For many people, the concept of landscape is associated with gardens, especially estate gardens. California Eden reaches far beyond the elite circle of private estates; this book highlights a wide range of landscapes from the professional to the vernacular and delves deep into the cultural and historical significance of these landscapes, revealing the untold stories of the people who have inhabited and shaped them over the centuries.
Co-editors Christine Edstrom O’Hara and Susan Chamberlin bring together these voices from the landscape architecture community to discuss and present the history of both rural and urban landscapes and how they shape (and are shaped by) nature and the people who design them. Entries highlight famous and beloved estate gardens but also more frequently overlooked landscapes such as shopping malls, streetscapes, sports venues, and vernacular sites.
Covering a range of places from a military installation on the California-Mexico border, to the campus of Stanford University, and the Japanese American gardens of San Diego, California Eden speaks to design as well as the challenges of historic preservation of these-often ephemeral places.
A virtual presentation by Susan Chamberlin, author, editor, landscape historian, and licensed landscape architect and Christine Edstrom O’Hara, author and Professor of Landscape Architecture, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, California