Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Steve Mercer on November 20, 2010 at 3:42pm

The first thing I think I would do is become a landscape designer. Go to work for a Garden Center that will let you start learning how to design. In the mean time you will be required depending on the school you plan to attend for your LA degree to take numerous Horticulture classes. Many times the owner of a real good Garden Center has more practical experiance on Landscape Design than many LA with the initials behind their name. Doing Design at a Garden Center... maybe start out on a Landscape crew and gradually work your way up to a selling position. I you don't like the landscape design portion you will hate LA. It really helps to have knowledge of the landscape contracting side of the business as when you graduate you will be dealing with these folks. Knowing how they operate and what short cuts they tend to take will help you spot those potential problems later when they will be working for you.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Mercer on November 20, 2010 at 3:46pm

One more thing before you commit to a particular LA program go talk to Garden Centers and top Landscape contractors that see the work the LA graduates of the program you are considering attending. In my area I would never hire an LA graduate from a local (remain nameless) College and they actually have a good LA degree reputation.

You may consider becoming PLANET certified that helps too. Getting some Surveying experiance helps too.

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Permalink Reply by Craig Anthony on November 21, 2010 at 12:18pm

Hmmm? Go to a garden center to learn design. Sorry Steve, but I’m not too sure about that one. I think you might be taking a very narrow view of the profession.

Planting design is about 10-15% of what I’ve done in the last 20 years as an LA. But I’m just as serious about plants as I am about site layout, grading and drainage and material selection. I feel I have to be solid in my plants to be a good LA. I talk with growers, contractors, arborist and horticulturist regularly to enhance my plant knowledge.

I worked at a garden center and although it provided me with plant knowledge that I use now as an LA. It was nothing like working at a landscape architecture firm. After one year of pushing artificially colored red mulch, concrete pavers and designing front yards with materials that we had in stock, I had enough of working at garden centers. I realize there are top rung garden centers/nurseries that don’t use such practices, but they are the exception.

Getting back to your question, you can do an internship or take a few landscape architecture courses, but that will only give you a taste of what the professions all about. I will tell you this though; this is a profession that you have to have a passion for. Pulling all nighters (if it’s still done) to finish designs just to get abused by a design jury upon completion to get a degree is tough.

After going through the grinder to get a BSLA as well as the license and going through the boom and bust nature of the construction industry, I still come back for more. I just love being an LA like so many others do.

I guess there’s no easy answer, sometimes in life you just have to stick your neck out.

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Permalink Reply by x on November 20, 2010 at 6:33pm

IMO just because you do not like being a designer at a garden center does not necessarily mean you will not enjoy a Landscape Architecture career. Landscape Architecture and Landscape design are different animals on many different levels. Both are good professions.
The experience Steve is suggesting you get is definitely not bad experience to have, but there are many aspects of LA that have nothing to do with a garden center. Working on a crew and dealing with contractors obviously will teach you many things, but I think you should decide what type of work you want to do b/f you delay getting an MLA to work at a garden center.
If designing for a Garden Center is the type of work you want to do, you may not even need an MLA. If you are interested in larger scale projects you should get the MLA.
I am a landscape designer with 9 years experience doing everything Steve lists and more, and I am returning to school for an MLA b/c I want the ability and qualifications to do something more than work at a garden center if I choose to.

I too would be intersted to know if there are any Landscape Archtitects on here who regret going into the profression.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Garulay, RLA on November 20, 2010 at 6:54pm

Good luck getting a job as a designer at a garden center or anywhere else without experience. But what the heck has that got to do with Mike's question?

Mike, it is a definitely a down time in the world of development and landscape architecture is one of many professions feeling the pinch. It has its up times as well and not everyone is doing poorly in this economy either. I got my degree about 14 years ago at the age of 35 and I do not regret it at all.

If you expect to come out of school and walk into your dream job, you'll probably be disappointed. If you expect to come out, work in whatever capacity you can get and grow from that, you'll be allright.

It is going to take some time to absorb the newer graduates and those in the field who have been laid off, even if the recovery has started (I'm skeptic that it has). It is a great profession that is both a little crowded right now and short of work.

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Permalink Reply by Gordon W. Perkins on November 20, 2010 at 7:05pm

Absolutely no regrets. This is a very diverse profession and with a business background, you could bring a great deal to the profession. I think you should try to visit some local firms to see if they can offer some insight. Being inspired by the built and natural landscape is a certain prerequisite to the profession, but be sure you are ready to deal with the bureaucratic beast that is either uninspired by design or puts it at the lowest of priorities. There is a lot of that in the profession and it comes to persistence, persuasion, and sometimes compromise to get a positive outcome. As far as your tuition. I think the cost are out of hand, but (at the risk of sounding soft) there is no price for happiness. This profession can make you feel as though you have done something meaningful. Whether it is creating a quarter acre refuge for a suburban family or a 10,000 acre refuge for migratory birds, it is something that can have a positive impact on your everyday life. In a good school you will probably find a direction that inspires you. My very first job involved determining the visual impacts of a 600 million dollar offshore windfarm off the coast of Cape Cod. I can assure you, when I signed up for this profession, I never saw that coming!

