What is VALUE PROPOSITION for Landscape Architects?

imho 

Grading/Drainage is perhaps the one thing that all LA’s must be able to do that most architects, etc… cannot.

What about civil engineers?

I’d have to go with something similiar to Tosh K’s answer. What we do better than anyone else is bridge the gaps between everyone else. You can find someone else profession-wise who does anything we do, but not EVERYTHING we do. And I would also venture to say we often have more understanding of the things we don’t do than other professions. These are broad statements and something of an oversimplification of course.

Not very often we agree…but this guy is 100% correct! Too many variables to be specific.

Isn’t this part of every project team meeting and client meeting?  We, all too often, have to state why a client/team should have us on board.  It’s a valuable question to ask day in and day out – it might be easier and rather inane to those of us who have been around for a bit, but one every student ought to be asking and challenging.

There is a lot of cross over between architects, civil engineers, and landscape architects.

We like to box architects as all being the same – they design buildings and are clueless once they get outside of the foundation. We like to believe that engineers are all techno-bland gear heads that make the water drain in the most mundane way possible. We like to look at our profession as if everyone in it has the highest level of skill at every diverse aspect that it spans.

The problem is that these are generalizations that make as much sense as stereotyping races or religions. While many architects are inept outside of the building, many others have been doing “landscape architecture” day in and day out for decades and are only gaining more experience each day. Civil engineers may never have wanted to do planting and hardscape design beyond paking lots and roadways, but have been doing  … they, too, have become very experienced long term practitioners of “landscape architecture” in many cases. They, just like us, have gotten most of their experience from working on projects and learning what works well and what does not work so well.

Most landscape architects are exposed to a great deal of the multi-facets that our profession covers, but most only work and gain experience within a much narrower range of the profession. Many inexperienced people entering the profession seem to think that we are all experts in every aspect because that is what many university professors lead them to believe.

The profession of Landscape Architecture, believe it or not, is not some kind of Commonwealth that has a net worth comprised of the highest achievers in every aspect of it which is then equally divided amongst all within it. The belief seems to be that if only the profession as a whole is valued, I will be valued because I’m part of it and all will be well.

Reality is that the individuals and firms doing what falls into what we consider “landscape architecture” all have unique backgrounds, experiences, and skill sets that are valued by those who hire them regardless of the letters or lack thereof which follow their names. The last way that anyone is going to advance or decline in this profession is by association with it. No one cares what your title is.

Last year I was at an invitation to bid meeting for a senior housing project (not urban). There were several groups looking to put together packages to take the project from concept to CDs. There were teams headed by attorneys, CEs, LAs, architects, and other consultant groups. The point being that it was all about what other similar projects these people had done and nothing to do with the professions that they came out of.

One particular architect (or engineer, or LA, … fill in the blank) could be highly qualified to run the project where another one would be a total joke. It is the same thing with everything our profession encounters. There is always a qualified person or firm capable of doing every project that fits under “landscape architecture” whether it is a hospital campus, regional planning, war memorial, roof garden, …. or planting on a residence. There is no project that we can honestly say that only a landscape architect is qualified to do. Moreover, there is never a job where we can say that ANY (as in each and every) landscape architect can do better than someone else.

Work on developing your own body of work and skill set to advance yourself or the firm you work for because you will never be valued for anything outside of that.