No comments about Large Parks.

5 comments about Landscape Construction.

1. I'm glad I decided to buy this book, despite its high price. Having just recently become a landscape designer/contractor, it proved invaluable many times in the course of our company's first big job. For example, the sections on stone paving were very helpful when we were building a flagstone patio, as they helped us select the best foundation and edging materials.
   
   I like the way the book is arranged, i.e. having a large section on paving, beginning with materials and site preparation for paving in general. This is followed by a chapter on each of the specific paving materials, such as concrete, unit pavers, dry laid stones, mortared paving, and granular paving.
   
   The extensive section on retaining walls, which I am about to take advantage of in our next job, is arranged similarly.
   
   This book is the industry standard. It is used as a text in City College of San Francisco, and it is also listed as a resource in the California Contractor's State License Board's Study Guide for the Landscaping (C-27) License Examination.
   
   So if you want to do landscape construction, I highly recommend this one.



2. This book is full of incredible and professional information related to Landscape Construction. It's not meant to be a DIY book you'd get from Home Depot or Lowes. This book is meant for students and professionals wanting to learn best practices regarding Landscape Construction. Amateurs, landscape designers and architects can gain some valuable insights, too. We used this book as our textbook in the various landscape construction classes I took, studying to be a landscape designer.



3. I found clear concise information on this subject rare until discovered Mr. Sauter's Landscape Construction. There is a host of Better H & G / Sunset books available, but those are really idea/coffee table books written for the weekend warrior. If you really want to know the best-practices and standards for the industry, this is the reference for you. Great for the student and pro alike.



4. Just another really expensive textbook with no real information provided. The Better Homes and Garden series has much more how-to information, great photographs, and ten percent of the cost too.



5. I found this book to be very thorough and detailed in its approach to a variety of landscape construction issues. It has detailed pictures and diagrams that illustrate the processes and make it easier to understand. The information is up to date, easy to read and a great learning tool for the student, professional or hobby person. As a landscape student, I find it a great resource book.

No comments about Natural Architecture.

5 comments about In the Company of Stone.

1. Over a decade ago, Dan Snow repaired the hundred-year-old dry stone walls that wander across our property in Vermont. The tumbled stone had been evocative, but the symmetry of the reassembled walls has been an irresistible delight. I do not know Snow--he worked while we were away--but I have thanked him a million times for his art. In this book, he has somehow captured with words the sensory pleasure of organizing and reorganizing stones. The art of walling, as evidenced by Peter Mauss's photographs, and the skill of walling, as described by Snow, are compulsively fascinating, an adventure for the armchair dreamer.
   The text and illustrations blend carefully, and the color photographs sparkle. The reproduction of the black and white photographs varies in quality, alas. This is a charming book. An excellent companion book is Gordon Hayward's "Stone in the Garden."



2. If you love stones and stone work you'll appreciate the pictures but a book just can't manage to "show" the art involved in working with stone



3. This is not a "how-to" book - it's better than that. It's a "why" book. The author expresses in his understated manner the "why's" of working with stone and for anyone who feels about stone the way he does (and I do)it is a delight to read - and look at. This book is absolutely inspirational and a joy.



4. Being a native resident of Vermont this book is very precious to me. I lived on a dairy farm with dry stone walls that were very plain. Dan Snow made the process into an art form as well as for practical use. The back of the book gives locations of some of his work here in VT and NH and I look forward to seeing some of it next summer. This book is one that should sit on a coffee table to be picked up and scanned by your guests rather than sitting on a bookcase shelf. The book is not only about the work of Dan Snow but a showcase of the photos by Peter Mauss, in color as well as black & white. It is a book you will treasure.



5. Want to learn how to make a stone wall a piece of art instead of construction? Dan Snow will guide you in this book. A book very strong in artistic expression, not construction technique. One excellent resource is the detail in the back which provides important information on how long each project took, stone sources, and construction methods. Photographer understands the art of stone because he uses his art well to express the art of the stone. You may not learn a whole lot, but you will be inspired, and thats the strength of his work!Its not construction, its truely ART!

5 comments about Time-Saver Standards for Landscape Architecture.

1. Landscape Architecture is a young and emerging profession. It is also a marginal discipline that borrows heavily from other disciplines like Horticulture, Architecture, Ecology and Civil Engineering, etc. The boundary and standards for Landscape Architecture has not been finalized yet. "Time-Saver Standards for Landscape Architecture" can help to set an industrial standard for Landscape Architecture.
   
