"Given the devastation of Hurricane Harvey and an awakening to the importance of resilience planning in Houston, Texas, and other coastal cities, Americans would be well advised to reexamine the planning principles of Ian McHarg. Bo Yangs rigorous assessment of McHargs work clearly demonstrates the benefits of McHargs approach, as well as, the shortcomings of conventional planning in Houston and the shortsighted abandonment of McHargs principles by the new owners of the Woodlands after 1997. Yang beautifully illustrates how the creative collaboration between two visionaries developer, George Mitchell, and landscape architect, Ian McHarg provided a blueprint for a more sustainable future for America." Kurt Culbertson, Chairman and CEO, Design Workshop, USA
"Design is rife with new ideas and innovations that are widely touted but rarely assessed to see how well they fulfilled their intentions, particularly over the long-term. In this thoughtful analysis, Bo Yang reviews the current state of landscape performance scholarship in the landscape architecture discipline, highlights Ian McHarg as a pioneer in landscape performance, and provides the evidence to support McHargs ecological design theory, focusing on present-day issues of flooding and urban resilience." Barbara Deutsch, FASLA, CEO, Landscape Architecture Foundation, USA
"When it comes to the planning of human settlements, the application of a new theory into built form is fraught with challenges. In 1969, Ian McHarg put forth a bold new theory in Design with Nature: ecology should guide design and planning. His theory was implemented by Texas oil man and developer George Mitchell in The Woodlands near Houston. Bo Yang provides a wonderfully detailed analysis of the application of McHargs theory in the planning of The Woodlands, illustrating that we can indeed use ecological wisdom to design with nature." Frederick Steiner, Dean and Paley Profe
