Landscape architecture u profession only a little orer a century old an art as old as buman existence Norman T Newt esign on the lun, 1971 he ant of landscape architecture predates the Despite its welldocumented his profession by thousands of years. Ancient cultures veneral. tory, Landseape architecture isn t ed the garden as one of the highest achievements of a civi an easy profession to detine lized society Descriptions of the magnificent gardens of Even members of the profession ancient Babylon and Egypt have survived. even though the Land have difficulty rendering a marks themselves have not. Subsequent Greek and Romn civiliza- description that captures all of tions contributed the arts of urban design and space planning But it its nuances and possibilities. was ne until the last half of the nineteenth century that the title Today there are many more con- landscape design. Invented by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law and built environment than ever Olmsted. it was intended to suggest an approach to a Landscape thl, existed in the past disappearing as Nornun Newton writes would refleet the same relation that an habitats and environmental architect bears towand a building with the essential cmphasis on degradation on a global scale. overcrowding in urhan areas, a loss of privacy due to populatin density and the intrusion of coinmercial enterprise n ever aspect of life, blurring and changing cultural identities and demographic balances, and the apparent triumph of profit over public benefit, to name a few The abundance of ideas about how to deal with these concerns makes the possibility of a simple description of Landscape archi tecture more remote every day This book offers a broad defini tion of landscape architecure by example. presenting the current work of thirty one offices and individuals Some writers have suggested that Landscape architecture cannot be defined