CHAPTER XI 



TYPES OF LANDSCAPE DESIGNS 



When the landscape architect comes to apply to the actual problems Landscape 

 which he handles professionally the knowledge with which his experi- -^^J'^g^{ 

 ence has provided him, he tries to meet the demands of each problem Typical 

 with a design which, though almost necessarily sacrificing some factors Uses 

 which are theoretically desirable, combines on the whole the maximum 

 of esthetic and economic excellence possible for him to create under the 

 particular circumstances.* These circumstances are the local condi- 

 tions of topography, soil, climate, and so on, the financial means avail- 

 able, the preferences of those whom the landscape architect serves as 

 to the appearance and expression of the design, and the economic uses f 

 to which the design is to be put, with their resultant fixing of the sizes 

 and shapes of many parts of the composition. No two problems are 

 ever exactly alike, but very many problems arise in which people of the 

 same general habits, ideals, and social condition desire land to be ar- 

 ranged for use and enjoyment of much the same kind. Beauty of ap- 

 pearance may be sought in many different ways, and where one kind of 

 beauty proves to be impossible with the sizes and shapes nec.essary to 

 be used in the design, another kind may be attained, perhaps at a dif- 

 ferent scale and with a different esthetic expression. Each typical 

 well-defined use, however, has its more or less characteristic effect on 

 the composition, no matter what the other circumstances may be. 

 The result of this fact is that the ordinary work of the landscape ar- 

 chitect falls into classes most readily according to use, and where this 

 use is a common one, — one in which the habits of men are much alike, 

 — the designs which serve this use will have much in common and may 

 well be discussed together. Some of the types of landscape designs 



* Cf. Chapter III, p. 27. t Cf. Chapter II, p. 18. 



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