Join our mailing list and receive our electronic news updates with information and stories about our organization and the landscape architecture community.
Subscribe NowHELP LALH PUBLISH A BOOK ABOUT THE LANDSCAPE DESIGNS OF DAVID KAMP!
Please help us raise $35,000 to publish a new book by the renowned landscape architect David Kamp, FASLA. Kamp’s international career has been guided by a commitment to designing landscapes that promote the health and well-being of individuals and communities. Kamp’s firm, Dirtworks Landscape Architecture, is based on the philosophy that dirt works: nature can […]
VIEW Mails This Fall!
VIEW 2020 features articles about the designed meadows surrounding a mid-century house in Connecticut, teaching landscapes in Ann Arbor, Poughkeepsie, and Santa Barbara, and images of wild passages in NYC’s Central Park by acclaimed photographer Sara Cedar Miller. If you are not a member of LALH or your membership has lapsed, join now to receive […]
NEW RELEASE: Robert Royston
LALH and the University of Georgia Press are pleased to announce the publication of Robert Royston by Reuben M. Rainey and JC Miller, the fourth volume in the Masters of Modern Landscape Design series. The first biography of the landscape architect Robert Royston (1918-2008) documents the life and work of a designer and teacher who […]
NEW RELEASE: The Greatest Beach: A History of Cape Cod National Seashore
LALH and the University of Georgia Press are pleased to announce the publication of The Greatest Beach: A History of Cape Cod National Seashore by Ethan Carr. In the mid-nineteenth century, Thoreau recognized the importance of preserving the complex and fragile landscape of Cape Cod, with its weathered windmills, expansive beaches, dunes, wetlands, and harbors, […]
NEW RELEASE: Hare & Hare, Landscape Architects and City Planners
LALH and the University of Georgia Press are pleased to announce the publication of Hare & Hare, Landscape Architects and City Planners by Carol Grove and Cydney Millstein. When Sidney J. Hare (1860–1938) and S. Herbert Hare (1888–1960) launched their Kansas City firm in 1910, they founded what would become the most influential landscape architecture […]
LALH AT MODERNISM WEEK IN PALM SPRINGS, FEBRUARY 13-23, 2020
Four LALH Authors Featured in MW Landscape + Outdoor Living Program The American Garden at Midcentury In the 1930s, American landscape architects began experimenting with designs that would give their clients easy access to outdoor spaces where they could relax and socialize informally. Especially in California, these designs served as extensions of interior spaces. LALH […]
LALH AUTHORS FEATURED AT MODERNISM WEEK, FEBRUARY 14-24, PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA
Jane Amidon, author of the forthcoming Masters of Modern Landscape Design series volume on Dan Kiley, and Kenneth Helphand, author of Lawrence Halprin, the third volume in the series, will give presentations based on their books during Modernism Week 2019. Kelly Comras, author of Ruth Shellhorn, will focus on the landscape architect’s work at Disneyland […]
LAWRENCE HALPRIN WINS AWARD
ASLA’s Oregon Chapter presented an Award of Excellence to Kenneth Helphand, FASLA, for Lawrence Halprin (LALH 2017), the third book in the LALH Masters of Modern Landscape Design series. Read more about the book. […]
CAPE COD FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN SUCCESSFUL!
Generous supporters have donated $25,000 to publish The Greatest Beach: A History of Cape Cod National Seashore by Ethan Carr. Thank you, LALH donors! Read more about the forthcoming book. […]
THE BEST PLANNED CITY, NOW IN PAPERBACK!
