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This in my opinion is whay someone with a Bachelors in Landscape Architecture should strongly consider other dsiciplines like business (MBA) when pursuing an advanced degree. This is especially true when one considers the cost of education, and the fact that if you are a full time student, you are two to three years removed from accruing…[Read more]

I don’t work in a million person population, but I do work in a metropolitan area (yes, Cape Cod has an official metropolitan urban area of 50k+). The most urban place is the village of Hyannis in the Town of Barnstable. There the planing process starts with either an informal or formal site plan review. It is a review and advice on meeting…[Read more]

Thanks for the imput. Let me expand a bit to try to answer your questions (I always try to be succinct in this forum, and sometimes don’t fully explain).
We live in an area much like Trace’s. We also have a planning process which is a vicious circle–risk averse developers build the same thing over and over and over. They justify this by the mar…[Read more]

I would download any lecture by Peter Calthorpe, you can even call him and invite him to speak, to get them to understand why we have planning – he was really articulate about New Orleans, after hurricane Katrina..lectures available through i-Tunes..
and any history of planning book, actually – seems they need to be taught about Civics, as Sandra…[Read more]

also, it would seem that their job is not to look for ecomic growth but rather to look out for the common good..good air, safe streets, safe neighborhoods..clean water..good schools..
I will look for concrete examples..

It would seem the examples are too numerous to detail, Mark. One of my hometowns, the ‘unincorporated village’ of Mclean, Va., went from a lovely rural setting with large southern houses and pg hydrangea lined entrances to solid wall to wall ticky tacky townhomes with tape on their windows to represent glass dividers..Or, try driving anywhere in…[Read more]

There is a difference between gutting a process and gutting the actual regulations. A burdensome process serves no purpose simply by being burdensome. If good results are contingent on a complex process, so be it, but if regulations can be followed in an easier process there is no point. Your post only indicates a streamlined process rather than a…[Read more]

I have not worked in a big firm, but I have to wonder whether a lot of this feeling that you need more education from the get go is from the big firm experience. Perhaps it is that there is more pigeon holing or it is too convenient to delegate tasks to others with experience than to train or work with someone on something they have not done…[Read more]

Not interested in theory, just need some resources.

Working in an ‘overplanned’ area, I would agree. It has been proven that areas of Texas and California where planning has taken a back seat have had much higher investment and economic growth. Centralized government planning on many levels simply does not work. It goes against market forces and needs in the community. Just how often (and at what…[Read more]

: )

Sean:
 
Here’s some related info: https://sites.google.com/site/lpsocmed/ Including the text from an upcoming article on social media for landscape architects. The summary is that social media in our experience has three uses: 1) like a newsletter as a way of communicating with people, 2) for projects where an interactive public/team face is…[Read more]

hahahahahaha!!! Thank you Henry. Just playing around a bit… the program is pretty fun. It  encourages child-like exploration of shapes and color. Just drag stuff around until it looks right. 
Funny you should mention a career in landscape architecture… The first major I declared in 1996 was landscape architecture. I took the intro-class and d…[Read more]

I’m getting that program and going into business designing custom place mats for themed restaurants!

You could say that.
 
Positivity comes from succeeding in having a job or being able to apply your craft. That more easily happens when we see what there is currently going on and to go toward it.
Disappointment leads to negativity. Investing borrowed money on education for, and pursuing  jobs that don’t exist leads to disappointment followed by…[Read more]

I think it needs to be treated kinda like med school. With the 3 +2 structure, the first 3 years are your exploratory studios and your “core” courses , the latter two are dedicated to specialties within the profession. Specialty advanced stusios and seminars that reflect those courses. Not all LAs need to know everything and be “diverse”. Our…[Read more]