ON THE COVER: Al Fay Park in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, designed 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 January 5); a controversial native plant ordinance in Palm Beach, Florida, raises hackles; a garden enables a Black community’s return to Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood (online January 26), 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 (online January 12).
• 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, ASLA (online January 19).
• Backstory: Spiegel Aihara Workshop designs cascading social gardens in Silicon Valley.