landscape perspectives

Welcome to a new website from Canada that will discuss and explore issues in landscape and urban design within the North American and international context. A special area of focus is Canadian landscape history, the subject of the book Landscape Architecture in Canada by Ron Williams, published in April 2014 in English and French.

Landscape Perspectives

The Landscape Perspectives website will provide information about the book Landscape Architecture in Canada, including recent reviews and interviews, upcoming lectures, related and follow-up research, and will feature hitherto unpublished travel notes written during the book’s extensive research stage. It will also reprint seminal articles on Canadian landscape history, many written some years ago and only available in long out-of-print magazines and compendiums.

The site will also include a variety of short articles, photographs, and discussions on landscape and urban design subjects; and will provide links to related articles, lectures, interviews and previously-published documents, as well as recommendations to the design community about suggested books and essays to read, and about upcoming events and activities.

We hope to appeal to an international audience of people involved in the design of landscapes and urban areas, and to help create an internet-linked community of interest in these fields. This community includes landscape architects in Canada and abroad; members of related professions such as architecture, urban planning, and geography, as well as students and scholars in all of these areas; those interested in the study and preservation of historic landscapes and urban settlements, and members of garden clubs and horticultural societies.

Additional content

New thoughts and reflections on a variety of subjects in this range of themes will be posted on a fairly regular basis. Specific posts might look at:

  • the making of the landscape: vernacular and designed landscapes of Canada and other countries
  • historic towns and city neighbourhoods, featuring brief sketches of their evolution
  • cross-cultural comparisons of landscape and urban design traditions
  • vignettes featuring people who have played an important role in designing or initiating significant landscape/urban design projects, including design professionals, academics, members of related professions, along with clients, developers, and patrons
  • current issues and innovations – some controversial – in the design field
  • and an occasional foray into architecture, primarily vernacular and only rarely focussing on marquee projects
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A white-haired man sits, smiling, before a bookshelf, his shirt-pocket filled with pens.

Ron Williams, a longtime professor and former director of the School of Landscape Architecture at the Université de Montréal, is a practising architect and landscape architect and a member of the Order of Canada.

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Landscape Architecture in Canada
landscape architecture in canada by Ron Williams

Landscape Architecture in Canada is a history of the man-made landscapes of Canada, seen from a broad geographical and cultural perspective. It is the first book to recount the full range of projects, people and ideas that have created the landscape architecture of Canada.

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