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I wish someone would do a cost analysis of annual maintenance and periodic replacement of the felt (which deteriorates badly).
Without such information, how can one decide if they want to undertake such a decoration on their building?
These walls, and especially Blanc’s approach, will add to building maintenance. That’s not a bad thing of…[Read more]

Although I agree that doing anything compelled only by blind faith is unwise I also dont buy this guy’s argument. First of all if you really love the burbs that much go ahead and live in them, but don’t pretend your promoting sustainability based on the fact that your developement has acres of lawn that you call “pervious area”. Also it seems to…[Read more]

I haven’t been lucky enough to design a green wall per se yet, but wow i love this photo.

What letters you put after your name will also depend upon in which state(s) you are licensed.
In New Jersey, LA’s are Licensed Landscape Architects.  Since I am licensed in NJ, PA and NY
I just use Landscape Architect after my name since in all states on licensed professionals can use
the title.  And for some reason whenever I see a lot of l…[Read more]

Your mention of local building practices and the need for face-to-face contact with a client reminded me of something I saw recently on Fareed Zakaria’s “GPS” program on CNN.  I like his take on global issues and how they relate to our current economic situation.  Anyway, he had a list of jobs that he thought would be better able to withstand t…[Read more]

The article is spot on to my experiences both with schools and the quality of recent graduates. I had written about this for my LAM article, but had to cut it out due to space constraints. Mr. Amit is correct when he states that students leave schools only with process education, not DESIGN process education. So much time is spent teaching the…[Read more]

Thats absolutely correct, Andrew. I also have work experience in Design Build and consulting Engineering offices. I found the design build experience a great tool for building my knowledge, yet the pay was of course lower, right out of school. The engineers were the same experience you had mentioned. Landscape Architecture is often the…[Read more]

It depends on you office stationary. Technically, you are to add the letters to the end of your name. However, if you have multiple sets of letters or a really long name, you can put them on another line. Of course, in all caps. I generally drop the font size down a few notches so the caps are the same size as the lowercase.
 
If you are an RLA, i…[Read more]

Ditto on the congratulations! I’m very surprised to hear that about your bosses; every RLA I’ve ever known or worked with/for has used it in their title on their correspondence.  I really can’t think of a good reason NOT to use it, particularly when you’re using other, lesser certifications (no offense to LEED and AICP, I’m just drawing a…[Read more]

I add ” , RLA ” after my name. My email spells out “Registered Landscape Architect” under my name at work since no one knows what RLA means and there are so many alphabet collectors in the world today just to add to the confusion.

The many environmental consultants who I work with (who are all quite busy all of the time) have biology degrees. Here, the work is in wetlands delineation, wetland permits applications (Notice of Intent), representing clients in front of conservation boards, and designing mitigation plans. It is mostly done as a package deal. Sometimes they are…[Read more]

Our company has no standards, the two other RLA’s in the office do not have RLA behind their names, they do have LEED and AICP on there. They are both principles so that is their title under their names. I currently have Associate below my name on my email and bus. card. I want to add RLA behind my name as an accreditation.

First, Congratulations, Jamie! The change from non registered to registered is significant, or there wouldn’t be such an issue with states having laws which protect our rights to call ourselves landscape architects or to practice landscape architecture. If your company has different opinions, it seems like something they should settle as a company…[Read more]

Learning to delegate is an important skill. Your description makes me think you might be tough to work for. You would insist on everything the way you knew best and not let anyone “pull the wool” over your eyes because you knew how to do everything. My boss does no design work. She is a planner actually. She did when she was at my position, but…[Read more]

You said this so much better than I ever could. The one skill in the real world that is not taught in schools, is the politics of working.

I think that is great. I wish that were the case everywhere, but it is not. There was a question mark at the end of that statement and I appreciate you answering that question.

IMHO the incompetence this guy is detecting in graduates is due to emphasis on computers and other toys, which allow one to produce incredible looking plans that are completely empty of thought….
I think my school was great . Most of the professors were seriously working professionals – Bob Hanna was in the midst of Canary Wharf in London,…[Read more]

Gadi Amit is interested in the emotional appeal (the form) of his designs. This is a very “right brain” thing and the blame shouldn’t be put on the schools.

If you just graduated, know where you belong. Don’t apply to Amit’s firm unless form-making is your forte 🙂

I think you bring up a good point.  Aside from learning the “basics’  students are now required to learn all the new digital modeling techniques.  The bling.
 
When I was in school, I saw many students who were distracted by all the bells and whistles of digital modeling and as a result had very poor design process and outcomes.
 
You cant poli…[Read more]

I graduated in 2008 and aside from my design business, I work as an instructional assistant for the University of Idaho’s College of Art and Architecture.  That is to say, I run the tech. shop (wood shop) evenings and weekends.
 
What I see today is what I experienced as a design student and as an English teacher (long ago). 
 
Simply put, wha…[Read more]