Do you see any valuable potentials in Landscape design/ Landscape Architect?

Coco your point is well taken, I have just completed my education, and have felt much the same way.  I would like to see Landscape Architects take a more prominent role in the field of design.  The issue that I believe we as a profession constantly hit the wall of profitability, our work generally is not something that can be sold or generate revenue in and of itself, and as we all know, money is what makes people make decisions on how to invest.  

So what I personally would like to see is more Landscape Architects make a cross over to become developers.  I have heard so many people talk about they are at the mercy of their client and how much money they are willing to spend on the outdoor environment.  Well if a Landscape Architect was the one with the money and was making the investment, I personally would like to know if they would make the same decisions as their clients or would they invest the money in the ideas and concepts that they currently propose.  

Simply put, take the bull by the horns.  

To Zach’s point.  I think the perception of a landscape architect’s “value added” has to do with the client’s time horizon. A developer who is building to “sell out” a subdivision in 2 years will probably not care about what that stunning copse of beeches will look like (or how they will cut heating costs) in 25 .  He/she will also care less about sustainability (beyond the marketing value) for the same reason.

I am seeing a really interesting “counter trend” to this in my residential clientele.  5 years ago, many treated their houses like cars (get a new one every 4-5 years), and the type of work they wanted to have done reflected this.  Now, with the housing mess, I am seeing fewer people but the ones who are interested have a much longer time span commitment because they are not planning to move on.   They care much more about sustainability because they will be living with the consequences.  Less work, but better.

I appreciate that and my response, although influenced by your post, is based on the number of people who raise the issue from the third person.

My opinion, from a small scale perspective, is that too many people link their own success and constraints to that of the profession as a whole. It really is an industry of individuals and individual firms making it work for themselves. There is not much of a lift from others being successful unless you are working directly with them.

Coco, I have to admit I’m not sure what you mean by Landscape Architecture being “more like reversi (the game). If something goes wrong in such a small space, that can change a whole thing. I am looking at more of positive side so it means that one little thing can change a whole thing as a system.”

I don’t know reversi but I think you might be talking about something outside of traditional site design. Maybe you mean the overall environment, where if something goes wrong, the whole system can be changed. In my experience, that’s not true at the site design level in most cases. In fact, the discovery of some underground utility or an unexpected client or government reviewer’s comments can quite often be worked around without changing the whole design. One time, a nutty public works department required turning radius (for the garbage truck) forced a lot of redesign of some apartments I was working on. (I questioned the radius as the trucks were serving other much tighter areas in the same part of town just fine but under time constraints, it was easier to comply than argue). But that was rare.

I’m not sure either what you’re statement means about “some non profit organization may change the idea of landscape architecture.” Not likely, unless you mean that they might change their own thinking of what they want to hire for their own projects. If enough of all possible employers start to drop us from the picture, we would have to change or go extinct. But that would include for-profit, government, individuals, etc.

I agree that those who sling their portfolios with intent will get the work out there. 

I think a major lack in general LA education is that aspect of the profession; how to go out and drum up business. 

We have to explain to all sorts of initially disinterested laypersons what our purpose even IS (and some of us don’t have a neat soundbite for that) and then sell it. 

I’ve found some truly inspiring tactics from “Zilch: The Power of Zero in Business” by Nancy Lublin. She’s the head of a non-profit. Non-profits operate in an high competition arena with limited budgets for ads/awareness campaigns/projects. There’s a lot to glean and learn from her experiences.

If people are in this profession with a mission to do good, it makes sense to take what works for the non-profit orgs to get those jobs, to get the consulting and then leadership positions in regards to the issues that matter to them.