LALH and the University of Massachusetts Press announce the release of the new, paperback edition of The Best Planned City in the World: Olmsted, Vaux, and the Buffalo Park System by Francis R. Kowsky, a volume in the LALH series Designing the American Park. Order your copy! […]
JOIN THE CAMPAIGN TO PUBLISH A GROUNDBREAKING BOOK ABOUT CAPE COD NATIONAL SEASHORE
In The Greatest Beach: A History of the Cape Cod National Seashore, award-winning historian Ethan Carr tells the story of how a new model for landscape stewardship on Cape Cod transformed the course of land conservation in America. Please help us raise $25,000 by donating today […]
JAMES ROSE EXHIBITION OPENS
James Rose: The Mid-Century Experience, an exhibition based on the LALH book, is on display at the Circle Gallery, College of Environmental Design, University of Georgia, until April 27. […]
LALH BOOKS WIN PRIZES
The Foundation for Landscape Studies has awarded the J. B. Jackson Book Prize to James Rose by Dean Cardasis and Lawrence Halprin by Kenneth Helphand, the second and third volumes of the Masters of Modern Landscape Design series, and to Warren H. Manning, Landscape Architect and Environmental Planner, edited by Robin Karson, Jane Roy Brown, and Sarah Allaback. Warren H. Manning has […]
LALH DONATES LOCKWOOD DE FOREST FAMILY PAPERS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA
Thanks to generous LALH supporters, funds were raised to purchase the family papers of Lockwood and Elizabeth de Forest. The archive was recently donated to the Architecture and Design Archives at University of California Santa Barbara, significantly expanding the collection. “Thanks to the Library of American Landscape History and their successful fundraising campaign, scholars […]
ORDER LALH BOOKS FROM OUR FALL/WINTER 2017 ONLINE CATALOG!
The new catalog features forthcoming LALH titles as well as our backlist, with news of recent awards. Download the catalog from our website: https://lalh.org/books/ […]
ROBIN KARSON AWARDED HONORARY MEMBERSHIP IN ASLA
The American Society of Landscape Architects has recognized LALH founder and executive director Robin Karson with one of the highest honors the organization awards to those in allied professions. Through her founding of LALH, the nation’s only nonprofit dedicated to the publication of books on landscape architecture, and her own foundational scholarship, Karson has literally […]
NEW RELEASE: LAWRENCE HALPRIN
LALH and the University of Georgia Press are pleased to announce the publication of Lawrence Halprin by Kenneth I. Helphand, the third volume in the Masters of Modern Landscape Design series. During a career spanning six decades, Lawrence Halprin (1916–2009) became one of the most prolific and outspoken landscape architects of his generation. He took on challenging […]
DE FOREST ARCHIVE FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN SUCCESSFUL!
Thanks to generous donors, we’ve reached our goal of raising $25,000 to expand the Lockwood de Forest Archive and assure its permanent preservation as part of the Architecture and Design Collection at the University of California, Santa Barbara. If you would like to add your support to a kindred project, please consider donating to our […]
LEGACY HERO: ELIZABETH BARLOW ROGERS
LALH honors Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, our inaugural Legacy Hero Award recipient, for contributions to cultural landscape studies and preservation practice that have influenced scholarship internationally and catalyzed the restoration of hundreds of iconic landscapes worldwide. As an author, park administrator, founder and president of the Foundation for Landscape Studies, and longtime LALH board member, Betsy […]
HELP US SAFEGUARD THE LOCKWOOD DE FOREST JR. ARCHIVE
LALH is turning to its members and friends for help in raising $25,000 to purchase the de Forest family archive, which we will then donate to the Architecture and Design Collection at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Comprehensive archives such as those at UCSB play a key role in the scholarship that supports LALH […]
PRESERVATION HEROES: BETTY AND ROBERT BALENTINE
LALH honors Betty and Robert Balentine, our 2017 Preservation Heroes, for their steadfast, generous philanthropic and intellectual commitment to excellence in landscape stewardship, design, and horticultural research. In 2002, the Balentines established the Southern Highlands Reserve at Lake Toxaway, North Carolina, with a mission of sustaining a rare ecosystem. Today a twenty-acre garden is surrounded […]
LANDSCAPES OF EXCLUSION WINS AWARD OF MERIT
