2 comments about GIS for Landscape Architects.

1. describe los tipos de proyectos con respectoa a la utilizaciopn del SIG como herramienta para diseñar paisajes



2. While somewhat biased towards ESRI software, this book still managed to capture the essence of what real LAs are doing with GIS. What it lacks in technical detail, it more than makes up for with its very nice graphics and maps.

2 comments about Introduction to Landscape Design.

1. "Introduction to Landscape Design" is a very comprehensive, theoretical and philosophical introduction to Landscape Design. It is composed of 4 parts (concepts and overview, design influences, contemporary application, and the future) including 17 chapters. It covers a number of subjects such as landscape meaning (method of study, meanings, axioms for reading the landscape, and landscape interpretation), people, attitudes and perception, education and design thinking, landscape process, available resources and technology, sensual and temporal aspects of perception, visual arts, geometry and circulation as ordering mechanism, spatial development, architecture and site development, placemaking and community building, professional practice, site design as problem solving, an ecology of design and landscape design education.
   
   JOHN L. MOTLOCH, PhD, ASLA, is very knowledgeable. He is a licensed landscape architect, architect, and interior designer, and Professor and Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture in the College of Architecture and Planning at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems in Austin, Texas. He is able to give a very comprehensive discussion on landscape design as a synergism of art and science, and the interplay between buildings and sites. He also discusses aesthetic, human, environmental, and technological issues associated with landscape design and various forces that influence land design.
   
   "Introduction to Landscape Design" has 352 pages and many line drawings and interior black-and-white photos. It is a very comprehensive, theoretical and philosophical introduction to Landscape Design.



2. This book is an excellent introduction to the practical aspects of landscape design. After every chapter, the student can find an extensive bibliography for further study or reference. All concepts are clearly explained, especially spatial perception and projects. If you are looking for a one-in-all book, this is it. However, do not expect it to say much about the history of landscape design. This is a practical book only, but first quality!!!

2 comments about Thomas Jefferson's Flower Garden at Monticello.

1. I found the book to be quite intersting and a valuable resource for the gardener. Thomas Jefferson is well known for his gardening efforts, both as ornamental and practical for food stuffs.

   The book has excellent photographs of the gardens of Monticello as well as Jefferson's drawings of how he wanted to landscape the area of his "Little Mountain." There is great pride in the book to document over one hundred species of plants cultivated by Jefferson while living at Monticello.

   Jefferson was a champion of cultivating indigenous plant life to Virginia and that of North America, but he had plants comming from thoughout the world also.

   Cultivating a mountain top graden presented problems for Jefferson in both climate and the proper hydration of the plants themselves. Without all of the modern conviences that we have today, Jefferson managed to have some of the most beautiful gardens in Virginia.

   This is a must book if you are looking for gardening proportion and scale. As Jefferson said, "There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me." Well said...

   In the book you will find very good descriptions of the plants grown at Monticello, this is a must volume for reference.




2. This book includes color photographs of the current gardens at Monticello and black & white reproductions of Thomas Jefferson's own sketched plans for the gardens. There is an annotated list of the flowers and "woody ornamentals," such as roses and shrubs, grown by Jefferson. There are many excerpts from his writing and letters which give the reader a greater sense of Jefferson's broad intellect and love of nature as it relates to his gardens. I was hoping to find a list of flowers native to Virginia cultivated by Jefferson but, while the origins of many of the flowers are indicated, there is no separate list of the native plants as I had hoped.

No comments about Making a Landscape of Continuity: The Practice of Innocenti and webel.

2 comments about Provence-Art: Architecture and Landscape (Art & Architecture).

1. This is perhaps the most complete book on Provence I have come across. It offers excellent pictures and detailed history of all the major and surrounding areas which constitute Provence. The area, steeped in history, not least of which the Roman Empire, is eloquently portrayed in this book and is sure to indulge any reader on the delights that are to be found in Provence.



2. I found the book very useful in preparing for a vacation in Provence. It provides more information than most standard guide books, and a visual reference to planning where to spend our time. The book includes handy maps, floor plans of historic building, historical context and information about the current ecology, economy and populations. Many wonderful photographs!

