Specific and critical tools for the consideration and evaluation of landscape architecture are notibly absent from the literature. Barely an attempt at some sort of critical consensus has been worked out among the various disciplines and professions that together create landscape architecture. This thesis provides a rigorous framework for critical analysis.

By narrowing the evaluative field to the entries and results of two memorial deisgn competitions (The Kent State Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial), thereby limiting the number of factors to be taken into account, this thesis strives to present a method of qualitative analysis based on "abstract" aesthetics features that will clarify the tasks presented to the landscape architect. Although it is impossible to be completely objective, the thesis, by nature of its structure, lies open to study and criticism. By schematizing various concepts involved and linking them in a meaningful way this approach to landscape analysis may provide the information that can be used to further understand our field.