City Lights.('The Architecture of Landscape, 1940-1960' and 'Urban Landscapes')(Book Review)(Brief Article)

As New Yorkers consider their choices for a reimagined downtown skyline, two new books take helpful looks at the urban milieu. THE ARCHITECTURE OF LANDSCAPE, 1940-1960 (Pennsylvania), edited by Marc Treib, presents the city as an organism, capable of healthy growth but susceptible to illness. An essay by Thorbjorn Andersson describes Sweden as an early laboratory for landscape architects: Stockholm's congested downtown was plagued by tuberculosis epidemics and other health problems until the nineteen-fifties, when city planners restructured the afflicted areas to allow for more air and light. And in postwar Berlin, a food shortage prompted the landscape architect Georg Pniower to design "fruit landscapes" with one-family homes and vegetable gardens.

The plotting of city lines defines George Tice's photographs; in URBAN LANDSCAPES ...