   "Time-Saver Standards for Landscape Architecture" is separated into 9 divisions (please note these are NOT CSI Masterformat divisions, just divisions used for this book only), including process (construction documents and specifications, site construction operation), standards and guidelines (spatial standards, energy and resource conservations, outdoor accessibilities, natural hazards: earthquake, landslides and snow avalanches, land subsidence, expansive soils), techniques (site grading, stormwater management, pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicular circulation), structures (retaining walls, small dams, surfacing and paving, fences, screens and walls, wood deck and boardwalks, pedestrian bridge), improvements (site furniture and features, recreational and athletic facilities, pools and fountains, outdoor lighting, plants and planting), special condition (deck and roof landscapes, interior landscapes, disturbed landscapes, sound control), site utilities (water, sewer, irrigation, and recreational water bodies), materials (soils and aggregates, asphalt, concrete, masonry, wood, metals, plastic and glass, geotextiles), and details and devises. There is also a list of agencies and organizations and a list of reference after each section.
   
   "Time-Saver Standards for Landscape Architecture" has 928 pages and many line drawings and interior black-and-white photos. It is a good reference book for landscape design professionals.



2. I have always found this book to be cumbersome, difficult to navigate, poorly organized, and lacking in sufficient detail. But of course for years it was basically the only game in town, so everyone relied on it. Those days are over. I recently purchased Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards, and it is an outstanding book. If you're trying to decide which one to buy, definitely get Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards instead. And even if you already own Time-Saver Standards, do yourself a huge favor and buy Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards anyway. It covers everything that Time-Saver Standards does plus numerous other topics, all with much better explanations and details. To top things off, it has FAR more graphics and the entire book is better organized an easier to navigate than Time-Saver Standards.



3. As a practicing L.A., I have bought several McGraw-Hill Construction Books. I get a similar result each time: They seem on first look to fulfill the promise, but I found they don't well serve the need in real life. I get far better use out of Architectural Graphic Standards, and I'm looking forward to Wiley's Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards.



4. I've got the book and was hoping the CD-ROM would enhance using the book, but it doesn't. The content is very slim compared to the book, and the CAD drawings that are included are also of very limited use. Don't bother with the CD-ROM version of TSSLA.



5. A great book to have. It was a required text for my site technology classes. Kept referring to it. Lots of information. It should be on everyone's bookcase if you're a Landscape Architect student or already in the profession. I highly recommend it.

5 comments about The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community.

1. I grew up in what new urbanists would probably call a paradise. It was a real community in which neighbours were really neighbours. People did sit on their verandahs and converse with their neighbours on the street. There was an understanding that one could borrow things if the owner wasn't using them. It was considered polite to tell the owner if he was there but if he was away one could just borrow the thing and tell him when he came home if one was still using it. In short it was everything new urbanism wants. This was in a moderately large city in Canada.

   There were two things wrong with this paradise:

   a) it was not about verandahs, facing the street etc. It was about control and conformity. The neighbourhood protected itself by frowning on unexpected behavior. There was an expected range of interests and an expected range of activity. If someone went out of this range, one could expect social sanctions unfailingly. The dark side of Jacobs 'eyes-on-the-street' is Foucault's 'gaze.' The neighbourhood worked as an exercise in power. The verandahs and street life were instruments of that power. Heaven help anyone who had non-standard interests.

   b) the neighbourhood was unsustaining. With the growth of the personal rights ethos, the ability of the neighbourhood to control its inhabitants fell away. No longer could the neighbourhood fathers take action to control petty teenage misbehaviour. Instead personal rights and social policy took these controls away from the neighbourhood and gave them to government agencies. As a result the neighbourhood is now perhaps not unsafe but definitely uncomfortable. No one leaves tools or equipment out now in case a neighbour needs to borrow it. Everything is locked up. The doors are firmly closed and neighbours now complain to the police instead of discussing thier joint problems.

   New urbanism seems to miss this point. Neighbourhoods are about local power. For some people this produces a comfortable paradise. For those slightly different it creates a jail of conformity. Some people thrive in it. Some peole will be stifled. Neighboourhoods are an exercise in hopefully beneficent control. Architecture does not create this control. It can destroy it certainly and make it impossible but it cannot create it.




2. I have only had the book a day and already it has given me great pleasure and joy. I love the fantastic pictures and diagrams. The computer digitalizations on a few existing towns today and what they could be like were truely fasinating. I couldn't help not liking the indepth descriptions of numourous cities, towns, and villages from around the country and canada as well. This book had colorful photos and diagrams, this book to me is pure genus!



