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A careful documentarian, Linn photographed his projects and revisited them each decade to observe and record how they were being used or changed. Over the years he layed out many pages of photos and wrote text for several books. His extensive archives are now housed in the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design. When he died in 2005, the structure and most of the images for Building Commons and Community, a book about his commons-building work, were in place, but a lot of editing and integrating of text and layout was still needed. Editor and graphic designer Diana Young, who had worked with Karl for many years on this and other projects, took on the task of completing the book. She drew on archival materials and on observations and images generously provided by some of Karl's collaborators.
Order Building Commons and Community from New Village Press.
New download from Building Commons and Community:
Download Karl's ten-page final chapter, "The Foundations of Commons Building" or a two-page synopsis of the chapter, useful for sharing with team members in a participatory planning process.
In 1986 Karl organized three workshops for the annual meeting of the American Society of Landscape Architects in San Francisco on how environmental designers can contribute to peacemaking. The workshops were taped, transcribed, and edited into a publication called Emerging Landscapes of Peace, published by Architects / Designers/ Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR). In 1988 Karl worked with Carl Anthony to recruit designers and builders to present papers at the World Congress of International Federation of Landscape Architects in Boston and published their papers in a soft-cover book called Places for Peace. Both titles are available intermittently through second-hand booksellers.
Reclaiming the Sacred Commons: In this article, published in the inaugural issue of New Village Journal in 1999, Karl gives a brief history of the enclosure of the commons and describes the sacred relationship between humans and nature. He discusses the growing need to reclaim land and resources for communal use in today's world and practical strategies for doing so.
Down-to-Earth Visionary: Karl Linn cultivates community in his urban gardens. This excellent profile on Karl Linn's life and work by Marilyn Berlin Snell was published in the May-June 2001 issue of Sierra Magazine.
Interview with Karl Linn - Community Gardens: Reclaiming a Commons a 2000 interview with Karl Linn by Richard Whittaker in Works & Conversations, Monthly Conversations with Social Artists, Uncommon Heroes, focusing on the creation and protection of public spaces in which people can connect with nature.
Karl Linn 1923-2005 A brief summary of Karl's life and work by Diana Young, published in YES! magazine.
