Product Description

'Studies in repetition and order, orchestrations of movement in the landscape, and elements placed in geometric conversation,' is how author Mary Myers describes the twenty-five-year career of San Francisco-based landscape architect Andrea Cochran. Poetic language suits these functional and often lyrical works of art. They are sensuous, captivating oases that absorb the eye in a totality of spatial composition. Andrea Cochran: Landscapes presents eleven residential, commercial, and institutional landscape projects in detail, including Walden Studios in Alexander Valley, California; the sculpture garden for the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon; and the award-winning Children's Garden in San Francisco.

Andrea Cochran seeks to put her clients' individual narratives in conversation with the land. Her work is distinguished by its careful consideration of site, climate, and existing architecture. A stacked plane of planters, each housing a different variety of succulent, mimics the compression found in hills banked against each other in the distance. Drawing on an encyclopedic knowledge of plant species, Cochran uses vegetation to blur edges, and porous and permeable materials to create grade changes that enlighten and disappear. Materials such as COR-TEN steel allow her to draw boundaries on the land with ultrathin edges while also reflecting the earthy tones of the soil beneath. Cochran's landscapes are clean, but not cold. In her hands, polished black concrete becomes both a quiet reflection of the sky and an instrument to amplify the sound of falling rain; locally quarried stone walls reflect the border walls between valley farms; twisted forms of olive respond to the spreading California oaks dotting distant hills. A combination of harmony, wonder, and surprise awaits wherever her sharp geometry and vibrant plant life meet. Featuring stunning photography, drawings, plans, and an essay by San Francisco Museum of Modern Art curator Henry Urbach, Andrea Cochran: Landscapes celebrates the first twenty-five years of a highly intuitive and reflective creative process.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28506 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781568988122
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"Andrea Cochran has finessed large and small residential gardens and winery estates during the last decade into a body of work that is like nothing we've seen before... Using established principles of modernist landscape planning that she learned at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cochran, 55, creates artful spaces animated with unexpected materials: zigzagging Cor-Ten-lined paths juxtaposed against large expanses of grass, which are bordered by unusual grasses and patches of green and gravel-covered terraces. And yet, the result is always restful." -- Zahid Sardar --The San Francisco Chronicle

"As curator Henry Urbach explains in the forward to Andrea Cochran: Landscapes (Princeton Architectural Press, $50), 'to inhabit one of Cochran's gardens is to be transported into another kind of space... a world that sustains a feeling of simply being.' It's easy to slip into that feeling, even with photographs. Author Mary Myers deconstructs Cochran's 25-year career through 11 projects. Highglights include the Hayes Valley Roof Garden in San Francisco and the Portland Art Museum in Oregon." -- Claire Patterson --American Style Magazine

"Just like modern homes often bring the outside in, San Francisco landscape architect Andrea Cochran's exterior designs extend the modern aesthetic from indoors to the outdoors. A new book by Mary Myers celebrates Cochran's distinct talent.

Published by Princeton Architectural Press, Andrea Cochran: Landscapes is not only a coffee table-ready book filled with stunning photography, it's also an incredible resource for DIYers looking to beautify their own backyards. " -- Miyoko Ohtake --Dwell, March 6, 2009

"Just like modern homes often bring the outside in, San Francisco landscape architect Andrea Cochrans exterior designs extend the modern aesthetic from indoors to the outdoors. A new book by Mary Myers celebrates Cochran's distinct talent.Published by Princeton Architectural Press, Andrea Cochran: Landscapes is not only a coffee table-ready book filled with stunning photography, it's also an incredible resource for DIYers looking to beautify their own backyards." -- Miyoko Ohtake (March 6, 2009) --Dwell Magazine

"Landscape architect Myers discusses the work of Andrea Cochran, a California based landscape architect. Cochran's work is typified by geometric designs and a blending of stone and plant life. Myers points out the more subtle nuances of the gardens especially the use of light. The major part of the book contains color photographs of the gardens, both for private houses and public spaces, such as the San Francisco children's garden. An appendix descries each project giving the plants used and the architectural materials along with a schematic." -- Shannon Hendrickson --Book News

"One of my favorite Landscape Architects has recently published a book,Andrea Cochran: Landscapes ..." --Languid Lovely

