Quoting from inside the dust jacket: "This handbook on environmental planning has established itself as the basic reference for architects, engineers and planners. Beautifully written and superbly illustrated it presents an articulate approach to the intelligent development of the landscape around us.

John Ormsbee Simonds, a pre-eminent authority on environmental planning, outlines and analyzes the complete land-planning process. He examines the natural and man-made elements of the landscape and proceeds in lucid, logicl steps to build a framework encompassing the entire scope of site development.

Ecological factors are discussed; procedures of site analysis and design are reviewed; and timeless planning principles are thoughtfully explored.

Every aspect of landscape planning and design receives attention:

• Forms, forces and features of the natural and man-made landscape
• Site selection, site analysis, and site planning
• Planning workable and wll-related use areas
• Creating meaningful spaces, in terms of use, form, materials and color
• Planning optimum site structure relationships
• Designing structures and spaces in relation to pedestrian and automobile traffic
• Past and present thoughts on composing structures
• Designing a planned community
• Planning a more efficient, productive and pleasant environment for man

In addition, the book is handsomely and imaginatively illustrated by hundreds of striking photographs and line drawings.

Architects, city planners, conservationists and public officials will find this an enlightened, carefully thought out, and technically sound statement of the purposes and concerns of planning- as respects both man and nature.

John Ormsbee Simonds is Past President and Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. An alumnus of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, he has twice travelled around the wold in continuing study of urban and regional planning.

The author's firm, EPD, Environmental Planning and Design, is engaged in a wide range of landscape architectural and planning projects in this country and abroad. These include the new Chicago Botanic Garden, and environmental study for the state of Virginia, and new towns in Florida, Canada, Pennsylvania, and the state of Washington. In addition to private practice, Mr. Simonds has served as visiting critic in Urban and Regional Planning at Cornell, Yale, the University of California and at numerous other universities.

Editor of The Freeway in the City, he has served as an advisor to the Federal Highway Administration, Chairman of the panel on Urban Parks and Open Spaces at the White House Conference, and currently as a member of the President's Task Force on Resources and the Environment. He is a founding member of the Interprofessional Commission on Environmental Design." (End quote from dust jacket- keep in mind that the text was written in 1961, so he would have been advisor to either Dwight D. Eisenhower or John F. Kennedy.)

Just a few of the many illustration credits cited in the book: Ansel Adams; Moore Residence, Ojai, California: Richard Neutra, architect; photo by Julius Shulman. Edgar Kaufmann residence, Palm Springs, CA: Richard J.  Neutra, architect; photo by Julius Schulman. Tremaine Residence, Santa Barbara, California: Richard Neutra, architect; photo by Julius Schulman. Residence of Marcel Breuer (architect); New Canaan, Connecticut; photo by Pedro E. Guerrero; Residence of Oscar Niemeyer (architect); photo by Rollie McKenna; Taliesen West: Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect; photos by Pedro E. Guerrero. Rockefeller Center, New York City: Reinhard & Hofmeister; Corbett, Harrison and MacMurray; Hood and Fouilhoux, architects; photos courtesy of Rockefeller Center, Inc. Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories; Arthur Rothstein; Harry Callahan; Carl Struwe; Hermann Eisenbeiss; Living Leica; Aero Service Corporation; Willi Beutler; Edward Weston; George Olin; National Park Service; Yoshinobu Yoshinaga; Norman F. Carver Jr.; Samuel Musgrave; Underwood and Underwood; Rollie McKenna; Photo at Bear Run, PA; Edgar Kaufmann residence; Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect; photo by Bill Hedrich, Hedrich-Blessing. Red Rocks Ampitheatre, Denver, Colorado: Burham Hoyt, architect. Dunluce Castle, Ireland: photo by Underwood & Underwood. Residence of Dr. Edith Farnsworth; Mies Van Der Rohe, architect; photo by Bill Hedrich, Hedrich-Blessing. Leisure House: Campbell and Wong, architects; photo by Morley Baer. Residence of Mr. and Mrs. Dewey Donnell, Sonoma, California: Thomas Church, landscape architect; photo by Rondal Partridge. Artigas residence, Pedregal, Mexico: courtesy Museum of Modern Art, New York City; photo by Rollie Mckenna. Illinois Institute of Technology, Mies Van Der Rohe, architect; photo by Hube Henry, Hedrich-Blessing. Sweden House, New York World's Fair, 1939: Sven Markelius, architect; photos by Peter Nyholm. Stage set, Finnish Theatre: Alvar and Aino Aalto, designers; courtesy Museum of Modern Art, NYC. German Pavilion, International Exposition 1929, Barcelona, Spain: Mies Van Der Rohe, architect. Chicago World's Fair, 1933, Photo by Underwood & Underwood; New York World's Fair, 1939, Photo by Underwood & Underwood; Brussels World's Fair, 1958, Photo by Underwood & Underwood; Residence of Mr. and Mrs. Richard B. Opdahl, Long Beach, California: Killingsworth, Brady, and Smith, architects; photos by Marvin Rand. Greenbelt, MD: Hale Walker, R.J. Wadsworth, and D.D. Ellington, architect-planners photo by Fairchild Aeriel Surveys, Inc...

Additionally, there are quotes from noteable sources such as Marcel Breuer's Sun and Shadow; Garrett Eckbo, Daniel Urban Kiley, & JAmes C Rose's "Landscape Design in the Urban Environment" from an Architectural Record dated 1939; Garret Eckbo's Landscape For Living; Walter Gropius' "The Curse of Conformity" (The Saturday Evening Post, 1958); Richard J Neutra's Survival Through Design; Eliel Saarinen's The City, Its Growth, Its Decay, Its Future and also his Search For Form; Louis Sullivan's Kindergarten Chats; and many others.

The book has an index as well as the aforementioned list of quotes and list of photo sources.

Please click on any of the photos below for a close-up view.

This review is by me, Amy Solovay. It gives you an idea of my own humble opinion about the book- your mileage may vary! If you have a different opinion I encourage you to submit a review for publication on this site- all reviews will be credited to the author who wrote them. Please email me to submit.

Where would you like to go now?

To view available copies of this book for sale at Amazon.com, please click the box below.

-Click Here To Search For This Landscape Architecture Book on eBay.

-To read more book reviews, go back to the reviews main page.

-Return to Amy Solovay's home page