3. A very good appraisal of design examples of new communities with also a consistent theoretical approach to New Urbanism concepts. This is a necessary reading to those that want to be updated with the best design practices of integrated urban spaces.



4. The basic principles presented in this book are the stuff that dreams are made of. I have shared the ideas presented in this book with many of my friends and they all want to live in communities such as this. We've been strip-malled, mega-malled and automobilized to near-death. New Urbanism as presented here is like a million breaths of fresh air.

   It is best to read the basic principles presented in the front of the book first. It may look like dry reading at first but as you get into it, your interest will be piqued at first, then grabbed, and you won't want to put it down till you've read it all. Having read this part you will be armed with the knowledge that, to date, no development or developer has had the guts to follow the principles completely. All of the projects presented include some elements of New Urbanism but none of them have it right. One of the other customer reviewers of this book, Ken Wing, missed this entirely. Hey Ken, there is no people in the Seaside pictures because they want the reader to see the architecture! Those who don't get it, or are afraid of change, tend to trivialze New Urbanism and mis-represent it.

   Once you have read this book, you, like myself will want to immediately pack up and move to a New Urbanist community. Better ones are coming out of the ground each year and I hope to see one near me real soon.




5. This is a good book about bad ideas which-because of their influence-simply must be read. The problems with New Urbanism stem from five implicit premises it shares with other approaches to city planning. Consider them in turn.

   1. The same design approach is appropriate for both cities and suburbs.

   Peter Calethorpe claims the application of urban design principles "regardless of location: in suburbs and new growth areas as well as within the city" is a "simple but unique contribution of this movement." City planning, however, has often applied suburban principles-such as buildings as islands in a sea of grass-in both cities and suburbs. New and old share the underlying belief that the design problem of cities and suburbs is similar. Yet 40 years ago, Jane Jacobs showed us that cities were places where people had to feel safe amidst strangers, which fundamentally distinguished them from suburbs and small towns. The result when premise meets reality is laughable.

   For example, the chapter on the upscale, private golf community of Windsor, FL devotes four full pages to the castle-like entrance building where visitors must pass a security checkpoint. Perimeter walls form an important design element of South Brentwood Village, CA. The text and captions don't mention them, but they show clearly in the illustrations. Unless New Urbanism's model is the medieval walled city, it is hard to see these as urban.

   2. Community is primarily a matter of buildings and their arrangement.

   Those who have not received years of professional training easily fall into the trap that community has to do with people. Planners know better. Community is about buildings and the spaces they enclose. The planners' view is most apparent in the illustrations they choose. Seaside, FL's chapter is typical. Seaside requires front porches, because they supposedly encourage sociability. Seaside's front porches appear in 17 photos. Exactly one porch is in use. Of the six photos showing Seaside's public pavilions and gazebos, but one is in use. The photo of the pedestrian-friendly sand walkway is empty. The planners are proud of their porches, pavilions, paths and gazebos. They constitute "community." Who needs people?

   3. Appearance is more important than functionality.

   Planners design and evaluate with primary reference to aesthetic standards. The design must work at some level, but that limits rather than drives what the planner does.

   For example, the proposed conference center entrance in Montreal is a grand staircase, but it is hard to imagine anyone using it except joggers seeking a challenging exercise regimen. A large stair is also proposed for a park in Communications Hill, CA, not to get up and down, but to "terminate the view from a nearby street."

   The plan for part of Brooklyn, NY, shows a seven block length of Atlantic Avenue taken up by five buildings with nearly identical facades, three one-block long, and two two-blocks long, blocking two cross streets. The centerpiece of this stretch? A two-block-long parking garage. Does anyone really believe vibrant street life could exist here?

   4. Inside the boundary, plan. Outside, ignore or conquer.

   A convention of the planning field concerns how the area surrounding that planned for is portrayed in plans and renderings. Of course, the planner's work is always shown in living color and full detail. Two basic approaches are followed in showing surroundings. In one, surroundings are simply left out, as if the planned area were a space station, or the sole settlement on a virgin continent. In the second, surroundings appear in monochromatic outline, making the viewer aware there is a context, but giving little information about it. Whether this convention is cause, effect, or coincidence, what is clear is that it strongly parallels planners' values and thought process.

   This premise can be seen in action in what is perhaps the worst single design feature in the book. A "major goal" for the Clinton area of New York City was preservation of the few remaining low-rise buildings, including a corner gas station. To the planner, this meant the gas station was "outside" the planning area. Not content with surrounding it with an eight-story building taking the rest of the block along both street frontages, the planner proposed building a canopy on air rights over the gas station, thus engulfing it, amoeba style. Such bizarre design makes sense only when one starts from the planner's premise that what is outside the plan is at best something to be ignored, and at worst an obstacle to be overcome.

