Book Description
In an industry that involves the skills, expertise, and labor of a wide-range of professionals and workers, good communications become crucial, and a common vocabulary is key to successful projects. Many of the terms used in landscape architecture, land planning, environmental planning, and landscape construction are unavailable, or so new, or industry-specific that they can’t be found in conventional dictionaries. This unique resource delivers definitions as well as how-to information via details and photos, going above and beyond the scope of a typical professional dictionary. With straightforward definitions and clear illustrations on each page, everyone from architects, designers, and contractors through grounds maintenance workers will benefit from this important resource. In addition, an appendix with labeled construction details will illustrate not just what a term means, but also how it’s applied in the profession.
About the Author
Alan Jay Christensen, a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Nursery & Landscape Association, the Irrigation Association, the American Institute of Certified Planners, and the International Ecological Engineering Society, has more than 27 years experience in landscape architecture and landscape construction. In successfully operating several businesses for 23 years in the landscape industry, he has performed and managed landscape design, construction, and maintenance.
His well-rounded experience in landscape and construction from New York to Hawaii has led him to obtain licenses as Landscape Architect, Irrigation Auditor, Landscape Contractor, Residential Construction Contractor, Commercial Construction Contractor, and Demolition Contractor. The holder of a patent for a method of planting trees that target contaminants in brownfields, he has taught land planning at Brigham Young University and conducted research at Harvard University. He has special interest in debunking fallacies and misconceptions common in landscape architecture and is the author of several articles for professional landscaping publications.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful: Excellent!! Useful for the foreign student!!!, July 9, 2005 By  María Díaz (Mexico City) - See all my reviews This book is exactly what its title announces. It is an excellent source for students and professionals of design. Plenty of terms, well explained. I truly recommended. It is very useful for the foreign designer, for it explains technical terms one finds in lanscape books and doesn't understand. Very good.

Lame. I give it one star - not the five indicated., September 14, 2006 By  John Doe - See all my reviews I was extremely disappointed with this book. It was unavailable for preview at my local library, so I took a chance. First, there are no pronunciation guides. Granted, several of the words are common ones, but still, shouldn't a dictionary have them? Particularly in an Appendix that offers a selection of Latin-derived adjectives frequently used in a plant's botanical name? The back cover states that "300 illustrations illulminate both definitions and methods." Hmmph... Several of them are poor quality photographs of items one learned to identify in pre-school. To wit: bench, statue, pickup truck, hard hat, and the like. You're out of luck, though, if you'd like to see an illustration of something less common like a sheepsfoot roller. Plant-related drawings are adequate. Drawings used to illustrate mechanics are frequently too small, or poorly drawn, to offer much detail. At least this book's format is consistent: if it takes too much effort, don't bother. Caveat emptor.