Waterstained Landscapes : Seeing and Shaping Regionally Distinctive Places

An illustrated essay, narrated by a fictional landscape architect, Ann Crane, who moves from Los Angeles to Colorado's Front Range.

Through Crane, Joan Woodward argues that deriving landscape designs from the natural patterns and processes of a region is key to creating appropriate designs.

Combining elements of a journal, sketchbook, notebook and textbook, the volume focuses on the Denver region and the dry West.

Protagonist Crane learns that tracing the "waterstain" - water concentration and accompanying plant responses - is like reading the braille of western landscapes, a hidden text that reveals information about natural processes and human values.

The book describes the regional processes that shape these plant patterns and goes on to explore how natural and cultural mechanisms change and affect designed and undesigned landscapes over time.

Woodward takes special note of the evolution of landscape design eras, following the fate of one house as its garden changes under the influence of different styles and various owners' tastes.