the city scares you, but you admire how he defends his vision, which is strong and bold, just like the book itself.



2. As an architecture student interested in the "art" of city planning, I found this book fascinating! Gives Le Corbusier's "radical" views and ideas plenty of substantive support. It is not only a book of design theory, but a book of urban history. Even if you're not too fond of Corbusier's work, this is a must-read for anyone interested in architecture!

2 comments about The Modern Garden.

1. This is yet another in a series of picture books of pretty gardens. Ms. Brown, no stranger to publishing or to garden history, has assembled, with the help of the beautiful photographs of Sofia Brignone and Alan Ward, a lovely coffee table book, the compact size of which makes it perfect for the small apartment dweller. The text, although lightly footnoted, breaks no new ground. The choice of garden designers is less curious and is the choice of their gardens -- particularly in the case or Pietro Porcinai as the garden at the Villa il Roseto in Florence is far from his most striking works, the well-framed photographs in the book notwithstanding. It is, in fact, one of his more simplistic designs and not the most modern of his works. Perhaps Porcinai's most provocative landscape (as landscapes are also included in the book) is his work on the autostrada near Belluno.

   As for the "Gropius Garden," there seems little evidence, even from the lovely photographs, that there is much of a garden to speak of. A stone wall, a tree, and a few stones for a path hardly make a "master work." Moreover, if there was a significant landscape program at the Gropius house in Lincoln, Massachusetts, it is unlikely that Gropius had much to do with it -- his wife Ise would have been far more the guiding hand. It seems that within such a limited book, there are other "master works" far more deserving of note than the remnants of a stone wall and a tree from the "Ise Gropius Garden."

   This is NOT a text book ? at least not for a university level course v?but it would be a lovely addition to one?s living room.




2. This book was a Christmas gift from my wish list. I did not have a chance to look through it before requesting it, but had seen an enthusiastic blurb in one of my favorite shelter magazines. I was a little surprised to find it contained little "cutting edge" contemporary landscape design. Instead, it is more of a history of "modern" designs in the Twentieth Century. I was hoping for examples of gardens such as those pictured on the cover and featured on this website, but this was not really the case. Many of the photos are in black and white, from past decades and the most intriguing color shots are already on the jacket. There is a great deal of history and detail provided in the text. I think the book is a "must have" for landscape architects, but for a homeowner looking for inspiration for a mid-century house, it wasn't what I'd hoped for. Nevertheless, it has given me a new understanding of the principles which have changed landscape design.

2 comments about Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement: Reality and Imagination.

1. Fanciful topiary, Kate Greenaway children's books where little girls hold tea parties while wearing adorable smocked dresses, trellis hedges captured in wall paper and woven rugs and tapestries, long grass walkways, pollarded trees and stone garden stairways descending into sunken gardens - settings from `Room With A View' and `Maurice'- the colorful Arts and Crafts Movement was a breath of fresh air following the black tones and claustrophobia of the Victorian Age. Although it rains a good deal in England, you would never know it from the photographs in this lovely volume. Judith Tankard has also included a number of items from her own collection of prints and drawings of from the period known by the French as the Belle Epoch or beautiful era .
   
   GARDENS OF THE ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT were and are a balm for a war-weary heart, developing as they did during the relatively peaceful period following the turbulent 19th century and the years before WWI. What happens if folks put their money into beauty and eschew the ugly? These gardens may seem ornate given the relative poverty of the working classes, but they were open to the public on certain feast days, and served as a place of refinement before public works became the only respite for the poor.
   
   Many of the houses around which the Arts and Crafts gardens are designed are ancient, but contemporary designers like Gertrude Jekyll and William Robinson modernized the grounds. Robinson built his gardens at Gravetye Manor around an Elizabethan structure and Jekyll developed Mustead Wood, a mere fifteen acres surrounding a house designed by Edwin Lutyens. Robinson was interested in the "wild garden" and many of his flowers bloomed among the trees or flopped over wooden structures. A fan of bulbs he developed terraced sweeps of daffodils as well as bluebell woods, but for many folks the most beautiful part of Gravetye's grounds was the West garden where tea and China roses adorned pergolas, arbors and trellises. The book includes prints, designs and color photos of the grounds Robinson owned as well as those he designed for others. Jekyll's interest lay in the design of perennial beds.
   
   Long after these artists were gone their influence was felt in England and other places. The book discusses the origins some of their ideas, as well as the influence of this movement on US gardens. This beautiful book will make a fine addition to your art book collection, and avid gardeners will find a few interesting ideas.



2. Gardens Of The Arts And Crafts Movement: Reality And Imagination by gardening historian and a teacher at Harvard University's Landscape Institute, Judith Tankard (who is also the founding editor of "Journal of the New England Garden History Society) presents a fascinating and informative exploration of landscape design from the late 1800s down to the present. It was this increasingly influential landscaping philosophy that was to redefine the relationship between the garden and the house for upscale property owners. The gardens used as illustrative examples include such legendary designers as William Morris and Gertrude Jekyll. Profusely illustrated in full color and impressively enhanced with an appendix of Arts and Crafts gardens open for visits from the public, Gardens Of The Arts And Crafts Movement: Reality And Imagination will prove a highly prized and seminal addition to personal, professional, academic, and community library Gardening, Landscaping, and Horticultural Studies reference and resource collections.

4 comments about LARE Review Section E Vignettes: Grading, Drainage, and Stormwater Management, 2nd ed..

1. After taking the LARE in December of 2007, I found this review book helpful for general grading concepts. However, the vignettes in the exam where much more complicated.



2. LARE section E has changed significantly since this book was released. It would be good only for general grading practice. the problems are very similar to the pre 2006 version of the test.
   Hopefully it will be updated to be as useful for the current changes in the test. None of the LARE practice guides reflect 2006 changes in the test.



3. this book is a LOT harder than the real test. so if you can take these practice tests and get them right, you should do fine on the real LARE.



4. I found vignettes #2 and #3 severely out of scale. Vignettes #1 and #9 are slightly out of scale. I am disappointed that our profession cant get it together with the study material for the LARE. With that said, I would buy this book used or split it with a study partner becuase its not worth the full price.