Genius of Place PDF Download

Author: Justin Martin
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0306818817
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 494

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Book Description
This definitive, first full-scale biography of Olmsted--famed designer of New York's Central Park--reveals him also as a brilliant political and social reformer.

Author: Robin S. Karson
Publisher: Univ of Massachusetts Press
ISBN: 9781558496361
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
Robin Karson traces the development of a distinctly American style of landscape design through an analysis of seven country places created by some of the nation's most talented landscape practitioners.

Author: Justin Martin
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0306819848
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description
Frederick Law Olmsted is arguably the most important historical figure that the average American knows the least about. Best remembered for his landscape architecture, from New York's Central Park to Boston's Emerald Necklace to Stanford University's campus, Olmsted was also an influential journalist, early voice for the environment, and abolitionist credited with helping dissuade England from joining the South in the Civil War. This momentous career was shadowed by a tragic personal life, also fully portrayed here. Most of all, he was a social reformer. He didn't simply create places that were beautiful in the abstract. An awesome and timeless intent stands behind Olmsted's designs, allowing his work to survive to the present day. With our urgent need to revitalize cities and a widespread yearning for green space, his work is more relevant now than it was during his lifetime. Justin Martin restores Olmsted to his rightful place in the pantheon of great Americans.

Author: Wes Jackson
Publisher: Catapult
ISBN: 158243848X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
Locavore leaders such as Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, and Barbara Kingsolver all speak of the need for sweeping changes in how we get our food. A longtime leader of this movement is Wes Jackson, who for decades has taken it upon himself to speak for the land, to speak for the soil itself. Here, he offers a manifesto toward a conceptual revolution: Jackson asks us to look to natural ecosystems—or, if one prefers, nature in general—as the measure against which we judge all of our agricultural practices. Jackson believes the time is right to do away with annual monoculture grains, which are vulnerable to national security threats and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs. Soil erosion and the poisons polluting our water and air—all associated with agriculture from its beginnings—foretell a population with its natural fertility greatly destroyed. In this eloquent and timely volume, Jackson argues we must look to nature itself to lead us out of the mess we've made. The natural ecosystems will tell us, if we listen, what should happen to the future of food.

Author: Eric Weiner
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451691688
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Tag along on this New York Times bestselling “witty, entertaining romp” (The New York Times Book Review) as Eric Winer travels the world, from Athens to Silicon Valley—and back through history, too—to show how creative genius flourishes in specific places at specific times. In this “intellectual odyssey, traveler’s diary, and comic novel all rolled into one” (Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness), acclaimed travel writer Weiner sets out to examine the connection between our surroundings and our most innovative ideas. A “superb travel guide: funny, knowledgeable, and self-deprecating” (The Washington Post), he explores the history of places like Vienna of 1900, Renaissance Florence, ancient Athens, Song Dynasty Hangzhou, and Silicon Valley to show how certain urban settings are conducive to ingenuity. With his trademark insightful humor, this “big-hearted humanist” (The Wall Street Journal) walks the same paths as the geniuses who flourished in these settings to see if the spirit of what inspired figures like Socrates, Michelangelo, and Leonardo remains. In these places, Weiner asks, “What was in the air, and can we bottle it?” “Fun and thought provoking” (Miami Herald), The Geography of Genius reevaluates the importance of culture in nurturing creativity and “offers a practical map for how we can all become a bit more inventive” (Adam Grant, author of Originals).

Author: Stephanie Barron
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0553578391
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
For everyone who loves Jane Austen...The fourth engaging mystery in the series that recasts the well-loved author as a sleuth! In the waning days of summer, Jane Austen is off to the Canterbury Races, where the rich and fashionable gamble away their fortunes. It is an atmosphere ripe for scandal—but even Jane is unprepared for the shocking drama that unfolds. A flamboyant French beauty, known for her brazen behavior, is found gruesomely strangled in a shabby chaise. While many urge the arrest of a known scoundrel with eyes for the victim, Jane looks further afield and finds a number of acquaintances behaving oddly. As rumors spread like wildfire that Napoleon's fleet is bound for Kent, Jane suspects that the murder was an act of war rather than a crime of passion. Suddenly the peaceful fields of Kent are a very dangerous place...and Jane's thirst for justice may exact the steepest price of all—her life.

