"My goal is to change the way people see and how human settlements are designed and built. That is why I write. I want to tell an engaging story and to inspire readers to shape the world into a humane habitat."In 2001, Spirn received the International Cosmos Prize for "contributions to the harmonious coexistence of nature and mankind." Her first book, The Granite Garden, is credited with "touching off the ecological urbanism movement." Her next book, The Language of Landscape, argues that landscape is a form of human language, and that we endanger ourselves by failing to learn and use this language. Daring to Look reflects on how the dynamics Dorothea Lange photographed in the Great Depression are still shaping American lives and landscapes. Spirn's most recent book, The Eye Is a Door, invites readers to pick up a camera and use it to see, think, and discover the stories landscapes tell. Currently, she is working on a book about the West Philadelphia Landscape Project, which she has directed since 1987.