More than forty years after the first signs of a new era in environmental thinking, landscape architects and the public at large continue to engage in ethical, practical, and metaphysical debates on what environmentalism really is and what it should be. This exchange of ideas has been characterized more by passion than by clarity, with definitive and persuasive answers hard to come by. The papers presented in this volume range from proposals for new design approaches, historical analysis of the relationship between the practice of landscape architecture and environmentalism, to the theories of early practitioners of landscape architecture embued by an environmentalist outlook.

The issues above are addressed through topics as eclectic as the design of American zoos, the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority, road design and maintenance in Texas, and criticism of relationships between the words and works of select landscape architects. This volume provides a fresh approach to encounters between environmentalism and landscape architecture by reframing the issues through self-reflection instead of strategic debate.