   5. Give planners complete control. They know best.

   The desire of planners for complete control is evident from the opening essays, where the wants and ideas of "businesses and public officials" are referred to as "hurdles," and the changes a planner makes to incorporate others' ideas are called "accommodations" and "compromises." Examples of building codes to limit architects and builders to the planners' vision grace several chapters. The pinnacle of control is achieved in Mashpee Commons, MA, where the developer retained ownership of streets to avoid zoning setback requirements.

   The premise that we would all be better off if we would just do what the planners want stems from their deep seated belief that they know best. I hope it is apparent by now that this hubris has no basis in ability or performance.

   As horrifying as these five premises are, it hasn't stopped New Urbanist planners from getting plenty of work, and in many cases getting their plans built. For suburban developers trying to create a simulacrum of pre-WWII, small-town America ala Disneyland's Main Street, the New Urbanism is probably harmless. For cities, the stakes are considerably higher. Cities have already suffered immensely at the hands of planners, and in their current state can hardly afford another round of arrogant ignorance. New Urbanist planners have already been to work on New York, Los Angeles, and Montreal. Read this book before they come to a city near you.

5 comments about Biltmore Estate: The Most Distinguished Private Place.

1. While excellent new quality at reasonable discount from new at Biltmore gift shop, this book had a little too much construction detail which somewhat redundant of what covered during Biltmore tour and less general information on the Biltmore Estate which would have been more appealing.



2. Biltmore is like some grand Loire Chateaux, that was transplanted in the Smokey Mountains, it is an unusual juxisposition. This book does a nice job getting at the history of this grandest of the Gilded Age Estates and the photographs are vivid, but somehow I felt slightly unsatisfied, maybe it was the lack of exterior photographs of the mansion or maybe it was that the book felt incomplete somehow. I will say that as far as I can tell this is the best book out there at the moment on Biltmore, and it is a nice book, it just somehow does not do this amazing estate justice. I would have like to have seen a more thorough book with more pictures and more comprehensive text, but as it is I still recommend it if you have an interest in this mansion or just Gilded Age splendor in general, but just be aware that this is not the definitive book, that has, alas, yet to be written.



3. This book is a very nice book on the background of the Biltmore Estate, however, I think it should have went a little further and included more photos and information of the other rooms. It was interesting to see shots of the blueprint details, such as the front and back elevation, a shot of the first floor plan (albeit very blurry and almost impossible to read without some knowledge of what rooms exist in the space), and details of the exterior. To be honest I found the same information and more surfing the net. The best book I have found is "A Guide to Biltmore Estate" (1994) by Rachel Carley. Beautiful shots of many interior rooms, floorplans of all 4 levels with many of the rooms included (similar to the brochure given to visitors of Biltmore Estate). Overall this book is good (but fast) reading and I would recommend it to Biltmore fans.



4. I found this book on George Washington Vanderbilt's Biltmore Estate in Ashville, North Carolina, to be extremelly through. This book includes sketchs of many of the considered facades for the home, and what their floorplans would have been.

   Pictures of all of the beautiful rooms in the house are included in this publication. Also included are sketchs of the many details of the home, included are the east facade, the Gate House, the gates that set next to the house, the Biltmore Village Church, and sketchs of many of the statues from Biltmore's gardens.

   Also included in this book is the histories of many of the principal players in Biltmore's creation, including Fredrick Law Olmsted the landscape designer, Richard Morris Hunt the arcitect, and of course George Vanderbilt the home's owner.
   Included is many of the landscape designs of Biltmore's gardens, and beautiful pictures of many of them. Pictures of Biltmore's Conservatory are included which sits in Biltmore's Walled Garden, to the north of Biltmore House.

   All in all, this book is great, and a great companion to a day long visit to Biltmore! If you loved Biltmore Estate, you'll love this book, I garentee it!




5. I enjoyed the story, don't get me wrong, but as for the pictures, yes it had numerous colors, but mainly black and white. I was surprised. Even pictures that weren't historic were in black and white.

   When I purchased this book, I had hoped for a good floorplan of the home, instead I got a little sketch that could hardly be read with a magnifying glass.

   Overall, very factual. It makes you realize just what went into the building process. Even if the paragraphs are a little too wordy.

5 comments about Design with Nature (Wiley Series in Sustainable Design).

