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I understand many of the points presented here.
From Alan’s point of view – there are many designs being touted as ‘sustainable’ when in reality they man not be so.  Instead, they appear to and may actually have certain ‘sustainable’ features, but as a whole may be very resource intensive.  From my limited understanding of how High Line was c…[Read more]

I would have to echo ‘Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History’ by Elizabeth Barlow Rogers.  A great comprehensive resource for understanding what influenced design of landscapes throughout the ages, and how multi-dimensional are designs of the present.  Also would echo as stated before, ‘Design with Nature’ by Ian McHarg.If i…[Read more]

Thanks for your feedback, Tosh! 

In your experience, how is Vectorworks Landmark with site and topographic modeling? I’ve seen great examples of its capabilities with architectural elements but I’m currently working on a residential project with a series of sand dunes so I’m curious how it handles landform modeling.

Well I’m a student who happens to be working at a LA firm too, and in my experience studying so far we have really been pushed when it comes to plant identification and overall plant knowledge as well as horticulture, soils etc. The design side, while still a big part of our studies, almost seems to take a secondary role which I thought was quite…[Read more]

Thanks for breaking your response up into categories, it’s really great! I’ll definitely do some research and see if I can find a few of these. I’m very interested in the design and theory side of things.
Thanks for the great response, its much appreciated.

Wow thanks so much for the great response. I don’t know if I’ll find many (if any) of these around Cape Town but I’ll have a look on ebay.

Plants: Dirr’s book on woody plants; Armitage’s on perennials.
‘Sustainability’ (or more accurately on ecology and design): The Green Braid (Tanzer&Longoria), Ecology and Design (Hill), Landscape Urbanism Reader (this will show you what one direct development of “Design with Nature” is, “Granite Garden” and others by Spirn will show
Theory: Theory…[Read more]

seems to differ by school.  some don’t bother teaching soil science, others neglect horticulture and only teach about ID and aesthetics of plants, others are still behind on ecology…

Macs?  I’m assuming no AutoDesk tie-ins then?  Robert’s suggestion on Vectorworks is good; I also think every office should have a version of SketchUp as seemingly everyone seems to have it (including product vendors and consultants). 
Rhino is well suited for more complex geometries and landforms; it’s a surface modeling software at its co…[Read more]

Rebecca,
So you are in the market for 3D design but it would seem that you are asking only about preparing illustrations for your plans. What software are you using for the preparation of construction documents? If you are still using AutoCAD or similar perhaps your better option is to change entirely to something that will address your needs for…[Read more]

@Nigel, here in calif. my experience is quite different – a passion for plants is all these guys are trained in, to the point that they act like painters rather than architects. Layering, contrast, that is all they talk about, all they have been taught to understand, like painters with paint. Here in Ca., we are taught to just irrigate everything,…[Read more]

@Nigel, thanks for the Kevin Lynch reminder – he IS an excellent thinker, his Site Planning definitely a standard. But sorry, I beg to differ with your statement  that ” for an LA plants are your most important media.”
I see plants as secondary to the real bones of the site – the ground plane, and the earth sculpting  the LA will be doing in w…[Read more]

I started out with autocad ver 1 and went to Vectorworks about four years ago. Will never go back to Autocad. There is a saying that Vectorworks makes Autocad autocan’t. The 3D is fantastic at the cartoon level. I’m not at the photo level, yet. I now design more in 3D than I use to. Any changes in 3D are automatic in your plan. Love it.

“Landscape Architecture Graphic Standards” is what I meant, actually, I think it is pretty much the same as Time-saver standards. Big expensive tomes you can spend hours leafing through. Great books..! Have fun!

Very well said Andrew….I always enjoy your input.

I think Alan is right that these are high maintenance and not “sustainable”. I don’t think he expressed an opinion on whether there is something wrong with that or not.
We are so brain washed and hypersensitive about “sustainability” these days that it is like walking on egg shells to design, build, or even appreciate something that is not out…[Read more]

Well…I survived two other downturns and never lost my job. I went through the trough in the late 80’s early 90’s then the dot com bust and then the “great recession”. That was the worst. Some economists are saying it was not a recession at all but a depression, the definition of which escapes a humble landscape architect like myself.

” I am confident there are only a couple paths to making a decent living in the design professions–ivy league education (and working your way up the starchitect ladder if youre savvy) OR self employment.”
I think this is accurate regardless of the state of the economy. The difficulty is gaining the experience in a poor LA economy. The key is…[Read more]