Reconsidering Ian McHarg

This is a must read for anyone in the design/planning professions. The author's knowledge of McHarg's philosophy and intent is skillfully played with today's challenges facing those who would plan for the future of our cities environments. The book is loaded with case study information and detailed to give clear points of view on what should be the plan for the future of our cities; and for urban development. The new frontier is here; having had this notion myself it is abundantly clear as the author points out that all design professions need to be working together, in concert, to address the livability and survival of our urban environment. A great lesson outlined for humanizing our environment and reclaiming the lost character of development that was once so prevalent in the Baroque period.

The first chapters are by far the strongest, introducing McHarg and staying on-focus in considering his ideas from the perspective of the challenges facing the early 21st century. This makes the book worthwhile, although most readers will rightfully balk at its $40 price tag. (It has about 200 pages of reading material).The book is actually quite pretty, printed on very durable paper and containing many full-color photographs and illustrations. However, it had more than its fair share of typographic errors. The book loses a lot of steam by the time it reaches chapter 5 (not quite half-way through), when the author decides to try to show off his knowledge of art. Yes, art, which he considers a fundamental aspect of planning. And more specifically, public art. But much of this diversion ends up sounding pretentious. Chapter 6 (now half-way through the book) then makes another mis-step, as it becomes clear that the author wants to make his ideas sound loftier, newer, and more complex than they actually are. A part of chapter 5's pretentiousness was the use of a term that readers are asked to accept, "compossible," even though it is not given any good definition after several rambling pages attempt to claim that it's rooted in some sort of old Leibniz idea. Yes, Leibniz the mathematician (although this book really reveals a practical knowledge only of arithmetic). "Compossible" is then referred to thereafter as if it had some sort of significant new meaning over existing words that can actually be found in a dictionary. I was beyond caring, since the author had already proved repeatedly that he was willing to (mis-)use such phrases as "begs the question" without having any idea what the term means. (He seems to think that the word "begs the question" means "raises the question" - yet another example of the folly of parroting phrases randomly picked up in conversation without bothering to find out what they actually mean.)The book is padded with numerous examples of projects that just happened to be handled by the firm to which the author is a part of. These examples tend to be beautifully illustrated, at least, and about as interesting as many of the articles already readily available in the pages of "Planning" magazine. These parts of the book are readable, although they sometimes feel far afield from Ian McHarg. Chapter 7 pitches public art as one of the virtuous new goals that McHarg had shortsightedly ignored. Judging from the often-mystical pronouncements made by this author about the "spiritual" benefits involved, I tend to side with McHarg that it's better for a planning text to stay focused on practical aspects of these things, rather than sidetracking into poetic evocations. The author does favor "densification" of urban areas, having correctly explained in the book's early chapters that McHarg's methods had provided a full justification for several decades of suburban sprawl and auto-dominated developments. Although ecologically designed from a purely local viewpoint, McHarg's exurban and suburban developments fail to support modern conceptions of sustainability. After delaying for a chapter on a consideration of various projects in Dallas, this author finally adds another worthy chapter (Chapter 9) by addressing three levels of environmental consideration that planners can and should address. That framework is marred only by yet another conceit, in using the unlikely word "climax" to describe a kind of equilibrium. I have no idea why such a word was chosen, but I for one am not going to promote this kind of counterintuitive use of what is already a perfectly good word, for a concept that is already described by better (and correctly used) words such as "balance" or "equilibrium." Chapter 10 does end with a good summary.Portions of this book serve as very useful reading to introduce students and non-specialist planners to important topics and examples in environmental planning. The author admits that his main love is landscape architecture, however, so be prepared for plenty of fine detail about types of trees, design features, etc. within his descriptions of the various project examples.Despite the annoyances caused by the author's tone and goofs and various misspellings that have crept past the book's proofreaders (or software), this book actually does have a worthy core. My recommendation would be to read up through page 65, skim over the following 4 chapters (admiring their many colorful photos and illustrations) and then resume reading on page 147 until the book's conclusion on page 179, while gritting your teeth at some of the author's sometimes florid and pretentious writing style. The skipped portions will spare you the worst of the book's faults.Although the author espouses densification, he mostly ignores a direct comparison with the new urbanist planning school. The author perhaps correctly suggests (in Chapter 5, which annoyingly neglects to really explain its reference to "white" as a design ethic) that the term "landscape urbanism" might more properly be referred to instead as (or more usefully thought of and supplanted by) the term "ecological urbanism." These topics should have been given more explanation and exploration in this volume. The next planning book on my reading list, which I hope to address some of these gaps, will be Duany's recent text "Landscape Urbanism and its Discontents," which looks like it will offer four times the substance for half the price.