BOOK REVIEWS

Gardens are for People

By Thomas D. Church; Grace Hall; Michael Laurie (Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture, University of California, Berkeley, USA)
Published by University of California Press, June 1995
$NZ84.95

Reviewed by Mike Oates

This text contains the essence of Thomas Church's design philosophy, as well as practical advice. It is illustrated by site plans and photographs of some of the 2000 gardens Church designed during his career.

Called "the last great traditional designer and the first great modem designer", Church was one of the central figures in the development of the modem Californian garden. For the first time, West Coast designers based their work not on imitation of East Coast traditions, but on climatic, landscape, and lifestyle characteristics unique to California and the West. Church viewed the garden as a logical extension of the house, with one extending naturally into the other.

New Zealand Garden Journal: Journal of the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture 1996 1(1): 24

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