It has become conventional to think of urbanism and landscape as opposing one another--or to think of landscape as merely providing temporary relief from urban life as shaped by buildings and infrastructure. But, driven in part by environmental concerns, landscape has recently emerged as a model and medium for the city, with some theorists arguing
"Suffice to say, as one of the leading voices and purveyors of landscape urbanism, there is no better guide to the subject than Charles Waldheim. As such, Landscape as Urbanism: A General Theory stands in a league of its own, not only as a summary of Waldheim's work on the subject to-date, but also as a convincing and powerful argument for the relevance of landscape as a lens through which the contemporary city must be engaged."---Erick Villagomez, Spacing