To heal the earth : selected writings of Ian L. McHarg

396 Pages·1998·28.313 MB·English

by  McHarg, Ian L., Steiner, Frederick R.

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To Heal the Earth

To Heal the Earth
Selected Writings of Ian L. McHarg
Edited by Ian L. McHarg and
Frederick R. Steiner
Foreword by Robert D. Yaro
ISLAND PRESS
Washington, D.C. + Covelo, California
Copyright© 1998 by Island Press
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Con
ventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
means without permission in writing from the publisher: Island Press, 1718
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Acknowledgment of permission to reprint previously published material
appears on pages 361-362.
ISLAND PRESS is a trademark of The Center for Resource Economics.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McHarg, Ian L.
[Selections. 1998]
To heal the earth : the selected writings of Ian L. McHarg I
edited by Ian L. McHarg and Frederick R. Steiner : foreword by Bob
Yaro.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 1-55963-573-8
1. Landscape ecology. 2. Land use-Planning-Environmental
aspects. 3. Landscape design-Environmental aspects. I. Steiner,
Frederick R. II. Title.
QH541.15.L35M38 1998 98-3337
577.5'5-dc21 CIP
@
Printed on recycled, acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 54 3 2 1
Contents
Foreword by Robert D. Yaro ix
Preface xm
Introduction by Frederick R. Steiner 1
Part I. Changing the Nature of Design and Planning:
Theoretical Writings 5
Chapter 1. Man and Environment 10
Chapter 2. The Place of Nature in the City of Man 24
Chapter 3. Ecological Determinism 39
Chapter 4. Values, Process and Form 57
Chapter 5. Natural Factors in Planning 72
Part II. Planning the Ecological Region 85
Chapter 6. Regional Landscape Planning 94
Chapter 7. Open Space from Natural Processes 108
Chapter 8. Must We Sacrifice the West? 132
Chapter 9. Ecological Planning: The Planner as Catalyst 139
Chapter 10. Human Ecological Planning at Pennsylvania 142
Part III. Form and Function Are Indivisible 157
Chapter 11. The Court House Concept 163
Chapter 12. Architecture in an Ecological View of the World 175
Chapter 13. Nature Is More Than a Garden 186
Chapter 14. Landscape Architecture 188
Chapter 15. Ecology and Design 194
Vll
viii Contents
Part IV. Revealing the Genius of the Place: Methods and
Techniques for Ecological Planning 203
Chapter 16. An Ecological Method for Landscape
Architecture 212
Chapter 17. A Comprehensive Highway Route.
Selection Method 219
Chapter 18. Biological Alternatives to Water Pollution 234
Chapter 19. A Case Study in Ecological Planning: The Woodlands,
Texas (with Arthur H. Johnson and Jonathan Berger) 242
Part V. Linking Knowledge to Action 265
Chapter 20. Plan for the Valleys vs. Spectre of Uncontrolled Growth
(with David A. Wallace) 271
Chapter 21. An Ecological Planning Study for Wilmington and
Dover, Vermont (with Wallace, McHarg, Roberts,
and Todd) 278
Chapter 22. Ecological Plumbing for the Texas Coastal Plain (with
Jonathan Sutton) 325
Chapter 23. A Strategy for a National Ecological Inventory (with
John Radke, Jonathan Berger, and Kathleen Wallace) 341
Prospectus 357
Acknowledgment of Sources 361
Index 363
Foreword
When historians in the next millennium look back at the second half of the
twentieth century, in all likelihood the wars, revolutions, and internecine
struggles of this violent period will fade in significance. But one revolution
ary movement that emerged in this century, the global environmental move
ment, will continue to shape events in the next.
The products of this international movement and its underlying ethic
have already profoundly changed the way the world manages its environ
ment, as witnessed by the 1992 Rio conference, Agenda 21, and the 1997
Kyoto climate accords. In the United States and other developed countries,
national environmental protection agencies and environmental impact
review procedures have been established. And in a growing number of coun
tries, effective national, regional, state, and local plans, as well as a rapidly
expanding legion of environmental advocacy groups now protect landscapes
and communities from the destructive effects of urban sprawl. Perhaps most
important, polls in the United States and other developed countries show
environmental protection to be immensely popular with the general public.
Although much remains to be done to heal the planet, at least now we under
stand the extent of the environmental threats we face, and we have a growing
number of tools to protect them.
How did this movement and these tools emerge? They certainly are not
inevitable. In 1949 Aldo Leopold proposed a new environmental ethic and a
new relationship between people and the land in A Sand County Almanac. In
the 1960s Rachel Carson popularized scientific concerns about the destruc
tion of the environment in her 1962 classic, Silent Spring.
But it was Ian McHarg, a University of Pennsylvania professor and prac
ticing landscape architect who, hearing the environmental alarm sounded by
Carson and others, brought it home to the general public, and in particular,
to the design and planning professions. McHarg made it clear that as a ter
restrial species, we homo sapiens have to be at least as concerned about
destruction of the land as we were about the destruction of the atmosphere,
the seas, and the habitats of other species.
McHarg popularized his views through his classic 1969 book Design with
Nature and through dozens of professional articles. His CBS television series
The House We Live In reached a mass audience and was surely the most ver-
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