McHarg, Ian

McHarg, Ian

(1920– ) landscape architect; born in Clydebank, Scotland. Landscape architecture drew McHarg to the United States, first as a teenage apprentice (1936–39), and then as a student at Harvard University after World War II (1946–50). Edinburgh's (Scotland) first landscape architect (1950–54), he returned permanently to create the University of Pennsylvania's department of landscape architecture (1954–82). In Design with Nature (1969) he wrote that ecological considerations should determine architectural decisions. His nationwide firm, Wallace, McHarg, Roberts and Todd (1960–81), did projects from Texas to Africa.