Abstract
Powered aviation and the aerial photographs it makes possible have revolutionized the vision and study of landscape in several professions, among them landscape architecture. Selected developments immediately preceding and following World War II show how landscape architects have profited from the scientific knowledge and the aerial view made possible by powered aviation. Aerial vision furthered the artistic and scientific development in the field of landscape architecture and planning through the 20th and into the 21st century. Although landscape architects in the 1930s were fascinated with the new opportunities aerial vision could provide, they were slower than other professionals before World War II to realize the benefit that aerial photographs had for them. Isolated attempts to beautify airports were based on the idea that these new transportation nodes should be visible and attractive from both land and air. Although landscape architectural aesthetics have been influenced by the aerial view, more important is the impact of aerial photography on the larger-scale design and planning endeavors that landscape architects embarked on after the war.
- © 2010 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
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