3 comments about Arboriculture: Integrated Management of Landscape Trees, Shrubs, and Vines (4th Edition).

1. Very complete and up to date information on Arboriculture. Chapters are well organized, highlighting what you need to know. Does a great job of covering the basics, but also gets into details and is fairly technical, without becoming unreadable. A must have reference book for the Landscaper.



2. Arboriculture is a science and art that is made up of many different contributing factors. This book does a very good job of covering them all. Any one of the chapters could be expanded into a book in itself. This thoroughly researched and written book is for the person who wants all of their information in one place. It is a textbook for the technically minded arborist, tree surgeon, tree farmer, or hobbyist. Don't look for this book to be entertaining or philosophical. Instead, buy this book for the knowledge held within. There is a lot to be learned from it. Every single page is filled with facts, figures, methods, and recommendations. You will find yourself reading every page a second or third time in order to catch it all. I refer back to this book on a regular basis, because there is no way I can remember it all. If you have any questions about the management of trees or shrubs, you will likely find it in this book.



3. Harris wrote the first edition of this book when trees were "trimmed" by the same people who patched asphalt and repaired park benches. It was a breath of rationality in a field that relied mostly on anecdotal information.

   The new edition reinforces this work as the compendium of current thinking about how to care for trees. Clark and Matheny build eloquently on Harris's solid foundation.

   The public participates actively in caring for trees and demands to know information found in this book. Why not plant the biggest caliper tree you can find? Can't you do something about the tree roots "breaking" up my sewer? Open the book and show them the brief but definitive answer that is easily found here.

   I wish more citizen tree advocates would read this book. For that matter, I wish more arborists would too.

2 comments about Robert A. M. Stern: Houses and Gardens.

1. I thoroughly loved his first residential book "Houses." With the amount of work he has done I expected this book to focus on new work but many of the same projects and pictures from the first book were used in this one.



2. This book on Robert Stern, the latest in a series, is very well executed. Mr. Stern really has a knack for anachronistic grand homes, they are a throw back to another time, but with all the modern luxuries money can buy. Stern has a real feel for the kind of gardens that complement each type of home, and the interaction between the two is often quite breathtaking. The images in this book are first rate and the homes are amazing. If you appreciate excellent photography, elegant architecture, and spectacular homes and gardens then you will love this book

No comments about Site Analysis: A Contextual Approach to Sustainable Land Planning and Site Design.

1 comments about Urban Landscape Architecture.

1. 
   The urban landscape is an important subject. Some colleges actually have a landscape architecture program specialized in this subject. Editor Bridget Vranckx collects some very interesting and innovative urban landscape design samples in "Urban Landscape Architecture."
   
   Bridget divides "Urban Landscape Architecture" into four chapters: Urban Comfort (Furniture), Common Ground (Squares and Places), Patch of Green (Parks and Gardens), and Missing Links (bridges). The design samples in this book include: Train Stations D-Line, Xurret System and Pep, Pink Bench, Millennium bench, NYSE and BPC Streetscape, Centerport Windscreen, P+R Sloterdijk & Zeeburg, Urban Lounge, Tower Hill Square, Water Culture Square, Patio Garden Cirqada, Boulevar Dreieich, De Admiraal, Twin Tower Court, Finsbury Avenue Square, Castle Park, Locomotives Park, Nou Barris Park, City Park Beja, Grammont Park, Rolling Bridge, Webb Bridge, Memorial Pedestrian Bridge, and Lookout Point Aurland.
   
   "Urban Landscape Architecture" has 192 pages and many beautiful drawings, sketches and color interior photos. It is a good collection of urban landscape architectural designs that can inspire you.

1 comments about Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000.

1. Building Suburbia is a capable synthesis of historical and recent scholarship on the development of the suburbs in America. Hayden, a professor of architecture and urbanism and professor of American Studies at Yale, knows what she is talking about. It was clear to me that this book is written for a general, rather then specialized audience.

   Hayden's writting style is easy to understand, and she provides multiple in text illustrations and photographs to illuminate the text. The book tracks the historical development of suburbs in time (the subtitle is "Green Fields and Urban Growth 1820-2000.) She starts with "Borderlands", then covers "Picturesque Enclaves", "Streetcar Buildouts", "Mail-Order and Self-Built Suburbs", "Sitcom Subrurbs", "Edge Nodes" and "Rural Fringes". This historical approach is book ended by an introduction with two chapters and a conclusion with two chapters.

   Hayden includes excellent end notes and a selected bibliography that is worthwhile to have on your shelf. Since this book was written in 2003, the bibliography is chock full of RECENT books on urban studies that allow the student or casual reader to follow up in any number of directions.

   Worth checking out.

3 comments about Designing Your Gardens and Landscapes: 12 Simple Steps for Successful Planning.

1. Well worth the money. If you ever get a chance to see her in person, do it. Very Knowledgeable, very practical.



2. This book takes you through every step you will need to landscape your yard and garden. The format is somewhat like a workbook but with a ton of useful information presented in a way that makes it easy for even a "brown-thumb" like me to understand. I especially like how the author left room for notes and grids for designing the garden. Pair this with "The Encyclopedia for Organic Gardening" and you will need no other gardening literature.



3. Since moving into a new house, I've been devouring every landscape book on the market, in hopes of acquiring information that will enable me to transform the weed patch and ugly bush that are the only features of my front yard into something beautiful. This is absolutely the best of the "how-to" landscape books! A real laboratory manual of landscape design, this book avoids the two major failures of many others on the market. First, unlike those that offer page after page of photos of beautifully manicured lawns from which I am expected to magically intuit the rudiments of landscape design, this book assumes rightly that I know absolutely nothing about landscaping. Then, the author uses clear diagrams and graphs to gently but methodically guide me through all stages of a design and implementation process that will enable a previously clueless me to transform my ugly view into a photo-worthy scene. Second, this book avoids the weaknesses of landscape books that so overwhelm me with the theoretical intricacies of landscape design that I am tempted to throw in the trowel and hire the work out (perhaps the authors of those books wanted me to do that all along?). By contrast, this book sequences in clear and concrete language the questions requiring decision that I will confront, lays out a range of possible actions, and then offers specific suggestions (with diagrams and graphs) for implementation. This book is sturdy and it needs to be. Rather than grace your coffee table, it will be with you as you get down and dirty in your yard with tape measure, string, and clipboard to work through the pages of this book on your way to something beautiful.

1 comments about Smart Guide: Ponds & Fountains: Step-by-Step Projects (Smart Guide).

1. This paperback gives you the basics, step by step, for constructing a water feature. It doesn't overwhelm you with projects that you can't possibly complete. Good entry level book.

No comments about Green Roofs in Sustainable Landscape Design.

5 comments about The Urban Design Handbook: Techniques and Working Methods.

1. this a firm way of working
   just one way of doing things



2. This book is a rare but insightful look into the practice of one of the New Urbanist legends. UDA began the pattern book revival a decade ago (and also has a book out describing the process of writing one.) They also are one of the pioneers of the New Urbanist revolution, which, by discarding the fictions of Modernist planning, have rediscovered existing methods and have discovered new methods of creating compact, mixed-use and walkable neighborhoods that were always the basic cellular structure of cities from the dawn of time until just before World War II. We have understood the basic principles again for some time. What this book shows are some of the mechanics of how to do it again.



3. The architects at Urban Design Associates use war stories and bold illustrations to provide detailed instructions on how to transform a blighted urban area into an aesthetically pleasing community. This Pittsburg-based firm created the architectural plans for city redevelopment in communities from Cincinnati, Ohio to Winston-Salem, North Carolina to Riverside County, California. The book shares UDA's time-tested, 10-part "charrette process."

   The charrette brings together local residents, government officials, real estate developers and other stakeholders to guide the design process. Using the existing community's "best addresses" as an ideal, UDA produces a unique pattern book that describes preferred neighborhood building arrangements and architectural styles. The plans emphasize the area's natural features by making parks and public space an integral part of each project.

   UDA has one cardinal rule that guides these working sessions: "No matter how many encounters you may have with participants, the first time you meet people, you are asking questions, not giving answers." Judging from the work presented in this full-color manual, they are asking the right questions. Their designs are scaled for pedestrians and they incorporate building sites that can accommodate single-family homes, multi-family residences, civic buildings and commercial space.

   The book is stuffed with specifics--everything from consensus building tips to digital filing guidelines. Architects, engineers, planners and developers are the obvious target audience for this trade book. But, new urbanists and city enthusiasts everywhere will also enjoy it as an entertaining and instructive reference.




4. The Pittsburgh-based firm Urban Design Associates has been in practice for nearly 40 years, over the decades accumulating quite a lot of experience in urban design. This is UDA's in-house training manual, polished and augmented for public use. If you are starting out in the urban design field, or are just curious about the methods of a successful firm, this is a good place to begin your investigations.

   The first section introduces some basic principles and organizing concepts. Ideas like the "Urban X-Ray" and "Urban Assembly Kit" are easy to understand but at the same time provide a powerful means of evaluating locations and organizing the design process.

   The second section, taking up one-third of the book, is a case study of the design process from beginning to site plan. It's really the heart of the manual. This section takes you through information collection, analysis, charrettes, preliminary design, negotiation, and final presentation. UDA can be justifiably proud of their work here, as the site (a housing project in Winston-Salem) was extremely challenging, yet the final plan was quite good from a number of perspectives. You get some idea of the politics, persuasion and patience necessary when working with established residents, officials, engineers and developers.

   The following two sections cover pattern books and architecture. These sections are mostly about basic concepts and the firm's standardized methods, which can be dry reading. The information is sound, but presented in a rather generic way, and so is less engrossing than the earlier section. It will be of interest to students wanting to understand how one firm tackles contextual residential design.

   In the extensive appendices, the roots of the manual become more apparent. These cover everything from filing system notation to line weight (how to draw a block of houses). Mainly of interest to those wanting to compare office administration procedures, students, and new UDA employees.

