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So you’d be a one-man design firm and you’d contract the built work?

Tom, I have been doing design only as a side business for several years. Usually I hand over a plan and split because I have a full time job and don’t have the time to PM. I have “partnered up” on a couple of build jobs here and there on specialty plantings. I also used to have a landscape design/build/maintenance company several years before I…[Read more]

Life is short quit yer bitching and QUIT !!!!! Find another job, how old are you. Get over it and move on. Life is not fair. That is Lesson #1.

Thank you for the answers.
I’m an international student so that I don’t have American accredited degree for undergraduate. There are only 67 accredited universities including BLA and MLA in US. Not considering TOP schools like Harvard and UPenn and the ones in the areas I don’t really like, I didn’t have many choices left. The fact is I have re…[Read more]

You recognized what it was and then you read both his name and the amount. That’s all I need to know.

Pardon me for accidentally seeing his paystub when i went to pick up my copy off the copier. That’s life in a small office. And no i did not tell everyone in the office what his salary is. I’m not on an ‘us against them’ tirade. I’m not trying to overthrow anyone, or stir the pot to gain allies on one side or the other. I haven’t been going to my…[Read more]

The thing that bothers me about this:
I have hired people without explanation.. I have fired people without explanation. I have taken profits from my company and I don’t feel a bit bad about it.   There are lots of things an employer does not need to explain. 
But when you start slashing employees’ pay and asking for free overtime–you have ju…[Read more]

Thanks for the clarification. Honestly, I wasn’t certain what you meant initially by calling me sweet. So I thank you and will take it as the compliment you intended it to be.
 
I agree with you completely in paragraphs 2 & 3.
 
 

Ohhh, concierge landscape architecture.  Excellent! 
I love this thread–it’s like everyone’s dreams are mine too… Tell me–on St Barts?
 

The new employee was hired in February, correct?  Hardly enough time to give the final analysis that demand for your services has not increased.  I would give it at least 6 months.
 
I remember a while back there was a forum post here from a disgruntled employee who lost a friend in a cutback, but was extremely put out that soon after they rev…[Read more]

how does that work?

 
WOW! I have seen a lot of debate triggered by this article on New Urbanism versus Landscape Urbanism on many websites the past few days which is very exciting for the dialogue it is sparking.  I agree with many who have already said that both are right and both are wrong but neither really has “it”.
We desperately need a paradigm shift in societ…[Read more]

I’d do a one man office design/build residential vacation home landscape company.

I know someone that has been fighting terrible battle with the state board trying to get a license, because his degree was not accredited.

So, now that you have seen the payroll numbers for the “dude”, does everyone in the office know what he is making now? Do you know what all your co-workers make or did the new dude’s number just jump off of the page as you walked by the copier? Continuing to look at that was an extremely unethical thing to do. Telling others is terrible.
 
I do…[Read more]

If the designed landscape is art, then where are the landscapes designed to provoke, to cause thought, to jolt the viewer politically or visually…
I have always felt that landscape should be more craft than art..
 
You may have artistic elements, but to call landscape design ‘art’ I think is incorrect..It MOSTLY (not always..) serves a…[Read more]

Yes, Craig, point taken. We are all hardened by the economic situation!
 
My point was that she should do her research. Maybe the company is not, in fact, doing all that poorly, but using the economy as an excuse to cut wages and put more take-home pay in the principals’ pockets. They may not only be afloat, but have wind in their sails. I was…[Read more]

I suppose it’s similar to why a person puts plants in their homes.   There is a relationship between manmade and naturemade that needs expression. 
It’s not functional in the rational sense, but enhances the space and experience – perhaps emotionally or is visually interesting, responds to it’s environment, or the elements in some way (sound sc…[Read more]

 
”Those who are inspired by a model other than Nature,  a mistress above all masters, are laboring in vain.”  — Leonardo da Vinci.
Nature will have the last word in that argument – while we theorize and argue semantics…as we circle the drain!  haha.
Answer – Patrick Blanc, go green and vertical.  And cover the rooftops with vegetatio…[Read more]

Thanks everyone for the advice – takes the pressure off a bit but we’ll see.