Garrette Eckbo, Modern Landscapes for Living.

At the beginning of this century, landscape gardening in the United States was modelled on traditional European historical landscapes. In the '30s, a young generation of designers - of whom Garrett Eckbo has been one of the most influential - developed a new and distinctly American genre of landscape architecture, using European modernism as its inspiration.

This delightfully designed book is a tribute to Garrett Eckbo, now in his 80s. Modern Landscapes for Living focuses on his design education and practice from 1935 to 1955: the depression years, the Second World War, and the prosperity which followed. It was a 20 year period of experimentation, testing and publication of his design ethos developed in private garden commissions and in the landscapes of public housing. The title refers to Eckbo's first major book, Landscapes for Living (published in 1950), in which he presented his principles of interaction between people and site, modern landscape forms and functionality, which resulted in California outdoor 'rooms' of varying definitions. He explored modern materials and planting to layer and define space.

Treib and Imbert examine in detail the 'social, artistic and professional contexts in which (Eckbo's) work was situated'. Treib follows the chronological development of philosophy, form and influence within and on the Modern Movement, illustrated by Eckbo's numerous private garden commissions. Imbert separately investigates Eckbo's communitarian ideas for social landscape architecture demonstrated in migrant farm workers' housing for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Farm Security Association, and later, in Los Angeles' early planned residential communities.

The work is a recommended detailed case study for those interested in the Modern Movement and the development of Modernism in landscape design in the US. Impeccable sources include Eckbo himself as well as comprehensive archives of his drawings. It is enriched with many early drawings and site photographs, a biographical and professional chronology and a contemporaneous biography.