Landscapes of Exclusion: State Parks and Jim Crow in the American South by William E. O’Brien has received an Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History. The AASLH Leadership in History Awards, now in its 72nd year, is the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of […]
ORDER LALH BOOKS FROM OUR SPRING/SUMMER 2017 ONLINE CATALOG
The new catalog features forthcoming LALH titles as well as our backlist, with news of recent awards. Download the catalog from our website. […]
VIEW: 25TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE
VIEW 2017 will arrive in the mailboxes of LALH members this summer. This special twenty-fifth anniversary issue includes articles on the garden designs of Warren H. Manning and the contemporary practitioner Laurie Olin, Betty and Robert Balentine and the Southern Highlands Reserve, Preservation Legacy honoree Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, the impact of LALH books on beloved […]
TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF LALH
Since 1992, LALH has carried out its mission of educating the public and motivating stewardship of significant places. Thank you to our members and to the many organizations that have supported us over the last twenty-five years. Thank you for helping us become the leading publisher of books that advance the study and practice of […]
JOHN NOLEN, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT AND CITY PLANNER GETS RAVE REVIEW
“Stephenson offers a richly developed biographical portrait of Nolen interwoven with a detailed discussion of his numerous planning projects. . . . The epilogue nicely ties Nolen’s work to current trends in the practice of city planning. The numerous color photographs make the book a visual delight and the excellent index makes referencing the book […]
FLETCHER STEELE ARCHIVE ONLINE RESOURCES AVAILABLE
Jane Verostek, who oversees the Fletcher Steele Archives at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, recently completed an online finding aid for the collection. In addition to an inventory of the Moon Library’s extensive holdings, researchers will find a timeline of Steele’s life, digital photographs, and links to other archival sources. http://libguides.esf.edu/steele For […]
LANDSCAPES OF EXCLUSION WINS PRESTIGIOUS J. B. JACKSON AWARD
The Foundation for Landscape Studies has awarded the John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize to Landscapes of Exclusion: State Parks and Jim Crow in the American South by William E. O’Brien! “O’Brien has completed a remarkable work of scholarship in landscape history that makes it possible for us, finally, to understand this formerly obscured, but clearly […]
NEW RELEASE: JAMES ROSE
LALH and the University of Georgia Press are pleased to announce the publication of James Rose by Dean Cardasis, the second volume in the Masters of Modern Landscape Design series. “This is the book that the history of a half century of American landscape architecture is missing. We all owe a great debt to Dean […]
WORMSLOE PLANTATION NAMED ONE OF “THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACES IN ALL 50 STATES”
House Beautiful recently named Wormsloe Plantation, the ancestral home of LALH Preservation Hero Craig Barrow III, to its 2016 list of most beautiful places. Two years ago, LALH featured Wormsloe in a VIEWarticle honoring Barrow, who is also co-founder of the Wormsloe Institute for Environmental History. The historic plantation on the Isle of Hope near […]
RUTH SHELLHORN: MIDCENTURY LANDSCAPE DESIGN IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WINS BEST FILM AWARD AT THE MODESTO ARCHITECTURE FESTIVAL
The short documentary, based on the book by Kelly Comras and produced by LALH in association with Florentine Films/Hott Productions, won top honors at the 9th Annual Modesto Architecture Festival. […]
RUTH SHELLHORN WINS AWARD
ASLA’s Southern California Chapter presented an honor award to Kelly Comras for Ruth Shellhorn (LALH 2016), the lead book in the LALH Masters of Modern Landscape Design series. The award ceremony was held at the Disney Grand California Hotel, near Disneyland, one of Shellhorn’s major landscape design projects. […]
FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN SUCCESSFUL.… LALH TO PUBLISH A NEW SHIPMAN EDITION
In early September, LALH asked members to help fund a new edition of The Gardens of Ellen Biddle Shipman, one of our first books. Thanks to dozens of generous donors, we reached our goal of $15,000! The new edition will feature an expansive new design, many previously undocumented gardens, and new color photographs. Sure to […]
ORDER LALH BOOKS FROM OUR FALL/WINTER 2016–2017 ONLINE CATALOG
The new catalog features forthcoming LALH titles as well as our backlist, with news of recent awards. Download the catalog from our website: https://lalh.org/books/ […]
HELP US PUBLISH A NEW BOOK!
