Landscape Architecture: Making Space for Garden Design?

The question seems to be whether there are job opportunities for Garden Designers in Landscape Architecture firms. I certainly would not say that an LA firm should not or would not hire a Garden Designer. However, I think there are three reasons why it might be more difficult than it appears on the surface.It is still a diverse profession. Some landscape architects and some landscape architecture firms do “garden design” as their primary function while others have a primary focus in a different direction.

First, I think it is safe to say that most firms here in the US are either “downsized” or not looking to expand their number of employees any more than they have to. Where there are individuals already in the profession that are garden designers and a firm in need of such a skill set, I would expect that the firm would be more inclined to hire and LA, or someone with an LA education, with a garden design background and skill set over someone with just a garden design skill set. This would simply be so that the individual being hired can cross over to as many other needs of the office from moment to moment rather than being focused full time on garden design. The assumption being that there may not be 40 hours each week of garden design. 

A second reason that a firm may stay committed to hiring only LAs is that if they work on multiple aspects of the project from the begining they might be more able to set up a site plan  with an eye toward the garden design that would occur later in the project. Equally as important, the intimate understanding of the rest of the site plan reduces the liklihood of conflict with other aspects of the site plan and increases the designer’s ability to enhance other aspects of the site plan.

The third reason is that here in the US most states require an internship in order for someone to take the licensing exam. It is expected that LA firms have a professional obligation to hire interns with LA degrees to support the profession. There is no law saying that they must, but it is part of the professional culture.

Again, I’m not saying that it is illogical to think there should be opportunities based on how you phrased the question, Dave – just that when you scratch below the surface there are other things at play that may work against it.

PS. I do residential landscape plans, mostly on 10k- 40k square foot properties in my own office and work about 20 hours a week doing civil site plans (and some landscape plans within that context) in an engineering office. i have not worked in a big firm nor an urban area.