Skip to Main Content

Landscape Architecture 101 - Fundamentals of Landscape Design: Find Books and Articles

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.

Finding books

FIND BOOKS for an in-depth discussion of your precedent. Note that for many topics you will not find an entire book; instead, you may find a chapter or an essay in a book focused on a general aspect of your precedent (refer to your deconstruction list for ideas). Example: a book on urban parks might include information about Golden Gate Park.

Finding Articles

FIND ARTICLES for current and retrospective information. Use PERIODICAL INDEXES to identify articles within periodical and newspaper titles.

  • Journals, Periodicals, Magazines, and Serials -- these terms refer to the same thing. Journal articles are generally NOTincluded in the Library Catalogs.
  • Use Environmental Design Library indexes and abstracts to expand your search on your topic:
  • Use the UCB list of Electronic Resources: Article Databases to identify other related indexes. Not all articles or journals are available electronically, full text. Some indexes use to look up call numbers and locations for print journals. Use Library's catalogs to look up journal call numbers in indexes that don't use UC e-links. Search under the title of the journal.

Search Terms

In the Library's catalogs use keywords or subject headings to search for title, subject, author, or corporate author.

Search for a time period: 
Architecture, Postmodern 
Gardens, Renaissance 
Landscape Architecture, 20th century

Search for a type of landscape or site: 
Cemeteries 
Gardens, Islamic 
Landscape gardening 
Urban parks 
Water in landscape architecture 
Waterfronts

Search for a location: city, state, or country: 
Gardens--France 
Landscape Architecture--New York 
Plazas--Italy 

 
Search for a specific landscape architect or designer: 
Burle Marx, Roberto 
Gustafson, Kathryn 
Kiley, Dan 

Search for a specific project or site: 
Biltmore Estate--North Carolina 
Golden Gate Park--San Francisco, California 
Taj Mahal--India 

Search for firms or organizations using corporate authors such as: 
Hargreaves Associates 
American Society of Landscape Architects 
Olmsted Brothers
 

Article Databases

Here is a selection of indexes that are especially helpful for landscape architecture research. When searching for your precedent, remember to use truncation or wildcards (* or ?) for variations of words (e.g., park*)