Crowding, Social Withdrawal, and Landscape Architecture Perhaps because "health, safety, and welfare benefits" of Landscape Architecture being argued vehemently in states where the licensure of Landscape Architects is threatened (or being bolstered for proactive reasons), a provocative press release from the American Psychological Association prompted an LASN writer to request the full text of scholarly conclusions on "The Role of Interior Design Elements in Human Responses to Crowding" (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, V. 70, No. 1, pp. 41-46). Except for the oblique term "architectural depth," (which seemed to mean "how many living spaces separated one room from another"), psychologists Evans, Lepore and Schroeder barely mention landscape influences as a potential topics of "further exploration" in their documentation of people's social avoidance and withdrawal behaviors in crowded circumstances: "Sound attenuation, visual access and exposure, window views, and proximity to open spaces are some potential interior design elements warranting further exploration," say the researchers, adding, "External design features such as functional distance to adjacent dwelling units and characteristics of defensible space (e.g., building height and size, well-bounded spaces, and semiprivate small-group interaction spaces) and land use mix may also prove fruitful in influencing human responses to crowded residential conditions." With regard to psychological coping as a response to adverse environmental conditions, the researchers claim that "little scholarly analysis has examined how people utilized design elements to cope with suboptimal living conditions." But LASN's readers have so much information on how design elements achieve "psychological relief" (so much has been crammed into that term "psychological relief" when Landscape Architects discuss the benefits of landscape design) that LASN staff would like to consider an article on the "Health, Safety, and Welfare Benefits of Landscape Planning and Design." We welcome your original contributions, news clippings, recommendations of articles, and other bibliographic references that might prove useful in developing such an article. Please send to: LASN Editor, 1560 Brookhollow Dr., Suite 222, Santa Ana, CA 92705, Re: Health, Safety, and Welfare of Landscape Architecture.