HELP US PUBLISH A NEW BOOK! A New Edition of The Gardens of Ellen Biddle Shipman The revised edition of the 1997 classic work by Judith B. Tankard will cover newly discovered gardens, in a larger format with an expansive new design, illustrated with new color photographs. Read more. . . . Donations above $100 will […]
NEW NATURE ARTICLE: “GENIUSES OF PLACE”
LALH vice-president Ethan Carr celebrates the three hundredth anniversary of Capability Brown’s birth and the centenary of the National Park Service (with help from Frederick Law Olmsted) in an article exploring “the complex and evolving cultural construction of ‘nature,’ its representations, its manifestations and its benefits.” Read More […]
NEW EXHIBITION: “THE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE OF HARE & HARE”
The father-and-son team of Sidney J. and S. Herbert Hare planned dozens of parks, residential grounds, and cities throughout the Midwest and beyond. A new exhibition at Ellis Library, University of Missouri, organized by LALH author Carol Grove, celebrates the significance of the Kansas-city based firm with material from the manuscript collection of the State […]
SHIPMANIA!
When The Gardens of Ellen Biddle Shipman appeared in 1997, practically no one had heard of the Cornish-based garden designer, but soon “Shipmania” seized the landscape history world. Marveling at the impossibly lush flower borders of this self-taught practitioner–who was also a divorced mother of three–new audiences bought the book in droves. Long out of […]
PRESERVATION HEROES: JEAN AND W. SCOTT PETERSON
When Jean and W. Scott Peterson purchased Tranquillity Farm in the 1980s, they understood that the Middlebury, Connecticut, property would be a challenge to steward, yet they appreciated the singular beauty of their twenty-five acres and all that it could become. Since then they have restored the ornamental farm’s rich cultural legacy, which includes designs […]
VIEW 2016 MAILS IN JUNE
VIEW 2016 will arrive in the mailboxes of LALH members early this summer. This issue features articles on Ruth Shellhorn’s legacy, the Los Angeles landscape architecture firm Mia Lehrer + Associates, the James Rose Center, Warren Manning’s environmental design methods, A J. Downing’s enduring influence, and many other subjects. If you’re not a member, join […]
NEW LALH ADVISERS
LALH is honored to have Robert E. Grese and Francis R. Kowsky join us as advisers. A professor of landscape architecture at the University of Michigan and director of the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum, Bob is the author of The Native Landscape Reader (LALH 2011) and the biographer of Jens Jensen. Frank Kowsky, SUNY Distinguished […]
NOW SHOWING: RUTH SHELLHORN: MIDCENTURY LANDSCAPE DESIGN IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
The latest LALH film, Ruth Shellhorn, is now available online! Based on the scholarship from Kelly Comras’s book, the new film tells the story of the modernist landscape architect Ruth Shellhorn and her contribution to the “Southern California experience.” Like other films in the North America by Design series, Ruth Shellhorn was produced by LALH […]
NEW RELEASE: RUTH SHELLHORN
LALH and the University of Georgia Press are pleased to announce the publication of Kelly Comras’s Ruth Shellhorn, the first volume in the Masters of Modern Landscape Design series. “Kelly Comras’s book on Ruth Shellhorn will, at long last, put her in proper perspective as an important pioneer in landscape design and planning in California. […]
SHELLHORN: SNEAK PREVIEW
From the Library of American Landscape History and UGA Press Take an early look at the forthcoming book and documentary film on modernist landscape architect Ruth Shellhorn. To preview the book: About the book: Available April 1, 2016 Ruth Shellhorn by Kelly Comras This is the first book to examine the work of this modernist […]
LALH BOOK WINS J.B. JACKSON PRIZE
The Foundation for Landscape Studies has awarded the John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize to John Nolen, Landscape Architect and City Planner by R. Bruce Stephenson. […]
JOHN NOLEN’S ADVICE OFFERED TO ORLANDO PLANNERS
Planners Could Use Highway Makeover to Design a More Humane Orlando Op-ed, Next City January 19, 2016 The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is overseeing “I-4 Ultimate,” a $2.1 billion “makeover” of a 21-mile stretch of a busy freeway that runs through downtown Orlando. The agency claims adding lanes and re-engineering interchanges will improve the economy while […]
HAPPPY SOLSTICE 2015
Dear Friends of LALH, On this, the shortest day of the year, I wanted to share a photo taken last December, just as the winter sun was setting. I was in Madrid for an ICOMOS conference, meeting with representatives from Mexico, Italy, Japan, France, and other nations who had gathered to discuss heritage landscapes. How […]
NEW RELEASE! LANDSCAPES OF EXCLUSION: STATE PARKS AND JIM CROW IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH
LALH and the University of Massachusetts Press are pleased to announce the publication of William E. O’Brien’s Landscapes of Exclusion: State Parks and Jim Crow in the American South, a volume in the series Designing the American Park. “O’Brien has completed a remarkable work of scholarship in landscape history that makes it possible for us, […]
LALH BOOK FEATURED ON COVER OF UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA PRESS CATALOG!
Read about our forthcoming book on Ruth Shellhorn and the LALH Masters of Modern Landscape Design series. Download the UGA Press Catalog here. […]
FUNDRAISING SUCCESSFUL! RUTH SHELLHORN FILM WILL SCREEN NEXT SPRING!
In early September, LALH asked members and supporters to help fund a new LALH filmRuth Shellhorn: Midcentury Design in Southern California. Thanks to our generous donors, we reached our goal of $15,000! Next spring we will bring the story of Ruth Shellhorn to life with a twelve minute film documenting her nearly sixty-year career as a modernist […]
NEW: APOSTLE OF TASTE: ANDREW JACKSON DOWNING, 1815–1852
“The vast amount of visual evidence combines with the material and personal history of Downing to make Apostle of Taste a must for scholars of architectural and landscape history.” —Pennsylvania History In this compelling biography, issued with a new preface, David Schuyler explores the origins of the tastemaker’s ideas in English aesthetic theory and his efforts to adapt English […]
BEST PLANNED CITY IN THE WORLD GETS A RAVE REVIEW
“Buffalo seemed to have a future without limit as its residents looked westward. To the east, of course, it was doomed always to play second fiddle to its cross-state rival, New York. But Buffalo’s leaders, particularly in the business community, made the best of the situation by carefully studying some of the breakthroughs coming out […]
ORDER BOOKS FROM LALH 2015 FALL/WINTER CATALOG
The new LALH catalog features forthcoming titles Ruth Shellhorn, Warren H. Manning, Landscape Architect and Environmental Planner, and James Rose, as well as a complete backlist of all our books. Expand your library with reprints of the classic books that have shaped our understanding of the American landscape and its preservation. Download the catalog Read […]
HELP US MAKE A MOVIE!
