No comments about The Continuing City: Urban Morphology in Western Civilization.

No comments about In the Sunlight: The Floral and Figurative Art of John Henry Twachtman.

2 comments about Design Your Natural Midwest Garden.

1. Patricia Hill is a professional landscape designer who specializes in designs featuring only native species. Her work has been featured in a variety of regional and national gardening and landscaping publications. She won 'Best of Show for an exhibit garden she designed for the 2000 Chicago Flower and Garden Show. In "Design Your Natural Midwest Garden", Patricia Hill draws upon her more than twenty-five years of experience and expertise to present both experts and non-specialist general readers alike with an easy-to-follow and beautifully illustrated instructional guide to gardening with native species. The results are gardens that are low-maintenance and good for the environment while simply lovely in appearance and perfect for upper Midwestern soils and climates. The designs are organized around Entrance Gardens; Patios and Terraces; Specialty Gardens (including the very popular Butterfly Garden); Borders; Hillsides; Woodlands; and Water Gardens. Of special note is the concluding chapter dedicated to planning a Prairie Garden. "Design Your Natural Midwest Garden" is enthusiastically recommended for personal, professional, academic, and community library Gardening & Landscaping instructional reference collections.



2. hard to find books about designing with natives. This combines with some non-natives but is a good reference if you want to design your landscape with natives plants.

No comments about Contemporary Garden Design.

No comments about Making Spaces: Contemporary German Landscape Architecture.

3 comments about The Art of the Maze.

1. I've been fascinated by mazes and labyrinths for many years and have built up a shelf-full of books on the subject. I snatched up The Art of the Maze as soon as I saw it on the display table of a local bookstore and now regard it as the best book in my collection.

   It's the result of a happy marriage between two unusual authors: Adrian Fisher, probably the leading authority and builder of mazes working today, and Georg Gerster, the world's best aerial photographer. The photographs of mazes are spectacular but what I most appreciate is the consistently elegant design and layout of the book. It's replete with handsome diagrams and drawings which brilliantly illustrate the principles of maze design.

   The text is also superb: thoughtful and truly interesting. Mr. Fisher provides deep and sometimes quirky insights into the history and aesthetics of mazes without ever becoming pedantic. His survey ranges from the mazes of antiquity to the latest innovations from around the world.

   The book is published in London and lists its price only in pounds; I suspect it would be very hard to find at most American bookstores. Thank goodness for Amazon!




2. 
   Despite the suggestion of its title, this is not a book dedicated solely to "the art of the maze" although a sizable portion is devoted to the designs of some of the world's most beautiful mazes. For those interested in mazes it is an excellent and informative book in many ways; however, it does have a few shortcomings.
   
   The greatest of these shortcomings is the layout. Dozens of lovely large color photographs fill THE ART OF THE MAZE, but their placement is problematic. They sometimes appear pages before or after their discussion in the text, which can lead to frustrated page flipping if the reader wishes to see a depiction of something as it is being described. The sidebars containing valuable information occur haphazardly throughout the book, often popping up dead center in the text making them more of an interruption than an enrichment.
   
   There is also added confusion due to the designation of labyrinths -- the maze's forerunner and ancestor -- as a type of maze. Early on the authors distinguish between a labyrinth, which has a single winding path to its center, and a maze, which has junctions and choices and is in essence a kind of puzzle to be solved. However, labyrinths and mazes are then treated as a single entity for the rest of the book. This can be aggravating for those readers who have studied labyrinths as a phenomenon unique from mazes.
   
   If the reader can get past these sticking points, THE ART OF THE MAZE is a valuable book. It provides an excellent history of labyrinths in its opening chapter "Origins and History." Particularly enjoyable is the lengthy treatment of "The Man in the Maze" labyrinth motif found in the Tohono O'otam and Pima tribes of Arizona. The authors give keen insight into the early uses of labyrinths among past cultures. They also present the fascinating theory that labyrinths may actually be symbolic representations of mazes, which would make the maze far older than previously believed.
   
   The second chapter "The Nature of Puzzlement" introduces the different types of mazes. It even tells how to solve the simplest maze design via the "hand-on-wall" method. A fair amount of history is included in this section as well.
   
   The third chapter "Mazes in the Landscape" is undoubtedly what gave the book its name. It showcases the most famous, most beautiful, and most elaborate mazes in the world as well as the best examples of mazes for each medium from hedges to turf to wood and metal to stained glass. The incredible Alice-In-Wonderland Maze at Merritown House in Dorset, the "imprint" foot mazes at Gloucestershire and Bicton Park, and England's oldest hedge maze at Hampton Court Palace are among those featured. This section contains fantastic, full color, aerial photographs. "Mazes in the Landscape" is also the best laid out chapter, and almost all of its graphics line up with the text.
   
   The fourth and final chapter "The Riddle of the Maze" is a wrap-up chapter on the maze's appeal, offering a few ideas as to why the maze has become a subject of renewed interest. Differing from the other sections, its focus is on the maze as an art form rather than a structure or pattern.
   
   A glossary opens this book following the Duke of Marlborough's introductory letter. Included at the end are a gazetteer of mazes around the world sorted by country, a short bibliography for further reading, and a thorough index. As for the book itself, it is well bound for a paperback.



3. As an architect interested in the design and construction of labyrinths, I have found this to be the most substantial of the resources available. This book deals with design history and theory and gives many expamples of labyrinths and their cousins, puzzle mazes. It explains the differences and the varieties in a compelling way and makes any reader want to run out and start building one.

1 comments about A Field Guide to Woody Landscape Plants of the Southeast.

1. As a student horticulturalist I have tried several different publications trying to find the best to aide me in my study of plant identification. The Woody Landscape Guide is the best I've yet to find. Excellently illustrated with full colour pictures and containing clear information on uses, planting suggestions, and cultivars for the southeast, this book is a definite companion for Michael Dirr's Manuel of Woody Landscape Plants and a must have for students.

No comments about Landscape in Sight: Looking at America.

2 comments about Landscape Plants: Their Identification, Culture, and Use.

1. As a Landscape Architect specializing in Residential Landscape Design in the Southeast, this is the first book I reference when creating a Planting Plan. I have had the first edition for almost ten years and still have not found a better reference for quick and accurate information when specifying plant materials. Although it may not have the extensive horticultural detail of Dirr's 'Woody Landscape Plants', it is very practical and easy to use, with excellent photographs of every plant referenced. This book is well organized and full of all the information necessary for choosing the right plant for the right location. Including zone, size, shape, growth rate, habit, exposure, maintenence, pests, and special comments. There are thousands of potential landscape plants to be used in the Southeast and this book does an excellent job of only including the most common and practical plants used in the industry. If your a big fan of natives, it does include most of the standard, easily available native plants but your not going to find 'Virginia Spiderwort' listed as an excellent perennial groundcover. This is a fantastic book and I would recommend it to both Landscape Professionals and Do-it-yourself gardeners.



2. I am in landscape design and this book is wonderful. I look through it when trying to find something different for a particular area or spot. Most landscapers make beds so they look perfect right from the very beginning. They do not take into account what size the plants will grow to. Quite a few of my customers are having me re-do beds because the plants got too big in a short amount of time and look over-bearing. I have referred to this book often to make sure the plant I think will do well won't be too big at maturity.

No comments about Morpho-Ecologies: Towards Heterogeneous Space In Architecture Design.