Most Popular Books by Ian L. McHarg

A concise, illuminating collection of essential essays from one of the pioneers of the field of landscape architecture.

This is a new paperback version of a text, originally published in 1969, that outlined the principles of urban design from an environmental perspective. It should benefit architects, urban and regional planners, and environmentalists

Ian L. McHarg''s landmark book Design with Nature changed the face of landscape architecture and planning by promoting the idea that the design of human settlements should be based on ecological principles. McHarg was one of the earliest and most influential proponents of the notion that an understanding of the processes that form landscapes should underlie design decisions. In To Heal the Earth, McHarg has joined with Frederick Steiner, a noted scholar of landscape architecture and planning, to bring forth a valuable cache of his writings produced between the 1950s and the 1990s. McHarg and Steiner have each provided original material that links the writings together, and places them within the historical context of planning design work and within the larger field of ecological planning as practiced today. The book moves from the theoretical-beginning with the 1962 essay "Man and Environment" which sets forth the themes of religion, science, and creativity that emerge and reappear throughout McHarg''s work--to the practical, including discussions of methods and techniques for ecological planning as well as case studies. Other sections address the link between ecology and design, and the issue of ecological planning at a regional scale, covering topics such as education and training necessary to develop the field of ecological planning, how to organize and arrange biophysical information to reveal landscape patterns, the importance of incorporating social factors into ecological planning, and more. To Heal the Earth provides a larger framework and a new perspective on McHarg''s work that brings to light the growth and development of his key ideas over a forty year period. It is an important contribution to the literature, and will be essential reading for students and scholars of ecological planning, as well as for professional planners and landscape architects.

"Show me any civilization that believes that reality exists only because man can perceive it, that the cosmos was erected to support man on its pinnacle, that man is exclusively divine, and then I will predict the nature of his cities and its landscapes, the hot dog stands, the neon shill, the ticky-tacky houses, the sterile core, the mined and ravaged countryside. This is the image of anthropocentric man. He seeks not unity with nature but conquest, yet unity he finds, when his arrogance and ignorance are stilled and he lies dead under the greensward." Ian L. McHarg Multiply and Subdue the Earth, 1969 "No living American has done more to usher the gentle science of ecology out of oblivion and into mainstream thought than Ian McHarg—a teacher, philosopher, designer, and activist who changed the way we view and shape our environment." From the foreword by Stewart L. Udall Published in cooperation with the Center for American Places, Harrisonburg, Virginia A Quest for Life is the autobiography of a man who stands alongside Rachel Carson, Lewis Mumford, and Aldo Leopold as one of the giants of the environmental movement. In a robust and singular voice, Ian McHarg recounts the story of a life that has foreshadowed and eventually shaped environmental consciousness in the twentieth century. Along the way we meet prominent figures in the environmental movement, the design fields, and the government, from Walter Gropius to Lady Bird Johnson, all presented in rich and telling anecdotes. Early in A Quest for Life McHarg presents us with an arresting image. Describing the view from his boyhood home on the outskirts of Glasgow, he tells us that in one direction he could see the industrial miasma of smokestacks, tenements, and treeless streets, and, in another, the glories of the Scottish countryside. "I was born and bred," he writes, "on a fulcrum with two poles, city and countryside." Confronted with such a stark contrast, the man who was to become "the founder of ecological planning" began at an early age to turn literally from inhumane urban development and toward the beauty and power of Nature. Each chapter of this book illuminates key stages in McHarg''s life and in the evolution of his environmental awareness. We see him as a youth standing on a hillside beside the impressive Donald Wintersgill who, with the wave of his cane, lays out an entire village complete with lakes and forests, and thus introduces the astonished McHarg to the profession of landscape architecture. In some of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War he witnesses the magnitude of human destructive capability. Later, when he faces a crisis of conscience over his religious training and its exhortation to gain dominion over life and subdue the earth, he begins to develop a deep spiritual appreciation for the sanctity of Nature itself. His training as a designer and planner in the Modernist Bauhaus tradition, with its neglect of the environment; his bouts with tuberculosis that showed him the link between public health and city planning; his famous "Man—The Planetary Disease" speech before powerful industrialists—all stand as emblematic of battles that are still being fought today. A Quest for Life also chronicles the many triumphs in McHarg''s career. It offers fresh insight into the revolutionary design method behind his groundbreaking book, Design with Nature, and explores the development of geographical information systems. We learn firsthand about his work on the celebrated regional plans for Denver and the Twin Cities, as well as the Woodlands new town project. His most enduring contribution, however, may prove to be his four decades of teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. Through the generations of landscape architects, designers, and planners he taught there, his influence has spread around the world and into the future. As the compelling, first-person story of a remarkable individual who not only manned the barricades against environmental destruction, but helped lay the foundation for the barricades themselves, A Quest for Life is must reading for landscape architects, designers, conservationists, planners, and others concerned with the preservation of our communities and the natural environment.

One of the legendary figures in twentieth-century landscape design, Ian McHarg transformed the fields of landscape architecture and planning through his personal methodology, his unique curriculum at the University of Pennsylvania, and his own inspired writing. In classic texts such as his landmark 1969 book Design with Nature, McHarg painted an incredibly rich and exuberant picture of the organic world while conjuring up a vision of a more wholesome and productive metropolis. In this new entry in the popular Conversations with Students series, we are proud to make McHarg''s never-before-in-print lecture "Collaboration with Nature" available for the first time. Captured on tape in the 1970s, the lecture is the sequel to Design with Nature. This is a must-read for anyone in the fields of landscape architecture, environmental science, and urban planning.

New poetic work from the Grandfather of Ecological Planning and author of the classic book Design with Nature. Twenty-five poems in all. Ian McHarg founded the department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania in 1954 and has become identified as founder of ecological planning and design. He has written numerous articles and professional reports, but is best known for the classic Design with Nature, a finalist for the National Book Award in 1969. He was awarded the National Medal of Art from President Bush in 1992. He lives with his wife and two sons in Pennsylvania.