The Landscape Imagination: Collected Essays of James Corner, 1990-2010

Landscape architect Corner (founder and director of James Corner Field Operations) is a strong advocate for the relevance and potential of the art. His work on New York City's High Line, the elevated railroad track turned verdurous park, has raised the profession's visibility and influence markedly. This polished, incisive collection marks a related accomplishment for the discipline. Beginning in 1990, when landscape architecture was split between ecologists and artists, and both occupied a critical vacuum, Corner developed an intellectual framework that helped liberate the field. Throughout these lucid essays, he argues that landscape architecture has "a profound role to play in the reconstitution of meaning and value in our modern cities and communities." Landscape architects can intercede in urban, social, and environmental issues by appealing to the collective imagination where such problems originate. Neatly divided into four sections%E2%80%94theory, representation and creativity, landscape urbanism, and practice%E2%80%94the essays are immensely valuable for assessing how the discourse has evolved. 160 b&w illus. (May)