John Ormsbee Simonds

It's painfully obvious that too many mainstream watershapers are satisfied to treat each site in basically the same way.  By contrast, I go to great lengths to examine each space from a variety of perspectives, and the fruits of that effort are reflected in the design work that follows.  In fact, if I had to point to a single aspect of my design work that most often sets me apart from my competition, it's the detail I go into when examining a site.   Certainly the best book I've ever read about site planning and analysis is the one I first encountered during my second year in college.  Written by John Ormsbee Simonds, a distinguished instructor at Harvard Design School and Michigan State University, Landscape Architecture:  A Manual of Site Planning and Design (McGraw Hill, 1983) is one of the most complete treatments of