Pioneers of American Landscape Design
Edited by Charles A. Birnbaum and Robin Karson
McGraw-Hill
| ISBN: 978-0-07134-420-3 | 512 pages | 7.25 x 9.25 inches |
| $59.95 | Cloth | Published: 05/23/2000 |
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Pioneers of American Landscape Design is the first reference book of its kind. The encyclopedic survey presents engaging biographies of more than 160 prominent landscape architects, horticulturists, planners, and engineers who shaped cities, suburbs, parks and gardens across the United States. With 450 plans and photographs, Pioneers is providing valuable new information to landscape architects, historians, students, and preservationists working to secure National Register nominations, as well as general readers interested in American landscape design.
This survey ranges from the eighteenth century to the modern period. It includes profiles of such well-known figures as Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Law Olmsted, Beatrix Farrand, and James Rose, as well as lesser-known designers, including many women landscape architects. Each entry weaves together details of the practitioner’s life and professional career and includes illustrations of major projects, followed by a brief bibliography. A list of sites where practitioners’ works may be visited is also included.
Contributors skillfully discuss various design concepts as well as more general, pragmatic realities of preservation. Pioneers is an excellent resource for the growing movement to preserve historic landscapes.
“Pioneers will quickly become an indispensable resource for anyone working in the field.”
“Charles Birnbaum and Robin Karson have, with Pioneers of American Landscape Design, made an incalculable contribution to America’s heritage, landscape architectural history, and the depth and diversity of the roots from which landscape architects draw their identity and pride.“
2001 American Society of Landscape Architects Merit Award
About the Authors
Charles A. Birnbaum
Charles A. Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR, is the founder and president of The Cultural Landscape Foundation. He has edited or contributed to several other publications, including The Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural Landscapes, Shaping the American Landscape, Design with Culture: Claiming America’s Landscape Heritage, Preserving Modern Landscape Architecture, and its follow-up publication, Making Post-War Landscapes Visible.
Robin Karson
Robin Karson, Hon. ASLA, is the founder and executive director of LALH and the author of more than one hundred articles and several books on American landscape history, including (as coeditor) Warren H. Manning, Landscape Architect and Environmental Planner; A Genius for Place: American Landscapes of the Country Place Era; Fletcher Steele, Landscape Architect; The Muses of Gwinn, and the new introduction to the LALH revised edition of Fletcher Steele’s Design in the Little Garden. Her work has been recognized with awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Foundation for Landscape Studies, the American Horticultural Society, and the Institute for Classical Architecture and Art. In addition, she has organized several touring exhibitions for LALH on topics relating to American landscape history. In 2004, Karson was named a distinguished member of the Honor Society of Sigma Lambda Alpha for her “continued high-quality contribution to the scholarship of landscape architecture and the literature of landscape architecture history.” In 2017, she was made an honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects.