A rich portrait of a major figure in American art & architecture & his role in shaping American cultural identity.

A generous selection of illustrations, together with a list of surviving landscape sites accessible to the public, brings both the subjects and their art to life.

A rich portrait of a major figure in American art & architecture & his role in shaping American cultural identity.

This well-illustrated volume presents for the first time a fascinating and comprehensive view of the cultural evolution of the American landscape. Written by a team of leading scholars, the essays examine key historical forces in the settlement and human shaping of the land over the past 10,000 years, with an emphasis on the past three centuries. Through carefully chosen illustration, the book shows the reader how to "read" in today's landscape the record of this transformation. The major historical forces that shaped the American cultural landscape are viewed from the varied perspective of ethnic and cultural movements, environmetnal challenge and response, and urbanization. The contributors discuss a rich selection of themes including: the diverse influence of colonial powers on early settlement; the emergence of regional types of landscape; the impact of ideology on landscape; and the contributions of technological change to landscape development.

The Routledge Companion to the American Landscape provides a comprehensive overview of the American landscape in a way fit for the twenty-first century, not only in its topical and regional scope but also in its methodological and disciplinary diversity. Critically surveying the contemporary scholarship on the American landscape, this companion brings together scholars from the social sciences and humanities who focus their work on understanding the polyphonic evolution of the United States’ landscape. It simultaneously assesses the development of the US landscape as well as the scholarly thought that has driven innovation and continued research about that landscape. Four broad sections focus on key areas of scholarship: environmental landscapes, social, cultural, and popular identities in the landscape, political landscapes, and urban/economic landscapes. A special essay, "American Landscapes Under Siege" and accompanying short case studies call attention to the legacies and realities of race in the American landscape, bridging the discussion of social and political landscapes. This companion offers an invaluable and up-to-date guide for scholars and graduate students to current thinking across the range of disciplines which converge in the study of place, including Geography, Cultural Studies, and History as well as the interdisciplinary fields of American Studies, Environmental Studies, and Planning.

While many fields struggle to specify feminine contributions, the work of women has always played a fundamental role in American landscape architecture. Women claim responsibility for many landscape types now taken for granted, including community gardens, playgrounds, and streetscapes. This collection of essays by leaders in the discipline addresses the ways that gender has influenced the history, design practice and perception of landscapes. It highlights women's relation to landscape architecture, presents the professional efforts of women in the landscape realm, examines both the perception and experience of landscapes by women, and speculates on ways to re-imagine gender and the landscape.

The author, an English architect, tells how buildings, gas stations, and parking lots can be brought into a pleasing pattern, with many specific references to American cities.