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- Ian L. McHarg (November 20, 1920 - March 5, 2001) was born in Scotland and became a landscape architect and a renowned writer on regional planning using natural systems. He was the founder of the department of landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. His 1969 book Design with Nature pioneered the concept of ecological planning. It continues to be one of the most widely celebrated books on landscape architecture and land-use planning. In this book, he set forth the basic concepts that were to develop later in Geographic Information Systems. His father was a local minister in the industrial city of Glasgow. McHarg showed an early talent for drawing and was advised to consider a career in landscape architecture. In Glasgow he gained an appreciation of the need for cities to accommodate the qualities of the natural environment better, which had been greatly lacking in the city. It was not until after his term in the British Parachute Brigade, serving in war-stricken Italy during World War II, however, that he was able to explore this idea further. After working with the Royal Engineers during World War II, he traveled to America. He was admitted to the school of architecture at Harvard University where he received professional degrees in both landscape architecture and city planning. After completing his education he returned to his homeland intending to help rebuild a country ravaged by war. In Scotland he worked on housing and programs in new towns, until he was contacted by Dean G. Holmes Perkins from the University of Pennsylvania. Dean Perkins wanted McHarg to build a new graduate program in landscape architecture at the University. Soon thereafter, McHarg began teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, where he developed the department of landscape architecture, as well as offering a new course entitled, Man and Environment. The course featured leading scholars whom McHarg invited to his class to discuss ethics and values, as well as other ideas like entropy and plate tectonics. Through the 1960s and 1970s, his course was the most popular on campus In 1960, he hosted his own television show on CBS, The House We Live In. On the show, he invited prominent theologians and scientists of the day to discuss our place in the world, similar to the style he honed teaching "Man and Environment. " In 1963 Ian McHarg and David A. Wallace, his academic colleague from the University of Pennsylvania, founded the firm of Wallace and McHarg Associates, later Wallace McHarg Roberts & Todd (WMRT) which is known for its central role in the development of the American environmental planning and urbanism movements. The seminal work of the firm includes the plan for Baltimore's Inner Harbor, the Plan for the Valleys in Baltimore County, MD, and the Plan for Lower Manhattan in New York City from 1963 through 1965. In 1969, he published, Design with Nature, which was essentially, a book of step-by-step instructions on how to break down a region into its appropriate uses (Wenz, 2). McHarg also was interested in garden design and believed that homes should be planned and designed with good private garden space. He promotes an ecological view, where the designer becomes very familiar with the area through analysis of soil, climate, hydrology, etc. The book was the first of its kind "to define the problems of modern development and present a methodology or process prescribing compatible solutions" The book also had an impact on a variety of fields and ideas. Frederick Steiner tells us that "environmental impact assessment, new community development, coastal zone management, brownfields restoration, zoo design, river corridor planning, and ideas about sustainability and regenerative design all display the influence of Design with Nature" McHarg said his book, Design with Nature is sharply critical of the French style of garden design, which he saw as a subjugation of nature, and is full of praise for the English style of garden design, which he saw as a precursor of his 'design with nature' philosophy. Following the publication of Design with Nature Wallace McHarg Roberts & Todd (WMRT) worked in major American cities - Minneapolis, Denver, Miami, New Orleans, and Washington (DC) - and created environmentally-based master plans for Amelia and Sanibel Islands in Florida. In 1971 McHarg delivered a speech at the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Portland, Oregon, called "Man: Planetary Disease. " In the speech he asserted that, due to the views of man and nature that have infiltrated all of western culture, we are not guaranteed survival. Of man, McHarg said, "He treats the world as a storehouse existing for his delectation; he plunders, rapes, poisons, and kills this living system, the biosphere, in ignorance of its workings and its fundamental value. " To this end man is a "planetary disease", who has lived with no regard for nature. He discusses how in the Judeo-Christian traditions, the Bible says that man is to have dominion over the earth. McHarg says that for man to survive, this idea must be taken as an allegory only, and not as literally true. Lest this statement be construed as anti-religion, he cites Paul Tillich (Protestantism), Gustav Weigel (Catholicism), and Abram Heschel (Judaism) as noted religious scholars who are also in agreement with him on this point. Ian McHarg was the original co-designer of The Woodlands, Texas, an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Texas. This community was developed from timberland located thirty miles north of Houston, by George P. Mitchell, who hired McHarg to consult on the project and, as a result, the original plans featured many of his unique designs. Due in part to concerns of flooding, McHarg identified the water system as the most critical aspect of the site. The natural drainage system the firm designed was successful at limiting the runoff with which McHarg was concerned, and was also much cheaper than a conventional drainage system would have been. In 1998, in his collection To Heal the Earth, McHarg wrote that the Woodlands is the one of the best examples of his ideals. Most of the actual work was done by a large team while McHarg was still there, and by many others in the years since he left. The Woodlands continues to be a successful ecological community even today. McHarg's own plans for urban expansion projects also were more 'English' than 'French' in their geometry. He favored what became known as 'cluster development' with relatively dense housing set in a larger natural environment. In 1975 WMRT began the planning phase of a project for the Shah of Iran, an environmental park to be called Pardisan, unlike any the world had ever seen . The park was to demonstrate the heritage of the Iranian people, as well as to illustrate the major ecosystems of the world. McHarg was enthusiastic about this project, and greatly invested in the work. The other partners of the firm, however, believed the project to be a significant risk, despite the fact that Iran was wealthy from the sale of oil. Their concerns became justified when the Shah was overthrown and the firm was left with a large amount of debt from the project. Pardisan was never constructed. In 1980 Ian McHarg left the firm he founded and the firm changed its name to Wallace Roberts & Todd (WRT). The legacy of Ian McHarg remains evident in the firm's work, as Wallace Roberts & Todd (WRT) continues to be a leader in environmental planning and design both nationally and now internationally with a practice that comprises offices in Philadelphia, New York, Miami, Dallas, San Diego, and San Francisco. In 1996, McHarg published his autobiography A Quest for Life. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Harvard Lifetime Achievement Award, the Pioneer Award from the American Institute of Certified Planners, and 15 medals, including the 1990 National Medal of Art and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture from the University of Virginia In 2000, he received the Japan Prize in city planning, which is presented to scientists or researchers who have made a substantial contribution to the advancement of those fields. He was also instrumental in the founding of Earth Week, and participated on task forces on environmental issues for the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Carter administrations Ian McHarg died on March 5, 2001 at age eighty from pulmonary disease.
- Ian L. McHarg est un architecte paysagiste britannique, le fondateur du Département d'architecture paysagiste de l'Université de la Pennsylvanie.
- イアン・マクハーグ（Ian L. McHarg 1920年11月20日 - 2001年3月5日）はアメリカの造園学者、ランドスケープアーキテクト。ペンシルベニア大学ランドスケープアーキテクチュア・地域計画学部の創立者で、ペンシルベニア大学名誉教授。環境デザイン分野でエコロジカル・プランニングの方法論を確立する1969年に出版された著「Design with Nature」で有名。この本等でわれわれをとりまく環境を自然と社会の総和として捉え、わかりやすく提示した。日本語版も1993年に出版され、現在でも環境プランニングの専門家ランドスケープアーキテクトや環境プランナー、デザイナーなどに広く読まれている。
- Ian L. McHarg – szkocki urbanista i architekt krajobrazu, od 1946 działający w Stanach Zjednoczonych. W 1984 odznaczony Medalem ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects).
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