   The Urban Design Manual delivers the goods in a concise format, focusing on UDA's methods rather than trying to encompass a variety of possible approaches. The illustrations are a treat to look at, and convey at least as much information as the text. The writing is clear and professional, yet also conversational and even a bit lighthearted. Mini "war story" vignettes in the margins bespeak the writers' understated humor. It is the first step-by-step manual of urban design (hopefully the first of many by various authors), and is valuable resource for students and practitioners.




5. Gindros and Company at UDA distilled the stuff they do every day (-designing buildings, neighborhoods and towns), into a manual for their own new hires. Then they expanded this information into a handbook for publication. The book presents an excellent framework for design work at several scales, from the individual building through the building blocks of great neighborhoods, the street, the block, the public spaces.

5 comments about Central Park, An American Masterpiece: A Comprehensive History of the Nation's First Urban Park.

1. Did you know that the elm lined mall leading to the Bethesda fountain and the view of the ramble are actually based on the layout of a church? Or that all of the lakes in Central Park are manmade. This and many other very interesting facts are interspersed with lovingly taken photographs of the park which were taken by the author of the book as well. Miller starts decribing how the park came to be and the leading ideas and ideals that lead to its creation by Olmsted and Vaux. She proceeds to describe systematically the various sections of the park providing historical information as well. She delves into the some of the controversies and compromises that Olmsted and Vaux encountered in the creation of one of the finest examples of 19th Century art but it is not a comprehensive history of the park. There is a 2 page map of the park at the of the book with a legend identifying each of the features discussed in the book. If you are first time visitor to the city wishing to explore the park in detail or a life long New Yorker this book will delight and surprise you.



2. As an avid fan of Central Park who has been exploring it and studying the books on it for decades, I was amazed at what there was still to learn about it from Miller's book. For example, other historians allude to a connection between Central Park's design and the Hudson River School of landscape art: Miller provides actual sources of the designer's inspiration and shows the results explicitly in the photos. And all in a way that is not at all "bookish" but instead makes you want to go right in and see for yourself the scenes she shows so well in the book's illustrations. The beautiful photos and fascinating stories and the well chosen historical prints all work together in such a compelling and entertaining way that one might never realize one is being educated by a superb textbook in the field of art.
   With her emphasis on the past of the park, and its present restored beauty, it is understandable that the author does not use very much of the book's valuable space on the remaining present-day problems, but she might at least have alluded to the incongruity of the city's insistence on using this artistic matepiece as a through route for motor traffic during the majority of daylight weekday hours. In effect, the city's Dept. of Traffic is providing a refuge from the chaos of the surrounding streets during rush hours - but for the cars, not for the people. If you want to appreciate the park shown in this book, go during the times when the traffic noise does not drown out the wind in the trees, the birdsong, and the happy voices of children!



3. Central Park is breath taking and this book does a fine job of giving the reader a feel for what makes this 850 acre masterpiece so special. The book is quite thorough and does an commendable job of disecting various sections of the park. The color photos are vivid and well thought out and the text is highly informative. The author has a real love for the park and it comes out in her writing. If you have never visited Central Park or have visited and fell in love with it like so many others, you will love this book. This oasis really is the heart of New York City and to understand New York you have to understand the parks history and its vast importantance to the city. Central Parks importance to New York and New Yorkers cannot be overstated, I can't imagine the city without it.



4. Commemorating the 150th anniversary of Central Park, photographer and historian Sara Cedar Miller celebrates the aesthetic, cultural and historic significance of America's first public park with the book "Central Park, An American Masterpiece." This is the park's definitive illustrated history, and offers some of the most gorgeous photographs I have seen on the subject - a difficult task given the number of pictures that have been drawn, painted and photographed of the Manhattan landmark. The book includes over 200 color illustrations, original plans and drawings alongside modern photos, giving the viewer/reader an historical perspective.

   Accompanying Ms. Miller's work, portraying the park throughout the seasons, is a well written text which highlights the conception and creation of the park and its art and architecture. This is a big, beautiful picture book that would make a wonderful addition to any home or library. It's a wonderful gift idea. I know as I have given it numerous times.

   Ms. Miller is the parks official historian and photographer and has been since the mid-1980s.
   JANA




5. Sara Miller has put together an outstanding book: a book as vast and detailed as the Great Park itself. For those not familiar with the park and its history, this is an invaluable introduction to the political, demographical, economic and, especially, aesthetic thinking that went into the creation of 800 acres of gorgeous park space in the middle of Manhattan. For those seasoned veterans of NYC history, this is a welcome reminder of the enormous vision and efforts of Calvert Vaux and Fredrick Law Olmsted, as they conceived the park.

   Nota Bene: A lot of books have gorgeous photos but the print job is miserable ... Others have high-qualtity prints but the photos aren't that interesting ... This book has glorious prints and an expert print job. Pick up this book.

   Rocco Dormarunno, author of The Five Points and The Five Points Concluded