ON THE COVER: Al Fay Park in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, by SLA. Photo by SLA/Phillip Handforth.

Featured Story: “Play It Cool,” by Jessica Bridger. A desert forest is a surprising sight in the booming heart of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. For the popular Al Fay Park, Copenhagen-based SLA used local materials and resilient native plants in unexpected ways, creating engaging settings for play and rest.

Also in this issue:

▪ NOW: Civitas brings a secluded park in Idaho into view; the Albert Kahn-designed Ford House gets an exceptional update to its Jens Jensen landscape (online here); a controversial native plant ordinance in Palm Beach, Florida, raises hackles; a garden enables a Black community’s return to Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood (view here); and a living shoreline at a Virginia resort restores habitat and access. 

▪PLANNING: “Game Changer,” by Lisa Owens Viani. Shorter, wilder courses and ample room for habitat are just some of the transformations coming to golf.

▪GOODS: “Safe Bets,” by Laurie A. Shuster. Artful ways to defend people and places.

▪“Here in Spirit,” by Regina M. Flanagan, ASLA. Indigenous art, technology, and performance expand the boundaries of land art in the Midwest.

▪BOOK REVIEW: “The Mass-Produced Forest,” by Jennifer Wolch. A review of Plant Life: The Entangled Politics of Afforestation, by Rosetta S. Elkin.

▪BACKSTORY: Spiegel Aihara Workshop designs cascading social gardens in Silicon Valley.