Landscape-Gardening (1920) (American Society of Landscape Architects Centennial Reprint)

About this book

Ossian Cole Simonds (18551931) was one of the countrys earliest and most important landscape architects the progenitor of the "middle-western movement" of landscape design. He laid out college campuses arboreta estates parks and the much admired Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. He was also an influential teacher author and founder of university programs in landscape architecture and the only midwesterner among the eleven charter members of the American Society of Landscape Architects. First published in 1920 Landscape-Gardening presents Simondss carefully conceived and still timely ideas about an approach to landscape design in which nature is both partner and model. In eighteen well-illustrated chapters he addresses the design of many different types of landscapesfrom residences to parks to school groundsand recommends an approach based on respect for natural systems and acceptance of stewardship responsibility. Many of Simondss ideas were remarkably prescient. He encouraged the use of native plants; he called for the protection of land for aesthetic as well as utilitarian reasons; he championed interconnected park and boulevard systems or "greenways"; he encouraged the planting of "nature gardens"; and he proposed thoughtful solutions to the increasingly ragged edges of early twentieth-century cities warning of sprawl long before the word was invented. Simonds wrote his book in response to what he saw as alarming changes in the American landscape. Through it he hoped to teach both professional and general audiences how to read the natural landscape and to respect and protect its beauty while creating ever more harmonious places in which to live. This reprint edition includes a new introduction by Robert E. Grese which places Simondss gracefully written text in historical perspective elucidating many of the broad themes of the professions early years. Published in association with Library of American Landscape History: http://lalh.org/