Book cover: Watercolor showing a bird's eye view of a canal lined with trees and a tidy neighborhood nearby, part of the Chicago Parks System, designed by Jens Jensen.
A black-and-white drawing shows two people in a boat on a lake in Central Park in Chicago, designed by William Le Baron Jenney. The lake is surrounded by trees and birds. A young girl feeds a swan in the foreground.
A historical black-and-white photograph of Spring Grove Cemetery, in Cincinnati, Ohio, depicts a rustic footbridge connected to an island. A tree grows from an outcropping in the foreground.
 

Midwestern Landscape Architecture
Edited by William H. Tishler

Published by University of Illinois Press in association
with LALH

Cloth $37.50; paperback $19.95

To order: University of Illinois Press, tel. 800-545-4703

“Tishler has done a tremendous service to his profession and to the general public by assembling many of the best landscape historians in North America as contributors to Midwestern Landscape Architecture. They make history come to life.”—Robert Scarfo, Washington State University

“For those interested in the history of the profession this is a ‘must have.’”—William J. Grundmann, Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture

“Written by a talented cast of landscape scholars, the chapters are well researched, well documented and well written. Highly readable, Midwestern Landscape Architecture will be a useful reference for students and . . . future researchers.”—Heidi Hohman, Landscape Journal

 

AT THE TURN OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, many landscape architects developed approaches to design that celebrated the native midwestern landscape. In this illustrated volume, thirteen historians have contributed essays that illuminate their biographies and the important design and conservation contributions made by these innovators.

Parks, cemeteries, estates, and recreation areas throughout the region were created by individuals intrigued by the prairies, lakes, and native plants of the Midwest: Adolph Strauch introduced the revolutionary “lawn plan” at Cincinnati’s Spring Grove Cemetery; William Le Baron Jenney created the West Parks in Chicago as an armature of order and respite from the burgeoning industrial city; George Kessler’s image of the City Beautiful combined European and American influences in Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, St. Louis, Denver, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and elsewhere. Other major design practitioners in this collection include: Frederick Law Olmsted, Olmsted Brothers, O. C. Simonds, H. W. S. Cleveland, Warren H. Manning, Elbert Peets, and Annette Hoyt Flanders. Midwestern Landscape Architecture also details the contributions of those who championed conservation and ecological awareness in an effort to promote scenic resources, such as Jens Jensen, Wilhelm Miller, and Genevieve Gillette.