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Landscape Architecture 101 - Fundamentals of Landscape Design: Specialized Reference Sources

Landscape Architecture 101 - Fundamentals of Landscape Design is a strategic and bibliographic research guide to UC Berkeley library and web resources for UCB students taking LA 101.

Search tips

FILL-IN THE BLANKS with basic facts. Search reference sources for an overview of your precedent.Note particular keywords, terms, authors, bibliographies, and footnotes. Learn specific project names, designers, locations, and dates designed and constructed. Add this information to your deconstruction notes. Use your facts to help your search. If you don't have enough information on your specific site, try searching for the designer, the style of the site or a survey of multiple sites within that country.

Dictionaries

For basic landscape architecture dictionaries see Landscape Architecture Reference Sources.
 
Print Dictionaries:

Online Resources:

Landscape Architects

  See the bibliographic guide Biographical Information on Landscape Architects for a comprehensive listing of biographical resources

Bibliographies

Bibliographies are lists of writings or citations on a particular subject, time period, or author. Look at book chapters, textbooks, and articles for additional bibliographies and footnotes.

Other helpful guides

Environmental Design Library Research Guides for research in the history of the built environment. Guides include both print and web materials.

Campus Libraries

Encyclopedias & Handbooks

  • The Architecture handbook: a student guide to understanding buildings, by Jennifer Masengarb with Krisann Rehbein. Chicago: Chicago Architecture Foundation, 2007. See Chapter 7: Orientation of the building to the site and Chapter 8:Topography & Landscape
  • Great city parks, by Alan Tate. NY: Spon Press, 2004. Covers 20 public parks in 14 American and Western European cities.
  • Encyclopedia of gardens: history and design, Chicago Botanic Garden. Candice A. Shoemaker, ed. 3 vols. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001. Excellent source for landscape design history. Substantive signed articles are illustrated; each includes a brief bibliography. Chronologies of selected projects are given for landscape designers. 
  • European gardens: an historical atlas, by Virgilio Vercelloni. NY: Rizzoli, 1990. Chronological arrangement with great illustrations, some color. Index, bibliography. 
  • The Oxford companion to the garden, Patrick Taylor, ed. NY: Oxford Univ. Pr., 2006. A one-volume encyclopedia of short authoritative articles on notable gardens, landscape designers, garden features, etc. New ed. of the classic The Oxford companion to gardens. Selectively illustrated. Bibliography: pp.531-538.

Also see the following electronic resources.

General Histories & Surveys

General histories and surveys provide an overview and the context of a topic, with dates, locations, special sites, and the names of architects or designers. They usually include bibliographies. Here is a sample of the landscape architecture histories and surveys in the Environmental Design Library.