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Ian McHarg and the Search for the Ideal Order examines the well-known and much-studied landscape architect, Ian McHarg, in a new light. The author explores McHarg’s formative years and vestigates how his ideas developed in both complexity and scale. The resulting argument offers new interpretations into the search for order outlined in McHarg’s influential book, Design with Nature, and outlines how his struggle to understand humanity’s relationship to the environment in an era of rapid social and technological change reflects an ongoing challenge that landscape design has yet to fully resolve.”
“A recent review by Fritz Steiner commends the text’s “amazing scholarship,” and the “critical, insightful, engaging, thorough” analysis of McHarg’s intellectual development. “
“Kathleen John–Alder is Associate Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Rutgers University. A practicing landscape architect with degrees from Oberlin College, Rutgers University, and Yale School of Architecture, her scholarly research bridges disciplinary boundaries in order to explore the transformative role of ecology and environmentalism in the discourse of mid-twentieth century landscape design, and its impact upon contemporary practice. John-Alder has published articles in Landscape Journal, The Journal of Planning History, JOLA, Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes, Site/Lines, and Manifest. Her work has also received design and research awards from the Van Alan Institute, the National Park Service, and the American Society of Landscape Architects”