"The landscape I project is no longer one of pastoral scenery," says landscape architect James Corner, "but now a more heterogeneous and active ground."

James Corner has distinguished himself in the profession by his salutary efforts to reinvigorate what was once a more recognized discipline. He is breaking down traditional barriers and working with graphic artists, photographers, and artists from other fields, as he and photographer Alex MacLean did in their stunning book of aerial photography Taking Measures Across the American Landscape (Yale University Press, 1996). Corner wants us to see the landscape from novel perspectives-either through writing or practice-and to understand it as process. His theories have touched such celebrated projects as the redevelopment of London's Royal Docks and the design of Liverpool's International Garden Festival Park.

Corner heads James Corner/Field Operations, a landscape architectural and urban design practice in Philadelphia, and is the Chairman of Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania where he teaches. He has won numerous citations for his work, ranging from the French Embassy Garden Competition in New York (on which he is working with architect Stan Allen) to the Warrington Town Park competition in England. James Corner's passion for landscapes ultimately resides in their profundity. "Their slow accrual escapes the quick-fix, throwaway culture of images and commodities. This is perhaps why landscape experiences are both lasting and deep."