1 comments about Turfgrass Management (8th Edition).

1. After being out of the superentendent side of the business for a few years this book brought me back up to speed. The text is well written and easy to understand. I recommend it highly for anyone who needs a book "just to be sure"!

1 comments about The Follies and Garden Buildings of Ireland.

1. James Howley has done us a great service in writing about these unusual architectural sites in Ireland. We are surrounded by built things, but so many of them built with the severity of practical needs: domestic boxes, repetitive, hard-angled offices. His book reminds us that not all buildings were made so.

   He educates us in these matters by maintaining scholarly momentum without sacrificing readability. Indeed, reading this book involves a curious deception -- you feel as though you have been tramping through the bushes all day and examining fascinating old buildings, then sitting tired but satisfied with a cup of tea, going over drawings and notes. Yet what has happened is that you have absorbed an array of both historical and social lessons.

   Although the book is of course aimed at a specific area (Ireland) and specific topic (idiosyncratic buildings called 'follies'), the information is transferable into our daily lives. After having read the book, I found myself sensitized to the unusual in architecture in New England, where I live.

   Qualifier: What we may think is unusual is not always a "folly" -- in glancing into the lifeways of our predecessors, we are looking with mystery into that which others saw as perfectly ordinary (a medieval castle privy may be to us a mysterious or amusing construction, although 800 years ago it was just a smelly crapper). In such cases, we need to educate ourselves in the definition of "unusual" and what it means for us and for the people of other ages.

   Yet sometimes we find a truly unusual construction from whatever historical and local point of view you want to take. I drove by a yard in Shutesbury Massachusetts in which the owner had used his farm tractor to stack a series of huge flat stones on top of boulders to form a beautiful front-yard pyramid several feet high. My mind flashed instantly to the interesting people and odd places mentioned in Howley's book, and in this union of time and place and human dynamics, we see the ultimate practicality of this book. -- Wade Tarzia

4 comments about Gardening with Nature: How James van Sweden and Wolfgang Oehme Plant Slopes, Meadows, Outdoor Rooms, an d Garden Screens (Random House Gardening Series).

1. Although the landscapes in this book are beautiful, most of the properties shown were massive, complete with beautiful natural views surrounding them. It was fun to look at the pictures, but realistically, most people aren't dealing with the situations shown here. One terrace garden was shown, but it was small and unremarkable. All the properties shown are on the east coast, so the plant choices are not particularly useful for folks who live west of the Mississippi. It's an interesting way to spend a few minutes looking at the pictures, but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone to use in planning a garden.



2. This method has become my new gardening bible. It has an up to date, environmentally friendly, low maintenance approach. This book will not appeal to those who like large expanses of cut grass. The focus is on reducing or eliminating cut grass and massing plants. This style creates important habitats for birds and insects that we destroy with large lawns and weed killers and fertilizers. And the effect is very beautiful!



3. I borrowed a dozen books on naturalistic planting from a friend of mine that is REALLY into gardening. All of the books had beautiful photographs and some were interesting to read but only "Gardening With Nature" told me how to design a natural garden for my house. I'm so impressed I'm going to fork over my own money to buy it!



4. This is a well organized and written book, with beautiful photography, listing all the plant material and drawings gardening lovers could follow. Thus a "must" for all avid gardeners.

1 comments about Landscape Stories.

1. Southam's wonderful book of (mostly) large format images taken from multiple series has been one of the most stimulating of the medium I've yet come across. I think it was Fay Godwin (also from the UK) who first made me look at both the beauty and timelessness of the landscape and the detritus of habitation despoiling same. One can get too precious with the subjects considered worthy of an exposure. From the methods of the photographer as revealed herein, Southam is a painstaking master of the medium with a strong idea of what he's trying to convey. His images of rock falls and dew ponds are unquestionably beautiful and with great colour. But it's the "stories", the multiple approaches of aspect or over time that are most interesting here. With some thoughtful essays and excellent printing, this is a book worthy of consideration.

No comments about Olin: Placemaking.