Landscape for Living

More than half a century after it was first published, Garrett Eckbo's classic design treatise has been reissued.

This desirable book by Garrett Eckbo was first published in 1950 and was long out of print but is now available again for $35.00. Educated at Harvard and UC Berkeley, Eckbo created garden and landscape designs that were instrumental in establishing the new modernist spirit that infused California architecture and design during and after WWII. This book is a survey of Eckbo's work, both civic and private, and a fascinating overview of the history and practice of landscape design. The book includes his collaborations with A. Quincy Jones and Gregory Ain.

The following description is from the Design Within Reach newsletter.

"One truly exceptional book will open readers' eyes to the potential of landscape design to transcend its provincial roots: Eckbo's 1950 Landscape for Living, from Hennessey & Ingalls (also available through Powell's). This book is one of the best treatises on the philosophy of modern design in general. It speaks to urban rooftop gardeners and urban park dwellers as much as it does to those of us with yards, beginning with definitions that clarify the differences between such concepts as landscaping, gardening and landscape architecture. The book is full of provocative quotations by Le Corbusier, Walter Dorwin Teague, Frank Lloyd Wright, L????szl?? Moholy-Nagy and others. Eckbo gives historical background that clarifies Eastern and Western traditions, and explores the relationship between plant nature and human nature, explaining the value of color and texture in landscape design and examining site planning on all scales. "The objective of this book is to point a way out of the swamp of eclecticism and sentimentality in which the leaders of architecture and horticulture have left us," writes Eckbo in the third chapter. On a less critical level, the book simply declares that landscape design is about the "arrangement of environments for people."