Reply To: To What Extent Should Ethics and Environemtnal Issues Drive Landscape Architects in their Projects

[Trace One]

so we are mediators? that is where I disagree. I think we should be leaders. Olmstead’s interpretation of democracy in park design was new – as was his re-interpretation of the site, for the Prospect Park competition. Ian McHarg was famously argumentative, whether for drainage or GIS..Is it enough to simply install more drip irrigation in the central valley, when we can define our jobs as not using any water in the landscape at all? And if we cannot see where our responsiblity lies, as ‘stewards of the earth’ , then we must rely on others to tell us where our responsiblity begins and ends? Everyone chimes in with the great schools of environmental design – Cal Poly Davis, Cal Poly SLO, but they should be called the great schools of doing what has been done already for thirty years, the great schools of interpreting what they think ‘public opinion’ is, by some non-existent polls…(man I love abstract arguments like this! sorry!) I am not saying don’t do the strip malls. I am just saying we need to try a lot harder, and have a lot more faith in our leadership in design..and designing for conservation….