HELP US MAKE A MOVIE! We have one month to raise $15,000. Ruth Shellhorn: Midcentury Landscape Design in Southern California The first film about the landscape architect Ruth Shellhorn (1909–2006), who brought a modernist aesthetic and ecological perspective to projects from the UC Riverside campus to Disneyland. Donations above $100 will be listed in the film credits. Please make your […]
“NATURE LED THE WAY”: THE LEGACY OF CITY PLANNER JOHN NOLEN
Almost everyone in Madison, Wisconsin has driven on John Nolen Drive—the boulevard that runs along Lake Monona—but few know much about the influential landscape architect and city planner from whom it takes its name. This April, the Library of American Landscape History published the first book-length biography of Nolen, written by R. Bruce Stephenson, a […]
PRESERVATION HERO: CHARLES E. BEVERIDGE
Charles E. Beveridge, Alexandria, Virginia (2015) Charles E. Beveridge has been studying and writing about Frederick Law Olmsted’s career for more than five decades—for thirty-five years as series editor of The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted. As a scholar and preservationist, Charlie is the most important individual explaining and defending the significance of Olmsted’s legacy […]
JUST RELEASED! JOHN NOLEN, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT AND CITY PLANNER
John Nolen, Landscape Architect and City Planner R. Bruce Stephenson Published by University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH “The long overdue and definitive biography of one of America’s most prominent and influential urbanists.”—Keith Morgan, coauthor of Community by Design:The Olmsted Office and the Development of Brookline, Massachusetts For more information, please visit LALH […]
2015 FILM AWARD FROM THE SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS/THE BEST PLANNED CITY IN THE WORLD: OLMSTED, VAUX AND THE BUFFALO PARK SYSTEM
“Large urban-scale projects with multiple parts are not easy to grasp in person or from static images,” writes the jury. “One of the things the jury found most admirable about The Best Planned City in the World: Olmsted, Vaux and the Buffalo Park System is its demonstration that it is possible to convey the essential points of […]
EASTERN DESIGN IN A WESTERN LANDSCAPE: OLMSTED, RICHARDSON, AND THE AMES MONUMENT
Few people come upon the Ames Monument by chance. Isolated on the high plains, between Laramie and Cheyenne in southeastern Wyoming, the sixty-foot-high pyramid sits on a windswept knoll, eight thousand feet above sea level. Although not far from Interstate 80 (the pyramid is just visible, when driving westward), it defines its own precinct, seemingly […]
OLMSTED AND SCENIC PRESERVATION
Frederick Law Olmsted is rightly remembered as the most accomplished landscape architect in U.S. history, the designer of great municipal parks and other landscapes. He also was a key figure in the nation’s most significant early examples of scenic preservation. These endeavors were not mutually exclusive, and in fact park design and scenic preservation were […]
NEW FILM UNDER WAY FROM LALH/HOTT PRODUCTIONS!
California modernist Ruth Shellhorn (1909–2006) was one of the region’s most prolific and talented practitioners. Establishing her practice during the Depression, Shellhorn is perhaps best remembered for her Bullock’s department stores that defined a new post-war shopping experience of luxury and leisure. In 1955 Shellhorn was hired to create a plan and plantings for Disneyland, […]
UPDATE: FUTURE OF HANNAH CARTER JAPANESE GARDEN UNRESOLVED
The Hannah Carter Japanese Garden, designed by Nagao Sakurai from 1959 to 1961, is among the most significant residential Japanese-style gardens of its era in the United States. The garden was named after the wife of Edward Carter, chairman of the regents of the University of California, who donated the garden to UCLA “in perpetuity” […]
CONCERN FOR THREATENED RUSSELL PAGE GARDEN GROWS
The Telegraph UK recently reported on the ongoing proposal by the Frick to demolish its viewing garden by renowned British designer Russell Page. Reporter Franky Kentish reminds readers that the risk of destruction to New York’s singular Russell Page garden is juxtaposed with an upcoming celebratory retrospective exhibition on the life and work of Page, […]
COMMUNITY BY DESIGN IS ONLINE!
The latest LALH film, Community by Design: The Olmsted Firm and the Development of Brookline, Massachusetts, is now available to view online. Based on the LALH book by Keith N. Morgan, Elizabeth Hope Cushing, and Roger G. Reed, Community by Design tells the story of the Olmsted firm’s move to “the richest town in the […]