About This Issue

This issue of Landscape Journal has six peer-reviewed articles and six book reviews. Four articles examine cultural landscapes—both historic and contemporary. In the first article, Fritz Steiner’s historical scholarship documents the Olmsted Brothers’ impacts on the planning and design of land-grant universities in the United States during the 19th century. Next, Stefania Staniscia analyzes a regional novel, a work of historical fiction, to understand vanishing natural and cultural landscapes in the southern West Virginia coalfields. Janusz Lach and Igor Bojko, scholars from Poland, investigate sheepfarming landscapes in the Outer Carpathian region of East-Central Europe. They develop a typology based on land use/land cover with the aim of protecting landscape character through future policy interventions. Amita Sinha analyzes an approved development proposal for Ram Janmabhoomi, a significant cultural and religious site, in Ayodhya, India. She offers a historically responsive alternative to this recreation-oriented development plan in the form of a proposal for creating a landscape of memory.

The fifth article focuses on design theory. Katherine Melcher interrogates the notion of aesthetic intent in landscape architecture. The sixth article examines the issue of equity within the landscape architecture profession. Kristine F. Miller, Rachel McNamara, and Amanda Smoot present findings from a timely study in Minneapolis of practitioner perspectives.

This issue also includes six reviews of notable recently published books related to land planning, design, or management. Rob Kuper writes on Bruce Ferguson’s book A Philosophy of Landscape Construction: The Vision of Built Landscapes. Richard Smardon, Landscape Journal’s book review editor, contributes three reviews in this issue. The first is a comparative review of Toward an Urban Ecology (Kate Orff) and Urban Ecology for Citizens and Planners (Gail Hansen & Joseli Macedo). The second is From Rails to Trails (Peter Harnik), and the third is Design by Deficit: Neglect and the Accidental City (Susan Dieterlen). Marc Blackburn reviews Military Landscapes (edited by Anatole Tchikine and John Dean Davis), and David Spooner reviews Active Landscape Photography: Theoretical Groundwork for Landscape Architecture (Ann C. Godfrey).

Postscript: I could not read the Lach and Bojko article—or the book review by Marc Blackburn—without reflecting on the tragic war in Ukraine. Landscapes become battlegrounds, with buildings destroyed, transportation systems wrecked, and iconic public spaces blasted into oblivion. This leaves us with a sense of helplessness. All we can do, it seems, is to cherish the time we have on this amazing planet and marvel at the beautiful places that our species is capable of creating, rather than destroying.