LASN Book Review:
Revival of an Oldie but Goodie

Landscape Planning, Fifth Edition
Barry Starke, FASLA / John Ormsbee Simonds, FASLA
Hardbound, $99, 409 pages, 400+ color images

Landscape architects and students of landscape architecture know this book, at least one of its editions. It was first published in 1961; the second edition did not follow until 1983, with subsequent editions appearing with more frequency thereafter: 3rd edition (1998); 4th (2006); and now the 5th (2013).

This 5th edition is the first to be published without John Ormsbee Simonds' direct input. John, who passed away in May 2005, is recognized as one of the twentieth century's most important landscape architects and environmental planners. John invited Barry Starke to work with him as coauthor for the 4th edition. Barry continues that legacy with the 5th edition.

Barry Stark, FASLA, a graduate in landscape architecture from Berkeley (1967), co-founded Earth Design Associates in 1974, of which he is still president. He was also president of ASLA in 1999 during the association's centennial year. In 2003 he received the Virginia ASLA chapter's inaugural M. Meade Palmer Medal for outstanding contributions to landscape architecture. The fourth edition of Landscape Architecture received the 2010 Honor Award in Communications from the Virginia ASLA.

With its wide variety of topics and up-to-date coverage, Landscape Planning Fifth Edition focuses on environmental problems associated with land planning, landscape design and land use. New coverage is included on adaptive planning as an approach necessary to build a sustainable landscape. Greater emphasis is placed on systems and updated case studies are integrated throughout the chapters. This edition also arms students with a collection of best management practices, which can be applied in the field.

In the foreword material is a parable ("The Hunter and the Philosopher") that speaks volumes. A former prairie hunter explains to a lad how gophers ("smart little outfits") plan their homes and communities. After the hunter finishes his story, the earnest boy exclaims, "When gophers plan their homes and towns, they seem to do it better than people do."

The story of course illustrates that man, despite all his brain power and tools, continues to wreak havoc on nature, and that it is the role of landscape architects and other planners and environmentalists to be the wise guides to the development of spaces and resources; to keep profiteers and less thoughtful humans from plundering our forests, defoliating hillsides with strip mining, fouling the rivers, polluting the air and creating urban sprawl and cluttered roadside "development."

The book covers the gamut of the concerns of landscape architects: human habitat; climate; water; land; vegetation; the visual landscape; the planned environment; community/growth planning; the regional landscape; urban design; site planning; site space; circulation; structures; landscape planting; and perspectives.

New areas covered are:
• Sustainability
• Climate change and global warming
• Water preservation and water rights
• Land reuse and brownfield redevelopment
• GIS mapping
• Invasive species
• Urban agriculture and urban forestry
• Stormwater management
• Low-impact design
• Complete streets
• New Urbanism, Smart Growth, and Traditional Neighborhood Development

If you have this volume in your library, you'll want to get this latest update; if you're new to landscape architecture, you'll want to make this comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of landscape architecture a treasured friend.