1988 was a terrible time to graduate as a landscape architect. Government departments were being rogered, private practice was just a baby in Frank Boffa’s arms, and the RMA had been conceived but was not yet born. Undeterred, the fab four of Lister, Irwin, Jones and Falconer headed home to Auckland and set up Isthmus Group – pumping gas to supplement their meagre incomes.

Twenty five years on and Isthmus have grown from a boy in shorts to become, in my opinion, the country’s pre-eminent landscape architecture and urban design practice.

Coast. Country. Neighbourhood. City. is not a retrospective; rather, it documents 25 projects that express Isthmus’ quite personal ideology, style and body of work. Although four has become two, David Irwin and Gavin Lister showcase the firm’s diversity and sustainability as a design company that now includes architecture.

While it might be tempting to credit Isthmus’ growth from upstarts to maturity to an era of free-market ideology and Auckland as mothership, this would be to seriously undervalue Isthmus’ directors, associates and staff.

The defining character of Isthmus’ work, as lucidly demonstrated in this book, is the high quality of their built work – sustainable change requires quality placemaking.

Coast. Country. Neighbourhood. City. contains outstanding examples of why we become designers – it shows what is possible.