Customer Reviews

Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

With 630 illustrations, many created just for this book (430 of which are in full color), Elizabeth Barlow Rogers' Landscape Design: A Cultural And Architectural History offers dazzling, panoramic beauty to complement its extensive commentary on landscapes throughout history, ranging from Stonehenge and the Forbidden City of Beijing to Versailles and New York's Central Park. This comprehensive survey, with its intelligent text and breathtaking photographs, is highly recommended to anyone interested in the history of landscaping since the dawn of humanity.

Very well researched history of landscape design. However, I wouldn't go so far as to describe the photographs as 'breathtaking' as does another reviewer. There are many of them, all interesting, but almost all (apart from a brief intro sequence) only quarter or eighth page size. As a result, there is no image as impressive as the front cover. This is my only quibble, and the reason for 4 not 5 stars: why have a book so big and then not make full use of its size to present such a visually-based subject?

From Nineveh to a mobile home in Pecos, NM, Rogers casts a wide net, exploring the evolution of formal landscaping in parallel to humansÕ urge to put their mark on the earth. A scholar, who administered New YorkÕs Central Park for two decades, she provides a compelling account of the cultural roots that underly the plantings, explaining the ideas inherent in unfamiliar and classic gardens. Every page contains sharp insightsÑfor example, her suggestion that the broken column that the Baron de Monville built as his house at the Desert de Retz outside Paris in the 1780s portended the revolution that would sweep away the civilization he cherished. The abundance of plans and illustrations do ample justice to the text. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)

The book is text driven, so provides a great deal of information about landscaping themes and styles. I purchased this book for a university class I am taking, and it has proven to be a valuable resource.

This is a horrible book! It hardly relates to anything with landscaping. This should't be used as a text book, it should be used as toilet paper.

I got this book for a Landscape Architecture History class and didn't use it much. From what my teacher told me and the few chapters I did read (they're pretty long chapters, by the way) the author tends to go on and on, verging on losing the readers attention at times. What's great about this book though is that you can pick it up and read about a particular site (with great photos to accompany the text) for 10 or 15 minutes, which makes it a great coffee table book.

This is a historical survey of landscape design with a Western & modern emphasis. The photos make it worth 'viewing' alone but these are within chapters that are in historical & cultural themes, & roughly chronological order. So the reader can 'see' paradigms of landscape's design easily (by comparing / contrasting visuals from theme-to-theme or period to period). I recommend this to anyone with an interest in visual arts, landscape architecture / Western architecture and to designers who wish to get historical perspective in their field.
The length and depth of this work make it accessible to a wide audience & a useful historical reference for landscape design.

This was recommended by one of my students, and it is terrific. It gives insights into why certain landscape and garden designs came to be, not simply how they are done. I'll refer to some of the author's specific points in my next course.

I had to purchase this book for my LA class and it's a bug squasher. While the pictures are impressive, and the coverage of the subject in-depth, the author can be long winded. What she covers in a page could have easily been said in a couple of paragraphs. I also don't care for the glossy pages. While they make the pictures look nice, reading the fine text that it's printed can give one a headache.

This book is long and overly verbose, but an excellent resource. As a text in a landscape architecture history class it was a strong foundation.