Ian McHarg

---

To this day, the VPC honors the work and landscape architecture of Ian McHarg (November 20, 1920 – March 5, 2001), author of The Plan for the Valleys. McHarg was born in Clydebank, 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.

In 2000, Libby Rosof conducted an interview with Ian McHarg on behalf of the VPC.

In 2001, the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors approved of the creation of an annual award called The McHarg Award in honor of Ian L. McHarg.