On the Ground

A New Journal on Landscape Architecture

published by Thousand Words, P.O. Box 9034, Berkeley, CA 94709; 510/883-0433, otg@ontheground.com (e-mail). $32 per year for four issues. Length varies: 32-36 pages.

On the Ground is a large-format, quarterly journal on community, landscape design, and the environment that premiered in the Fall of 1994. Initially, the publication was offered in a multi­media format, with a slide set and video accompanying each issue, but Editor/Publisher Ann Thorpe tells

EBN that they are scaling back to only the print media with the fourth issue, due out this fall. The goal is to publish quarterly, though they have so far not held to this schedule.

We are very impressed with the quality of writing and depth of coverage found in

On the Ground. The first three issues included articles on such wide-ranging topics as infill development, compact village development in rural areas, transportation planning, cleaning up contaminated building sites, greenways, wildlife corridors, wetlands restoration, ecological principles of landscape conservation, and New Urbanism.

The journal uses an interview format quite liberally. The first issue included interviews with Witold Rybczynski, on urbanism and sustainability, and with Doug Kelbaugh, on design and affordability. The second issue (Winter/Spring 1995) contained an interview with pioneering landscape architect Ian McHarg, in which he strongly criticized the mainstream architectural and engineering professions for not being in touch with the natural environment. “I think it’s an outrage,” he said in the interview, “that no school of architecture that I know of in the U.S. requires an architect to learn a single thing about the environment.” The third issue interviewed Dennis Hayes on transportation.

The issues are packed with information—almost too much information. We might prefer a somewhat shorter, smaller-format publication that appeared more frequently. The journal also seems over-designed. While the large-format pages are attractively laid out and include lots of art, we found the frequent changes in type style and page format distracting. Some articles are in a two-column format, others three-column, and the type styles and spacing vary considerably from article to article.

Stylistic concerns aside, we applaud Ann Thorpe and her team in Berkeley for

On the Ground. The publication provides a welcome breath of fresh air among landscape architecture publications. The slant on sustainability and environmental integration is superb.

The initial issues of

On the Ground did not include advertising, but Thorpe expects to gradually increase advertising space as the circulation grows. We hope to see the journal succeed.