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Permalink Reply by earthworker on November 20, 2010 at 9:31pm

Run. Run away from this field as fast as you can. Unless you like job instability, ego maniacal 'superiors', low pay for many years, exploitative firm partners, and a total lack respect or understanding from the general public and the a&e as a whole then go into something else.

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Permalink Reply by Trace One on November 21, 2010 at 1:28am

practice filling out endless detailed forms relating to endless detailed zoning ordinances, for about eleven months and twenty days, spent the last nine days and of the year dealing with groups of people who never leave the house except to come to planning commission meetings, (but these are your NEW MASTERS!), spent at least ten hours arguing with planning commissions, and spend thirty seconds a year actually thinking of or creating beauty.
Seriously - groups and forms and ordinances are a HUGE part of our jobs, IMHO..do you know what CEQR is, or a VIA? Or the NDPES? Check out that stuff..plus zoning ordinances and communitiy meetings..Good practice anyone can engage in is writing a grant proposal for anything..Perhaps the most soul-consuming, heartless activity humans have invented for themselves..
PS, put your nice 6B pencils in the back of the closet, for your poverty stricken children to find and play with for a few fun years, whlle you are driving to planning commission meetings..
Hee hee..Sorry, you asked....

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Permalink Reply by Steve Mercer on November 21, 2010 at 5:54am

Hee Hee! I agree whole heartedly! The legalese BS has become overwhelming. The only good thing now is with city budget cuts there are less personnel at planning and zoning. So they have less time to nit pick. It is amazing how the assignment of a little power changes an individual. The city or county hires an individual in at planning an zoning and pretty soon they loose sight of the fact that they are public servants. The only adjective that comes to mind is omnipotent. Ah and those lovely public meetings- reminiscent of my trip to the Dentist office for a root canal. This is why working at a garden center to see if you even like to design may be a better route. Yes the experience is a little different but it is design work none the less. With the economy down the garden center will likely have more work. Andrew is right about one thing. With the economy down and the building market in shambles, There already is a surplus of Landscape Architects. And it will likely be that way for many years to come. More that one student went completely through the LA program and got their degree only to get frustrated by various parts of the industry and left the industry altogether. I know of one of those individuals myself.

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Permalink Reply by Thomas J. Johnson on November 21, 2010 at 8:20am

As a frustrated, unemployed, recent grad (2008) I would suggest looking into something else. I landed what I thought was my dream job right out of school and then the economy crashed. The reality of low wages, long hours and mounting student loans sinks in quickly. As pointed out earlier, if you like job instability, working with insane people and poverty, go for it. If you would like to design and make a descent living, look into industrial engineering.

The one thing that I did take away from landscape architecture is the ability to think. That is something no one can take away from you. You won't know what I'm talking about until you've spent days drawing perspective grids, translating watercolors into colored pencil drawings or creating a 3,000 ft. elev. contour map out of 1/8" chipboard. A good landscape architecture program will change the way you perceive and interact with the world.

That experience, and the ability to express ideas visually and in 3D has brought out the inventor in me. While landscape architecture is all but dead right now, I'm finding joy in designing solutions to other everyday "problems" I encounter. Landscape architecture taught me how to approach problem solving in a logical, systematic way and gave me the tools to express those solutions in detailed drawings. Unfortunately, other professions don't recognize this ability and I'm finding it all but impossible to transition into mechanical or industrial engineering, product development, packaging design, or any number of professions that overlap with LA and are of interest to me. I'm labeled a LA and that's all that people see on an application. Most people don't understand what a trained LA can really do... which is just about anything we put our minds to...

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer de Graaf on November 21, 2010 at 10:04am

If Landscape Architecture is what you want to do, screw anyone else's advice and do it. Starting a 5 year degree program does not require you to finish, so I say try it and see what you think. Keep reading about others' experiences, but please don't listen only to those who've entered this profession and are angry about being unemployed, trying to convince you not to do it. I have been out of work for over two years and I am working on ONE freelance project and temping in health care. I am patiently waiting to get back to full time work in this field because this is WHAT I DO. I am not a health care worker. I am not a cop or a fire(wo)man, or a lawyer. I'm a landscape architect and no economic downturn is going to change that.

If it turns out that this isn't for you, at least you tried. Seriously man, don't ask other people who you are or what you should become. Go find out for yourself.

My whole family thinks I am in the wrong field ONLY because times have been tough. Never mind that it is what I chose to do, and that I know for myself that this is what I was meant to do.

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Permalink Reply by henry cohen on November 21, 2010 at 10:09am

Well said Jennifer.

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