"Some landscape architects delight in loading their projects with hidden symbolism, creating gardens that can feel a bit like inscrutable films requiring lots of explanation. Andrea Cochran aims for something more comprehensible. There is no narrative and no irony in my work, said Ms. Cochran, who added that she tries to pare things down till they verge on the edge of emptiness. Her efforts are documented in Andrea Cochran: Landscapes (Princeton Architectural Press, $50), an elegant monograph by Mary Myers. With a small trim size (just over 8 by 10 inches) and no dust jacket, it is as understated as projects like the subtly graphic San Francisco Childrens Garden, below, which Ms. Cochran designed as a showcase garden. Like her landscapes, the book has a quiet classicism that makes it a valuable addition to a gardeners collection." -- Stephen Orr --The New York Times

"The work of Andrea Cochran can be seen, to those of us who have admired landscape design abroad, as finally completing the process of freeing American Landscape Architecture from the curse of postmodern landforms and wacky color cuteness. The work is powerful, but never unbalanced or trendy. Her outdoor spaces are clean, trimmed, and suitable for the modernist sensibility, yet they never feel like accessories to a building. Instead they reverse the relationship: the buildings are totally permeated, even subsumed by Landscape." (February 23, 2009) --Tropolism

Review
"The work of Andrea Cochran can be seen, to those of us who have admired landscape design abroad, as finally completing the process of freeing American Landscape Architecture from the curse of postmodern landforms and wacky color cuteness. The work is powerful, but never unbalanced or trendy. Her outdoor spaces are clean, trimmed, and suitable for the modernist sensibility, yet they never feel like accessories to a building. Instead they reverse the relationship: the buildings are totally permeated, even subsumed by Landscape." (February 23, 2009)

"Just like modern homes often bring the outside in, San Francisco landscape architect Andrea Cochrans exterior designs extend the modern aesthetic from indoors to the outdoors. A new book by Mary Myers celebrates Cochran's distinct talent.Published by Princeton Architectural Press, Andrea Cochran: Landscapes is not only a coffee table-ready book filled with stunning photography, it's also an incredible resource for DIYers looking to beautify their own backyards." -- Miyoko Ohtake (March 6, 2009)

"As curator Henry Urbach explains in the forward to Andrea Cochran: Landscapes (Princeton Architectural Press, $50), 'to inhabit one of Cochran's gardens is to be transported into another kind of space... a world that sustains a feeling of simply being.' It's easy to slip into that feeling, even with photographs. Author Mary Myers deconstructs Cochran's 25-year acareer through 11 projects. Highglights include the Hayes Valley Roof Garden in San Francisco and the Portland Art Museum in Oregon." -- Claire Patterson

Review
"The work of Andrea Cochran can be seen, to those of us who have admired landscape design abroad, as finally completing the process of freeing American Landscape Architecture from the curse of postmodern landforms and wacky color cuteness. The work is powerful, but never unbalanced or trendy. Her outdoor spaces are clean, trimmed, and suitable for the modernist sensibility, yet they never feel like accessories to a building. Instead they reverse the relationship: the buildings are totally permeated, even subsumed by Landscape."

Customer Reviews

An informative monograph
In terms of content, this is what a monograph should be.

The eleven projects are less than ten years old, ranging from 2000 to 2007, and only one project, the Portland Art Museum, is located outside of California. Most of the projects are private residences, but all feature an unmistakable sense of intimacy in scale and composition.

To those familiar with Andrea Cochran's firm, none of this should come as a surprise; this monograph is quite adept at capturing the essence of her practice.

The text is very minimal. Mary Myers' introductory section discusses the main highlights of Cochran's designs; first impressions, craftsmanship, composition, the design process, light, use of materials - both hardscapes and softscapes - color and the deliberate selection of plant materials are all addressed in brief, concise passages. Each project is introduced with a short explanation of important design aspects. Program, composition, design intent, materials and aesthetics are some of what is mentioned.

Photography is excellent, and the book's medium size format complements the layout. This is not a source of construction details, or close-up photography; the images convey more information about landscape composition, design intent and provide an idea as to how the spaces are used. Project credits are well organized and informative, as are the planting index and materials index, which is actually a to-scale materials / planting plan.

Make use of the "Look Inside" feature Amazon provides - the Contents, sample photographs and a large portion of the Mary Myers' text are available for viewing, which should provide more than enough information to those contemplating whether or not to purchase this title.