Home ›

Reading Lists

Resource Titlesort icon Author Year Reading List Category
Rethinking the National Parks for the 21st Century: A Report of the National Park System Advisory Board Franklin, John Hope et al 2001

Also published in Landscape Architecture magazine (Oct 2008). Sustainable landscape design is generally understood in relation to three principles—ecological health, social justice and economic prosperity. Rarely do aesthetics factor into sustainability discourse outside of negative asides conflating the visible with the aesthetic and rendering both superfluous. This article examines the role of beauty and aesthetics in a sustainability agenda. It argues that for culture to be sustainable it will take more than ecologically regenerative designs.

 Policy
A Sense of Place - Design Guidelines for Yosemite Valley Yosemite National Park 2005

Sense of Place is a book developed by a team of architects, landscape architects and national park staff for Yosemite Valley.

 Principles, Standards, & Guidelines
Historic Trails Coffin Brown, Margie 2005

Trails take us places of nature and history. They lead us through rugged terrain, exceptional scenery, places of contemplation, and cultural sites. Effective treatment and management of these trails requires an understanding of their historic context, design principles, and constrution methods.

 Planning
Management Policies. National Park Service 2006

This volume of Management Policies focuses exclusively on management of the national park system. View document.

 

 Policy
Mission 66, Modernism and the National Park Dilemma Carr, Ethan 2007

In the years following Word War II, Americans visited the national parks in unprecedented numbers, yet Congress held funding at prewar levels and park conditions steadily declined. To address the problem, in 1956 a ten-year, billion-dollar initiative titled "Mission 66" was launched, timed to be completed in 1966, the fiftieth anniversary of the National Park Service.

 

 History
Mountains Without Handrails Sax, Joseph. 1980

A classic discussion of the tension between preservation and use of the parks, this book explores wilderness values and their percieved elitism, and the demand for recreation and development in National Parks. Sax also offers a blueprint for the future of the National Park system, as seen from 1980.

 

 Policy
Preservation Brief 36: Protecting Cultural Landscapes Birnbaum, Charles A 1994

The planning, treatment, and maintenance of cultural landscapes requires a multi-disciplinary approach. In landscapes, such as parks and playgrounds, battlefields, cemeteries, village greens, and agricultural land preserves more than any other type of historic resource--communities rightly presume a sense of stewardship. It is often this grass roots commitment that has been a catalyst for current research and planning initiatives.

 Planning
Rants and Raves: Landscape Transformation Olin, Laurie 1999

In this editorial, Laurie Olin responds to Charles Birnbaum's critique of his firm's design work at New York City's Bryant Park, making his own critique of the National Park Service, the Secretary of the Interior's Standards, and many State Historic Preservation Offices.

 

 Design
Review of The Rebirth of New York City's Bryant Park Birnbaum, Charles A 1999

In this review of J. William Thompson's "The Rebirth of New York City's Bryant Park," Charles Birnbaum accuses both Thompson and landscape architect Laurie Olin of trivializing the history of the park, "substituting romantic vision for research and authenticity." Lively debate ensues as Laurie Olin responds within the pages of the same magazine issue.

 Design
Routes to Communication About Outdoor Recreation with Diverse Publics: What We Know About Media Winter, P.L., J. Skenderian and W. Crano 2008

This paper examines the issue of outreach to diverse publics as a central concern to natural resource recreation management. Increasing diversity across the Nation has been accompanied by an underrepresentation of communities of color among outdoor recreation populations in natural resource settings. Mass media may be an excellent way to conduct outreach, but the current investment in media addressing diverse publics is discouraging.

 Social Science
Sustaining Beauty: The Performance of Appearance; Can Landscape Architects Insert Aesthetics into our Discussions of Sustainability? Meyer, Elizabeth 2008

Delivered in 2007 as lectures at the Royal Geographic Society, London, and a Peking University conference. Reprinted with permission from the Spring 2008 issue of the Journal of Landscape Architecture.Sustainable landscape design is generally understood in relation to three principles—ecological health, social justice and economic prosperity. Rarely do aesthetics factor into sustainability discourse outside of negative asides conflating the visible with the aesthetic and rendering both superfluous. This article examines the role of beauty and aesthetics in a sustainability agenda.

 Design
The Old Way of Seeing Hale, Jonathan 1994

If a building makes us light up, it is not because we see order; any row of file cabinets is ordered. What we recognise and love is the same kind of pattern we see in every face, the pattern of our own life form. The same principles apply to buildings that apply to mollusks, birds or trees. Architecture is the play of patterns derived from nature and ourselves. Boston architect Jonathan Hale presents a description of a way of seeing and its design implications. In the modern age we have lost our connection to a fundamental understanding of design overall.

 Design
“Architectural Character: Identifying the Visual Aspects of Historic Buildings as an Aid to Preserving Their Character.” Nelson, Lee H. 1988

The purpose of this Brief is to help the owner or the architect identify those features or elements that give the building its visual character and that should be taken into account in order to preserve them to the maximum extent possible. See publication

 Principles, Standards, & Guidelines
“Historic Roads” Davis, Timothy 2005

Roads have long played a prominent role in shaping the national park experience. In addition to providing access to natural and cultural resources, park roads are often compelling cultural landscapes in their own right. In many cases, the distinctive characteristics of historic park roads serve as defining elements of the National Park system, creating a sense of continuity from park to park and providing cherished memories of leisurely excursions through America's most beloved lands.
 

 Planning
“International Charters for Conservation and Restoration.” Michael Petzet, Introduction. 2004

This book includes international charters applicable to the preservation of momuments and sites. The contents listing applicable charters is on the ICOMOS website.

 

 Policy
“The Venice Charter.” International Congress of Architects and Technicians of Historic Sites. 1964

This foundational guidance for the preservation of cultural heritage sites is of late increasingly applicable, as the US transitions into greater participation in the international preservation community. It directly applies to our World Heritage Sites. The document is available on the ICOMOS website.

 

 Policy
Designing The Parks