The book presents the phenomenon of the garden and its various cultural features. It compares historical aspects of the garden with its contemporary models and focuses on various cultural traditions and different ways of presentation of this problem, in the context of world literature, problems of visual arts, questions of architecture, ecology, universal aspects of language, as well as philosophical problems of axiology and aesthetics. All those contexts combine to form a picture of a phenomenon that could be called "the metaphor of the garden", containing a universal anthropological image of "space" in which dynamic re-evaluation of rhetorical models take place and the order of Nature complements cultural models of human understanding of reality.

This beautifully illustrated volume examines the garden as an enduring and evolving cultural resource, in two hundred works by more than one hundred artists. Prints, drawings, photographs, and paintings illuminate the changing aesthetics and uses of gardens from sixteenth-century Italian villas and Louis XIV's Versailles to such democratic urban parks as New York City's Central Park and San Francisco's Crissy Field, adapted from a former military base. Artists' representations of gardens have been organized first to highlight design concepts and individual features, then to focus on historic gardens and parks, and finally to survey the activities within those settings. Among the earliest works included is an engraving of a drawing made in 1570 by Pieter Bruegel the Elder of a garden being vigorously cultivated by many workers. Two centuries later, Giovanni Battista Piranesi and Jean-Honore Fragonard represented the Villa d'Este at Tivoli in a state of neglected grandeur; Hubert Robert's painting of Mereville depicted a garden he helped design. By 1900 Eugene Atget's photographs of Versailles and Camille Pissarro's paintings of the Tuileries convey the enduring structure of French formal gardens. In contrast, American artists Maurice Prendergast, John Singer Sargent, and James McNeill Whistler depicted the pleasures of social activities in that setting. Photographs by Michael Kenna and Bruce Davidson offer contemporary perspectives on these issues.

Trees are ideal sources of shade; where they cannot be used, their function is taken over by tents, pergolas, and pavilions. In the context of global warming, shade-providing construction is becoming an increasingly important building task. In Part One of this book, specialists in the field present the typical forms of shade-providing construction as well as the design approach associated with each. Part Two presents easily consultable overviews of 140 plants that have proven to be effective givers of shade in temperate, subtropical, and tropical zones. Part Three presents thirty built projects by celebrated architects and landscape architects from five continents. These constructions illustrate a wide variety of functions and scales and cover various climatic zones and cultural contexts. All structures are constructionally and systematically analyzed with texts, true-to-scale drawings, and photographs from their foundations to their connections and the shadows they cast.

Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) is recognized as the founder of American landscape architecture and the genius behind New York's Central Park. In 1883 Olmsted established "Fairsted" in suburban Boston, the world's first full-scale professional office for the practice of landscape design. Over the course of the next century, his sons and successors sustained and expanded upon Olmsted's design ideals, philosophy, and influence. His son, F. L. Olmsted, Jr., helped to lay the groundwork for the National Park Service in 1916.
David Grayson Allen chronicles the creation and development of the Olmsted National Historic Site in Brookline, Massachusetts, which opened in 1979 after nearly a decade of struggle and controversy and now welcomes thousands of visitors and researchers every year. The Site's history is emblematic of the evolving role that landscape architecture plays in modern American lives and reflects the stunning transformation that has taken place within the National Park Service itself within the last quarter century. Original, sophisticated, meticulously researched, and well-written, The Olmsted National Historic Site and the Growth of Historic Landscape Preservation will resonate with readers interested in historic preservation and landscape architecture.

A delightful tour through gardens and garden writing of the past.

This volume brings together the papers presented at a conference entitled 'Experiencing the Garden in the Eighteenth Century', held at the Institute of Romance Studies, Senate House, University of London on 13 March 2004. Speakers came from Europe, the United States and New Zealand, and each gave a very different perspective on the eighteenth-century landscape garden in England, France and elsewhere in Europe. The papers focused on the theme of experience, an especially important aspect of eighteenth-century garden design. Landscape gardens were created for visitors to move through on a journey from one place to the next: the garden would not be seen all at once, but would be experienced as a story unfolding. The visitor would follow a circuit around the garden, moving from light to shade, being given suggestive prompts with statues, temples and viewpoints, as if on a sensory, emotional and intellectual journey.

Essays by the Horticulture columnist whose work the New York Times called "delectable."

"Landscape Construction, 3rd edition", will help your students understand the process of construction and implementation of a multitude of exterior hardscape construction projects. This book begins with the preparation for construction and follows through to the installation of the final elements of the landscape project. Your students will appreciate the detailed discussions about site preparation, grading and drainage, utilities and irrigation, retaining wall construction, paving, exterior carpentry and fencing and free-standing walls. Such amenities as pools, ponds, and edging are also discussed in detail. All instructions are well supported by photos and illustrations. Each section contains thorough installation information for most of the contemporary materials used in today's landscapes. David Sauter has provided your students with expert perspective on materials and techniques, as well as easy-to-follow instructions.