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Summary: Creating Gardens in Los Angeles in the 1920s
Review: I love this book. The writing is totally conversational, effortless to read, yet full of insight and humor. A.E. Hanson practiced landscape architecture for many years in southern California, and during the 20s he became very successful creating gardens for wealthy clients. His biggest and most notable commission was the Harold Lloyd estate which he created (including hiring and directing the architect) over the course of several years before the depression.Every landscape architect and landscape contractor will enjoy this book. His descriptions of the problems he faced, and the way he dealt with them, are amusing and inspiring. He describes, for instance, walking through a gulley in Benedict Canyon, a miserable eroded dry wash, and telling Harold Lloyd (who has just purchased it) that, "sure, no problem, we can put a golf course here" then going back to his car and sitting with his head in his hands for half an hour wondering how in the hell he was ever going to deliver on his promise. Needless to say, he delivered, and the story of how he did what he did makes a great story. Everyone who has ever built anything big knows the huge effort required to carve beauty out of inanimate and uncooperative materials ( and dealing with clients, architects, and builders) . You will relate to A.E.'s story, and you will learn something. A great book. Lots of black-and-white illustrations, many (if not most) from the period, illustrate the text very well. Like all Hennessy & Ingalls publications, it suffers a bit from mediocre printing, but it is a nice looking paper-back book and that's a small quibble. Well worth the price.
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