Landscape+Urbanism

Category: books

  • Daily Drawdown 9: Water

    This is the ninth in an ongoing series illustrating the relationship of Drawdown strategies to landscape architecture. For context, read the initial post here. Water is fundamental to discussions about climate change. Specifically the major shifts in water that will occur through global warming — droughts, extreme precipitation events, storm surge, and sea level rise,…

  • Daily Drawdown 7: Women & Girls

    This is the seventh in an ongoing series illustrating the relationship of Drawdown strategies to landscape architecture. For context, read the initial post here. A segment of Drawdown solutions focus on a topic that is not directly about landscape architecture, while perhaps transcending disciplinary boundaries, and literally being one of the most important things to…

  • The Foundations of Climate Change Inquiry

    In an attempt to be intentional and informed in tying landscape architecture to climate change and asking some of the fundamental questions I posed in my introductory post, I starting to develop a plan and amass a wide range of resources. Even now, I’ve barely scratched the surface, although this initial study has been illuminating,…

  • Resilience Matters

    Fans of Island Press (myself included) know of that, beyond their publication of a great diversity of books, the non-profit has a mission, to “provide the best ideas and information to those seeking to understand and protect the environment and create solutions to its complex problems”.  In this regard, beyond publication around these themes, they have…

  • Ecologists on Urban Ecology

    A great roundtable going on right now from The Nature of Cites asking ecologists “What is one thing every ecologist should know about urban ecology?”  Consisting of a range of voices from all over the globe, the conversation discusses the larger contributions of ecology, as well as some of the challenges, as mentioned by David Maddox in…

  • The Peregrine

    While not specifically urban, some reading worth your time is JA Baker‘s slim volume, The Peregrine. Written in 1967, it was one    The cover of the 2004 edition I own features an introduction by Robert Macfarlane  (who I learned about the book from via his readings).  Seemingly simple in format, a short blurb from Amazon gives…

  • Landscape Observatory: The Work of Terence Harkness

    I was really excited to learn about the publication of this book Landscape Observatory: The Work of Terence Harkness (2017, Applied Research & Design).  Having earned my undergraduate degree in Landscape Architecture at North Dakota State University, our design milieu often focused on the sprawling plains, with design exercises that took us into the realms…

  • Rome: Urban Formation and Transformation

    I was really happy to receive a copy of Jon Michael Schwarting’s new book “Rome: Urban Formation and Transformation”.  As a self-professed lover of Italy and Rome, it is interesting to see the analysis of the form of Rome. A short blurb from Amazon via the link in ArchDaily:  “In this book, Formation is ideal and utopian thinking,…

  • Urban Ecology Reading List – Updated

    Note:  This was originally published in late June, with a plan to include specific books that discussed the science of urban ecology.  I’ve added a few titles in this realm to the original post on 7/7 and organized them alphabetically with a summary at the beginning. The literature of the somewhat youthful discipline of urban…

  • John Yeon: Modern Architecture and Conservation in the Pacific Northwest

    Those not hailing from the Pacific Northwest may be less familiar with John Yeon, one of the influential figures in architecture and conservation and the development of a unique brand of regional modernism.  If you don’t know Yeon, or you want to learn more, you will be pleasantly satisfied with the recent volume from Oro…