Customer Reviews

Across the Open Field: Essays Drawn from English Landscapes (Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture)

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After reading this book, I went out and bought a sketch book. Now, I'm daydreaming about spending the summer in the English countryside, or perhaps in Italy somewhere. Olin inspires the reader to draw. More importantly, he explains how drawing can help us understand places and the forces that shape landscapes. One learns a greater appreciation of ordinary places and the people who create them.

Laurie Olin immerses the novice and intellectual landscape observer in the experience of the British countryside. He reveals perceptions through drawings and writings, engaging the reader in historic as well as contemporary investigations. As an architect as well as a renowned landscape architect, Olin adds his unique slant in a beautifully told story. I particularly thought the pensive recanting of the English landscape experience important enough to require it as reading for my college design class who will travel to England next year.