Everyone who hasn't experienced the High Line wants to ... and there's not a designer I know who wouldn't love to read the amazing story by the two guys who made it happen, in The High Line: The Inside Story of New York City's Park in the Sky (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Joshua David and Robert Hammond -- with no experience in design or architecture -- came up with the idea of building a park on the old elevated railroad freight line on Manhattan's west side. It took them more than a decade, but the once dilapidated and weedy site now abounds with trees and shrubs, wildflowers and ornamental grasses, along with overlooks, benches, and public gathering spaces. You couldn't find a more inspiring read for gardeners and designers during the dreary days of winter.
Sustainability is all the rage in gardening these days, and it's certainly one of the top design watchwords for the rest of the century. In Tomorrow's Garden: Design and Inspiration for a New Age of Sustainable Gardening
(Rodale), Stephen Orr, the gardening editor at Martha Stewart Living, takes you through 14 gardens across the country designed and installed with sustainability in mind. You'll discover that you, too, can have a beautiful garden while husbanding resources, saving water, and doing your part for the environment.
Anyone who's a serious gardener -- not to mention those of us who are designers -- needs to have a basic understanding of botany. You needn't look any further than Botany for Designers: A Practical Guide for Landscape Architects and Other Professionals
(W.W. Norton & Company) by landscape architect Kimberly Duffy Turner. It includes everything you need to know for plant ID and cultivation, but the entire volume is written from a landscape design perspective. It belongs in the library of every designer. My complete review is here.
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Posted by: elliptical reviews | December 12, 2011 at 05:45 AM