History of Landscape Architecture. The Profession of Landscape Architecture

Although the profession of landscape architecture did not organize and take its name until the late 1800s in the United States, and even later in other countries, the history of the ways in which people make changes in the landscape is ancient. For this reason, landscape architectural history includes examinations of early gardens, agricultural practices, settlement patterns, and sacred spaces for burial and ceremony.

Like architecture and the fine arts, the landscapes produced by a particular culture reflect its social values, economics, politics, and geography. Teotihuacan, an ancient city in the central valley of Mexico (c. fourth century все to eighth century ce), was organized around a complex network of water-delivery systems. The dry garden at Ryoanji in Kyoto, Japan (late thirteenth century), made of raked stone, boulders, and moss, was used by Buddhist monks in the religious practice of meditation.

Pirro Ligorio designed the elaborate gardens and fountains at the Villa d'Este at Tivoli in Italy (sixteenth century) as a status symbol for its wealthy owner and pleasure grounds for the owner's guests. The English landscape designer Humphrey Repton (1752-1818) designed estates for English gentry, and the before- and-after views in his Red Books are some of the best examples of landscape architectural representations. Repton's work was the first to be called "landscape architecture" by Scottish horticultural writer John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843), himself an important designer of estates and parks and a major critic.

The French administrator Baron Haussmann cut massive boulevards through the city of Paris as an expression of the power of Napoleon 111, and his colleague, J. C. A. Alphand, designed new leisure grounds for the bourgeoisie. The American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) holds an important place in the history of landscape architecture in America.

Olmsted and his partner, the architect Calvert Vaux, planned and built New York City's Central Park (begun in 1853) to be a respite from the noise, pollution, and crowding of the industrial city. Olmsted and Vaux designed parks and park systems for cities including Boston, Chicago, Buffalo, New York, and Montreal, Canada.

The Profession of Landscape Architecture. The first published definition of landscape architecture was by H. W. S. Cleveland (1814-1900) in his book Landscape Architecture as Applied to the Wants of the West. Olmsted was the first designer of landscapes to call himself a landscape architect. For this reason he is credited with starting the profession of landscape architecture in North America.

Landscape architects like Olmsted and Cleveland played important roles in shaping the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in particular, in planning and developing public places and communities. In 1899 eleven professionals started an organization called the "American Society of Landscape Architects" (ASLA). The American Society of Landscape Architects is the national professional association representing landscape architects.

Today there are more than 13,500 ASLA members, both from the United States and abroad. In 1948 the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) was founded by national landscape architectural organizations. The constitution of the IFLA expresses the contemporary concerns of landscape architects: human health and welfare and wise use of resources.

Although specific licensure requirements vary from country to country and even state to state, generally to become a landscape architect one must attend an accredited program in landscape architecture, serve an apprenticeship with a licensed landscape architect, and pass an examination. Academic training in landscape architecture includes baccalaureate and master's courses in design, land grading, ecology, construction methods, plant establishment, storm water management, history of landscape architecture, and drawing.

The breadth of the training of landscape architects reflects the diverse nature of landscape architectural practice. Reflecting the contemporary concern with promoting ecological practices, many graduate landscape architectural education programs include coursework in wetlands restoration, water resource management, the use of native plant materials, contaminated site remediation, and other sustainable practices. This is not to say that all contemporary landscape architectural methods are ecologically based.

Contemporary practices in landscape architecture reflect and shape cultural values. Landscape architectural practice is tied to legal codes that control natural resources, land use, and housing and political issues such as government spending on transportation planning and the management of national parks.

For example, in cities such as Hong Kong and Tokyo, where land resources are scarce and property values are high, designers work to contain sprawl and increase urban densities. In countries that have strict controls on water resources, such as Germany and the Netherlands, landscape architects work with architects to devise systems for collecting and treating gray water on urban sites.