Author: John Dixon Hunt
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262580922
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
A garden classic, The Genius of the Place reveals that the history of landscape gardening is much more than a history of design and style; it opens up a wide perspective of English cultural history, showing how landscape gardening was gradually transformed over two centuries into an art that has been widely imitated throughout Europe and North America. The English landscape garden is richly documented in this anthology. Over 100 illustrations accompany writings that range from Francis Bacon to Jane Austin; from the early 1600s, when Englishmen began to determine their own concept and form of the garden, through the first half of the eighteenth century when its distinctive feature emerged, to the heyday of the landscape garden under "Capability" Brown and the reactions to his pure formalism under Repton and Loudon in the 1800s. This edition contains a new introduction and bibliography covering the many developments in garden history during the last dozen years.

Author: Jaym Gates
Publisher: Tales of the Spirit of Place
ISBN: 9781947659445
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Tales of guardian spirits and divine powers by Seanan McGuire, Ken Liu, Alethea Kontis, Laura Anne Gilman, Scott Edelman and more. Guardian spirits. Divine presences. Demonic powers. Ghosts. The concept of "genius loci" is indeed an ancient one, found in nearly every human mythology. Genius Loci is a huge anthology of 31 all-new fantasy and science fiction stories drawing on the rich tradition of place-as-person. Within its pages, the authors present stories of sentient deserts, beneficent forests, lonely shrubs, and protective planetary spirits, highlighted by the fantastic art of Lisa A. Grabenstetter and Evan M. Jensen., and edited by Jaym Gates.

Author: Linda Lappin
Publisher: Travelers' Tales
ISBN: 1609521048
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
In this engaging creative writing workbook, novelist and poet Linda Lappin presents a series of insightful exercises to help writers of all genres—literary travel writing, memoir, poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction—discover imagery and inspiration in the places they love. Lappin departs from the classical concept of the Genius Loci, the indwelling spirit residing in every landscape, house, city, or forest—to argue that by entering into contact with the unique energy and identity of a place, writers can access an inexhaustible source of creative power. The Soul of Place provides instruction on how to evoke that power. The writing exercises are drawn from many fields—architecture, painting, cuisine, literature and literary criticism, geography and deep maps, Jungian psychology, fairy tales, mythology, theater and performance art, metaphysics—all of which offer surprising perspectives on our writing and may help us uncover raw materials for fiction, essays, and poetry hidden in our environment. An essential resource book for the writer’s library, this book is ideal for creative writing courses, with stimulating exercises adaptable to all genres. For writers or travelers about to set out on a trip abroad, The Soul of Place is the perfect road trip companion, attuning our senses to a deeper awareness of place.

Author: Eric Parry
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 111894674X
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Demonstrates how a building's setting should inform and inspirerather than constrain architectural design Context-Architecture and the Genius of Place is a highlyengaging, informative discussion of context in architectural theoryand practice. Eric Parry, one of the UK's most highly regardedarchitects — whose work has been widely lauded for itsinnovative response to its setting — addresses thecontemporary definition of context and its importance forsustainable everyday living and urban design. Looking beyond theformal agenda to explore the fundamentals that give new social andcultural perspective to this vital point of departure fordesigners, this book turns the urban statistician's telescopicfocus on global trends inside out for a better understanding of thecultural and physical conditions that make archetypes like theParisian Café, the London High Street, the Baltic City Square,and the Mumbai Market part of the architect's lexicon. Frompavement to landscape, readers will examine how context must betaken into account at every stage in the design process. This book draws on the author's extensive experience withincomplex urban settings to show how the existing fabric and socialconditions can provide an essential starting point for new design,offering a framework for thinking about design responses and theirrelationship to cultural origins of place. Discover the importance of orientation Develop a sequential understanding of urban space Hear the dialogue between parts within a whole Differentiate the uses of formal and informal Whereas existing urban settings, particularly historic citycenters, are generally regarded as limiting to architecturalcreativity, this book presents context as grounds for inspirationrather than constraint. When used correctly, these techniquescreate the feeling that a new building has always been there,simply because it "fits". Context explains the methodsbehind brilliant architecture, helping designers create buildingsthat not only belong, but can provide a catalyst to urban life.