In this issue of ‘scape, the theme ‘across’ comes up again and again: crossing borders between north and south, between academics and practice, between students and professionals, between residents and researchers, between tradition and experiment, between rich and poor, and between disciplines. The reviews in the back of this issue are about making views and about designing and constructing a route to them. In Philadelphia, the squirrel used to be able to travel from east to west through the foliage. Now that was ‘across’!