1. As a former colleague of McHarg's at the University of Pennsylvania during the 1960's, and currently working in a planned community he designed (The Woodlands, TX), I decided to buy this book to try to understand the strange idiosyncracies of The Woodlands, TX.
   
   The book is very wordy, but it is well illustrated. McHarg successfully blended community design with natural boundary conditions (watershed management, geology, forestry, slope properties, etc) with the case histories he presented (some of which I remember when serving on an invited basis on jury's in McHarg's academic program). The book's strength is his advocacy of melding human planning needs with nature's boundary conditions.
   
   BUT, does it really work? Only at the expense of the time of people working and living in such a planned community. The inconvenient practices that go with such a planned community require a lot of adjustment that asks a bit much of people who work in such places but don't live there.
   
   But it works fine for the affluent and the unhurried who can afford it.



2. No has estudiado arquitectura si este libro no ha caido en tus manos. Sin Ian Mcharg la arquitectura sostenible no seria posible. Por lo menos la arquitectura sostenible pensada a escala regional."



3. this highly recommended book started out as a compelling read, but became something i had to force myself to finish. it seems to be a series of lectures strung together, which may have been interesting as lectures, but is not cohesive enough to be a book. the good information is lost amidst the rambling style.



4. Anyone studying environmental planning or LA should read this book.



5. While it's not the kind of book you want to lounge around the fireplace reading, it is a book that is frequently referred to by architects. It is significant in designing and ecologially friendly building in today's built-up environment. Summary: Not a great book, but a useful resource for architects.

No comments about Landscape Architecture: Water Features (Landscape Architecture).

5 comments about The Welcoming Garden.

1. This book is a decent guide to front-yard gardens, and I liked a lot of the photographs. One thing that really annoyed me, though, were the little diagrams/layout pictures in each chapter; they seemed to have no correlation with the photos. It was as if the photos were of real gardens but the diagrams were hypothetical. Personally, I love it when a house or garden design book has correlating photos and "floorplans" (or whatever you call it for a garden); it really helps me visualize the jump from 2-D to 3-D, especially in terms of scale. This book has the photos, and has the 'floorplans', but they don't correspond. Other than that, it is a nice, solid idea book for the front garden.



2. This book was everything my "much better half" had hoped for - she's delighted!



3. This is a decent edition, though I can't say it improves on Hayward's Your House, Your Garden or others in the field. The quality of the illustrations really varies, and some locations are redundant to YHYG. I was looking for advice about replacing my front lawn and wish I'd found more here. My top picks for garden design remain Natural Gardening in Small Spaces, by Noel Kingsbury; Front Yard Gardens, by Liz Primeau; and the Piet Oudolf books.



4. "The new American garden means living and walking among plants, following a path from driveway to front door among ornamental grasses and Russian sage, talking with friends under apple and cherry trees at the front of the house." ~Gordon Hayward
   
   Gordon Hayward's ideas can be incorporated into any style of garden. If you have a walkway to the front door or need to manage an especially large lawn, his ideas will create a beautiful nurturing space you will love coming home to.
   
   The book is organized in a step-by-step design. You can see the complete design from a landscaper's viewpoint and then see the finished beauty in pictures. Some of the features include:
   
   An Old Weathered House with a Cottage Garden
   A Home Completely Surrounded by a Garden
   A Small Garden around Big Front Steps
   A Garden Running Straight to the Front Door (cover picture)
   Sidewalk Garden
   A Generous Sitting Area in a Small Front Garden
   A Sunny Organic Garden
   
   Each idea also has a special section of "Design Principles." The author explains the pictures so you gain a sense of how a designer thinks when planning out a new yard. There are many ideas to love and there is a good balance of creativity and practical solutions.
   
   ~The Rebecca Review



5. The tradition in the United States has been to have a fairly plain front yard and to put the emphasis on the back yard. If we think of the front yard at all, it's usually pretty bland. The chairs, the table, the fountain go in the back yard.
   
   This book kind of turns that around. Here are gardens for the front of the house. Maybe that's where the view is, maybe you just want guests to feel welcome, maybe you don't have a back yard, maybe you just want the house to be a nice from the front as the back.
   
   Gordon Hayward is an expert in garden design. Here he concentrates on the front yard. He features many of his own designs as well as designs from all around the country.
   
   The book is broken into ten chapters that cover all aspects of designing a garden for the front yard. It begins with a discussion on style and then has a chapter on each major component such as driveways, walkways, the strip between the sidewalk and the street and so on.
   
   Each of these chapters is beautifully illustrated with full color photographs. The result is a raft of ideas that you might use as you create your own design.