Garrett Eckbo: Modern Landscapes for Living

By Marc Treib, Doroth E Imbert, Dorothée Imbert

Book Overview

One of the central figures in modern landscape architecture, Garrett Eckbo (1910-2000) was a major influence in the field during an active career spanning five decades. While most of the early American designers concentrated on the private garden and the corporate landscape, Eckbo's work demonstrated innovative design ideas in a social setting. This engagement with social improvement has stayed with Eckbo throughout his life, distinguishing both his intentions and achievements, from his early work for the Farm Security Administration to his partnerships (including one of the most prominent landscape firms in the world, Eckbo, Dean, Austin, and Williams--EDAW) and his years as chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley.

In an elegant and detailed book that includes more than 100 of Eckbo's designs, Marc Treib examines the aesthetic formation of Eckbo's manner, and by implication the broader field of landscape architecture since the 1930s. Doroth e Imbert writes about Eckbo's social vision, including his belief that ultimately, landscape design is the "arrangement of environments for people." The book also contains a biographical and professional chronology and a complete bibliography of publications by and about Garrett Eckbo.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520246829
• ISBN13: 9780520246829
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 204 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.1" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

Rare Opportunity

Treib and Imbert offer a rare insight into the man who lead the movement to modern landscape design. Where formerly, landscape design rested on a strict axial orientation, with Eckbo's brilliant influence, this rigidness exploded into designs more like Wassily Kandinsky compositions. No other designer has played a greater part in the development of modern landscape design. Just looking at the intricate, beautifully hand-drawn landscape architectural drawings he made, from small-scale gardens to large-scale parks, is a big treat. The authors integrate Eckbo's writings into the text, as well, to give us a sense of this apparently, humble, yet, brilliant man's thoughts and process. This is a wonderful book for someone interested in the history and dynamics of landscape design, or someone just developing a small garden. This is also a great addition to the library of the mid-century design enthusiast or scholar. For me, beginning to understand the underpinnings of landscape design, as well as the social value of public landscape design through Eckbo's eyes and mind, made a world of difference in my approach to seeing or modifying space of any kind. This is a quiet, illuminating and wonderful book.