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The story within the story:  A major U.S. publication actually writing an entire article about Landscape Architecture.

Let me be the devil’s advocate here. If obtaining a license is your main goal, then working in that nonprofit field isn’t going to adequately prepare you for the exam…no matter how many contracts or project management you are doing.
 
Nothing against you and please don’t take this the wrong way, but your case is exactly why I wish LARE would…[Read more]

I agree with nrschmid! In my opinion, graduating students or entry level candidates should NEVER be allowed to take the exam. Or make the exam more difficult: Take out the multiple answer test of Sections A, B & D and replace it with write-in answers. So there’s no chance, zippo, nada of getting it “luckily” correct. You either know it or…[Read more]

…for every success story, there’s about 10 failed stories! Tanya, sometimes you need to fail at something to make you realize that your talent is better suited for another profession.

I’ve been charging $150./hr. for 5 years now.  I’ll go to $200./hr. soon. Some charge up to $250./hr. here in Nashville. I learned over 20 years ago that if you charge a low fee, clients will think you must not be very good. Perception is everything….99% of my work is by referral, which is the best way to get work…when I do get an occasional…[Read more]

I had an interesting conversation with an engineer/surveyor principal regarding landscape architecture fees today. He actually wrote a guide and conducted a seminar for a surveying professional organization about fee structures for surveyors, so I regard his knowledge in this even though he is not an LA. He discussed with me the general approach…[Read more]

Wow! A lot more responses than I expected! Thanks! I’m not looking to go on my own, for a few reasons…one I don’t have the capital for the ‘build’ portion, and people around here are stingy about paying for designs, also I don’t want to get pinned down in this location. If I started a business here, I’m here for life, at this moment that is not…[Read more]

The key is “some places”–licensure in every state is different.  What is the difference between IL, and the state “back east”? 

Just want to encourage anyone else who hasn’t participated in this survey to do so soon.  I will probably be posting the results sooner than originally planned. 

Another nice thing about this profession, we don’t have to retire…ever. We can consult or freelance part time later on in years. We don’t retire, we expire.

I really appreciated this reminder Andrew. – “I know an ASLA national award winning landscape architect who started out as a receptionist back in the darker days of the 80’s in a surveyor’s office (had GSD MLA).” If we stay in the field we, in all likelyhood, have loooong careers ahead of us. Its hard to remember that when you just want to get…[Read more]

I do think it is a good idea to reevaluate your time table. My husband took and passed all the tests…it is possible to pass more then one section at a time, especially the three multiple choice tests. He studied for all of them at the same time and passed all of them at once. Then he took the design and grading exam and passed one…then…[Read more]

I worked design/build for the first 3 years out of school. It took a year and a half off the experience requirement since it counted at half time. I didn’t end up needing it though since I waited until I was seven years out to get licensed.
 
If you want to get a jump on things take all your tests and know that you have the luxury to take your…[Read more]

Areas with permanent government installments (i.e. military bases/DC) have/were hit less than areas without during this recession. I know from personal experience that work continued to trickle and has even now begun to pick up more (mainly in the residential market). I would suggest looking to firms in these types areas that have stood the test…[Read more]

it does…but the clock is ticking then…six years for our neighbor Washington State…if self employed and licensed elsewhere.

Such a great response. I will look further into those options and keep an eye out for opportunities.

🙂 Great idea, but unfortunately to be registered in other states such as NC or IL – the time requirement still stands.

Hampton Roads area, Virginia has not been doing too bad.  The cities are still spending a lot of money building new schools which keeps the architects and civil engineers working, which in turn puts us on their teams for planning.
 
We all received raises this year for the firs time in about 3 years.  I’m certainly not going to complain about that!

No, unfortunately not. Up until now, all of their work has been smaller scale or projects that do not require a RLA, thus their team of horticulturist and landscape designers has been sufficient.

Not a great deal of open jobs here in DC! Lately, most of the openings seem to be in CA. But no matter where you look, there just aren’t jobs. And in areas like DC with a HUGE concetration of both LAs and firms, competition is fierce.