2 comments about Groundswell: Constructing the Contemporary Landscape.

1. The book is filled with a series of exceptional projects in dealing with the transition between the interior and exterior space and the multiple ways of ground sculpturing. The projects are displayed with photographs, renderings, and drawings which further explain plan and section design. The book is inspirational and a great reference material.



2. A great collection of different planning straegies. Provides unique and refreshing solutions for designing different urban hardscapes, mostly in the U.S. and Europe. It is also well put together and well thought out.

No comments about A New Theory of Urban Design (Center for Environmental Structure Series, Vol 6).

5 comments about Natural Garden.

1. I love his style of using a few different gardener's ways of expressing themselves through their gardens. His books are crammed with IDEAS that help readers create their own visions of what they could do with their growing space. This is a great one, for "letting go"--Nature's partnership with the gardener, to make the "garden" less formal and intrusive of the landscape that is there--Yet making the gardener's home the jewel in that natural setting. I highly recommend this work!



2. Ken Druse is an amazing photographer, as well as an expert gardener who puts nature's welfare first. All gardeners will hopefully become "organic" in the future, if there is to be any hope at all for our natural world.



3. This book was written before it was understood that re-creating a "natural" garden look without using native plants really doesn't satisfy in the way native plant gardening can. So, it is somewhat muddled. But, as with all Mr. Druse's books, the photos are fabulous, the concepts are sound; it's the implementation that is better discussed in his later book "The Natural Habitat Garden," which I recommend highly to anyone interested in pursuing a garden that looks "right" for their area.



4. I'm a chilean landscaper. The first time I saw this book was on a client's hands and I don't resist in to look all the wonderfull images. Now I'm woorking in a new garden, whit many reminiscenses of this book. A good invertion.



5. This is one of the best books on gardening I have ever read. It is a pleasure to read. It is so interesting that I read it from cover to cover. It helped me plan the complete redesign of my garden. It gave me the information I needed to work with my landscape architect as an informed gardener.

No comments about The Gardens of Versailles.

1 comments about Design and Landscape for People: New Approaches to Renewal.

1. This book was a disappointment for me. As one who has appreciated Small Is Beautiful, 25th Anniversary Edition: Economics As If People Mattered: 25 Years Later . . . With Commentaries and Human Scale I was not expecting so much fine print and examples, even through grouped into the following five categories, struck me as kludgy:
   
   Utility
   Citizenship
   Rural
   Identity
   Urban
   
   My notes:
   
   + Imagination alone can work miracles in the absence of resources.
   
   + Worlds of planning, commerce, culture, technology, and politics are disconnected BUT the authors see a massive shift emergent toward participatory culture. I am reminded of Paul Hawkin's Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World and Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace.
   
   + There are a lot of buzzwords among the fine print, such as creative engagement, adaptive transformation, etcetera. This is where I begin to think this has crossed the line toward kludge.
   
   + I am *very* impressed with the small section that focuses on children play power, connecting a merry-go-round to pump water to a gravity storage container.
   
   + Page 17: What many of these strategies shared was the principle of putting information clearly in the public domain and drawing togetyher a debate between a public, political and professional audience to unlock different perspectives and produce different solutions. I am reminded of Jim Rough's brilliant work Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
   
   + Art in public spaces inspires new forms of social networks. Rivers can have "Save My River Chapters" all along its path, I am reminded of the Salmon Nation the future-oriented denizens of Eco-topia have put into place.
   
   The book does downhill from there, in part because the small print is annoying, in part because while the photos are truly beautiful, this book does not convey what the Germans call "the feeling in the fingertips."
   
   I am however very impressed toward the end when the book talks about OASIS (Open Accessible Space Information System) and the discussion the authors offer of how training children and citizens to map their neighborhoods at the sapling level in unleashing enormous stores of energy. I am especially impressed by a map on page 158 that shows "Desireable Places to Plant a Tree." THIS IS PERFECT. Now imagine a Global Range of Gifts table at the sapling and ceramic refrigerator level for the whole planet, so the 80% of the individuals that do not do planned giving can give a sapling or a cell phone or a month's worth of medicine. I this coming and pray it will arrive sooner.
   
   The book re-engaged me at the end where there is a superb discussion of how we should plan neighborhoods with running water so that the poor can upgrade as they improve their condition, rather than vacating. Grow wealth locally.
   
   This book is offered at a very fair price and on that basis am taking it up to four stars instead of three. If you love this topic, this is book by two people who care, offered by a publisher who has the integrity to price it affordably.
   
   I read this book with A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World and The Porto Alegre Alternative: Direct Democracy in Action (IIRE (International Institute for Resear) and in a fascinating way all three hung together--Civilization of Love ends by pointing out that the future Church is going to comprised of young urban poor; and the Porto Alegre book, an edited work, ends compellingly by saying that we should not have to choose between statism and the market, it is possible to put everyone's eyes on the whole of the budget, and dramatically redirect how our tax dollars are spent. I agree, but not in 2008. That just became another lost epoch. See my review of Obama - The Postmodern Coup: Making of a Manchurian Candidate and of course Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It.
   
   With my last remaining link, I recommend All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents).

No comments about Landscaping Principles and Practices.

No comments about Across This Land: A Regional Geography of the United States and Canada (Creating the North American Landscape).

1 comments about Man in the Landscape: A Historic View of the Esthetics of Nature.

1. This tour de force historical perspective of nature leads the reader into a provocative search for understanding the human role on Earth. Not for the narrow-minded and/or Jerry Falwell.

No comments about The Oxford Companion to the Garden.

1 comments about Invisible Gardens: The Search for Modernism in the American Landscape.

1. Invisible Gardens is a well-written, lively introduction to the confluence of landscape architecture and modernism during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Although somewhat like a textbook in its style of presentation, the writing throughout is clear, incisive and often quite absorbing. And there are plenty of black and white photos and architectural renderings which accompany the text to enhance its ability to inform. But only twelve colour plates were included in Invisible Gardens. I felt a bit let-down personally by this aspect of the project. I thought the book could have used additional high quality colour plates of the often spectacular commissions under review to balance the density of the text. And to convey visually what often needs to be seen to be properly appreciated.