COURSE DESCRIPTION

A long, deep green thread exists in American literature from Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman through Herman Melville and William Carlos Williams on to Terry Tempest Williams and Wendell Berry. This literature has influenced how we perceive our environments and, in the process, many planners, designers, and conservationists such as Frederick Law Olmsted, Jane Adams, Aldo Leopold, Lewis Mumford, and Anne Whiston Spirn. In this seminar, we will explore this green thread and analyze its influence on how we shape our environments through design and planning.

The course has three parts. Throughout, the influence of literature on design and planning theory will be explored. The first part will focus on the three most important theorists in environmental planning and landscape architecture: Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., Charles Eliot, and Ian L. McHarg. The senior Olmsted pretty much created the field of landscape architecture, adapting the English landscape aesthetic for the rapidly urbanizing North American continent to address pressing urban issues. Arguably, the planning profession in the United States also began with the senior Olmsted. Charles Eliot was a protege of Olmsted's. Eliot pioneered the use of comprehensive, scientific landscape inventories; originated the concept of land trusts; and designed the first metropolitan regional open-space plan. Educated in both landscape architecture and city planning, Ian McHarg influenced both fields in the late twentieth century. He urged us to "design with nature," advocating the use of ecological science in the environmental design arts.

The second part of the course will critically explore current theories in environmental planning and landscape architecture. The topics will include: frameworks for cultural landscape studies, the future of the vernacular, ecological design and planning, sustainable and regenerative design, the languages of landscapes, and evolving views of landscape aesthetics and ethics.

In the third part of the course, students will build on the readings to develop their own theory for ecological planning or, alternatively, landscape architecture. While literacy and critical inquiry are addressed throughout the course, critical thinking is especially important for this final section.

COURSE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The goals of this course are, first, to make students aware of the rich theoretical tradition and literature in landscape architecture and environmental planning and, second, to equip them with the critical thinking abilities to theorize about the future of these two interrelated disciplines. To achieve these goals, the objectives will be to develop the writing and speaking skills necessary for students to express an understanding of theory and theorizing.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Students are required to write three papers (each between 8 and 12 written pages, plus illustrations and bibliographic material). Each student is required to make an oral presentation of the paper in class. The first paper will address a theorist: Olmsted, Eliot, McHarg or another of the student's choice (approved by the professor). The second paper will address a current theory from the readings and drawing on related literature. The final paper will be a presentation of the student's theory for landscape architecture, ecological design, and/or ecological planning. In addition, each student is required to lead at least one class discussion and to participate in class.

Grading

Paper 1
    written 15%
    oral 5%

Paper 2
    written 20%
    oral 5%

Paper 3
    written 25%
    oral 10%

Class Discussion Leadership 10%

Participation 10%

COURSE SCHEDULE AND READINGS

17 January Course Introduction

Part One: Theorists

19 January Olmsted

• Rybczynski, "Schemes" and "Jostling and Being Jostled"
• Buell, "Introduction" and "Toxic Discourse"

24 January Olmsted

• Rybczynski, "Hitting Heads" and "A Magnificent Opening"
• Buell, "The Place of Place"

26 January Olmsted/Eliot

• Rybczynski, "Standing First" and "Olmsted's Distant Effects"
• Eliot, Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect, Chapters IV, V, and X"
• Buell, "Flaneur's Progress: Reinhabiting the City"

31 January Eliot

• Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect, Chapters XI, XV, and XIX
• Buell, "Discourses of Determinism"

2 February McHarg

• A Quest for Life, Chapters 1-3

7 February McHarg

• A Quest for Life, Chapters 4-6
• Buell, "Modernism and Claims of the Natural World: Faulkner and Leopold"

9 February McHarg

• A Quest for Life, Chapters 7-9
• Buell, "Global Commons as Resource and as Icon: Imaging Oceans and Whales"

14 February Professor Steiner will be on an accreditation site visit at MIT.

16 February First Paper Due: Theorists: Oral Presentations

21 February Oral Presentations

Part Two: Existing Theories

23 February Landscape Studies

• Groth and Bressi, Any two chapters from chapter 1 to 11
• Buell, "Watershed Aesthetics"

28 February Future Directions in Landscape Studies

• Growth and Bressi, Any two chapters from 12 to 17
• Williams, Pages 3-53

2 March Ecological Design and Planning

• Ndubisi from Thompson and Steiner
• McHarg and Steiner, Part I
• Williams, Pages 54-107

7 March Ecological Design and Planning

• McHarg and Steiner, One essay from each Part II, Part III, and Part IV
• Williams, Pages 108-152

9 March The Language of Landscape

• Spirn, Chapters 1-5
• Williams, Pages 153-203

Week of 13 March Spring Break

21 March The Language of Landscape

• Spirn, Chapters 6-9
• Williams, Pages 204-252

23 March Second Paper Due: An Existing Theory: Oral Presentations

28 March Oral Presentations

30 March Professor Steiner will be at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Conference (maybe).

Part Three: Theory Building

4 April The Expanded Field of Landscape Architecture

• Meyer and Corner essays from Thompson and Steiner
• Williams, pages 253-290

6 April Landscape Design, Nature, and the City

• Olin and Johnson essays from Thompson and Steiner

11 April Bioregionalism

• Reiniger and Woodward essays from Thompson and Steiner

13 April Fostering Living Landscapes

• Schauman and Franklin essays from Thompson and Steiner

18 April Images of the Ideal Landscape and the Consequences

• Vroom essay from Thompson and Steiner
• Native to Nowhere
• Beatley, Chapters 1-2

20 April Native to Nowhere

• Beatley, Chapters 3-6

25 April Native to Nowhere

• Beatley, Chapters 7-13

27 April Final paper due

• Oral presentations

2 May Oral presentations

4 May Course wrap-up and discussion

REQUIRED READINGS

1. Lawrence Buell. 2001. Writing for An Endangered World: Literature, Culture, and Environment in the United States and Beyond. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
2. Terry Tempest Williams. 1991. Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. New York: Vintage Books.

Select one of the following for theorists as required, the other two books are recommended.

1. Charles Eliot. 1999 reissue. Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
2. Ian McHarg. 1996. A Quest for Life. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
3. Witold Rybczynski. 1999. A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Scribner.

Select one of the following for theories as required, others are recommended.

1. Timothy Beatley. 2004. Native to Nowhere. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
2. Paul Groth and Todd W. Bressi, eds. 1997. Understanding Ordinary Landscapes. New Haven: Yale University Press.
3. Ian L. McHarg and Frederick Steiner, eds. 1998. To Heal the Earth. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
4. Anne W. Spirn. 1998. The Language of Landscape. New Haven: Yale University Press.
5. George R. Thompson and Frederick R. Steiner, eds. 1997. Ecological Design and Planning. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Bonus reading, fit in anywhere you want. (It is a bonus for your life, not necessarily your grade.)

• Terry Tempest Williams. 2004. The Open Space of Democracy. Great Barrington, Massachusetts: The Orion Society.