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This is also true, the part about besting the architect… one great reason why L/A’s should never lose touch with quick hand graphics – you might just whip out a loose, quick design, black/white, straight lines with quick shadows too, a simple concept and to the point (L/A’s are good at that)… very fast idea you can show first.

let nature…[Read more]

i think some things this guy said is plain true… the person with the money is the boss, good ideas can come and go in their mind… We also are fantastic Site Architects.

Just remember our egos can get in the way of many things, including the budget… there will always be a place for a good, solid, do-able idea, if not there maybe at your next…[Read more]

Someone brought up the issue of whoever gets the job is the lead and therefore gets to set the vision for the project. I think this is true and so in that sense we tend to be “at the mercy of architects” for better or worse. But what is more interesting to me is why aren’t more landscape architects the lead on projects?

I look at the Highline…[Read more]

Aiken, SC is currently in the construction phase of a green street project funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. They have installed several bioswales into a few existing wooded parkways that run along each street in the historic downtown. I was involved in a studio project in Aiken last year so have a background knowledge of the…[Read more]

I have just seen a major street near where i live (in Berkeley / El Cerrito in California) has been revamped… There are water basins up and down both sides with plantings – they are taking the place of the standard planted trees and tree grates. there are twice as many as were before. Not sure who you could contact, maybe the city hall. The…[Read more]

I blog about modern design, color, teaching design and the design process.

Thanks for the opportunity.

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I just wanted to share a few projects from Seattle:

1. Taylor 28 Apartment Building (Mithun) – Urban plaza/streetscape with several bioretention planters and porous concrete along the curb
2. 2201 Westlake Plaza (Berger Partnership) – Urban Plaza incorporating art-planters and bioretention
3. Piper Village (Berger Partnership) – Streetscape with…[Read more]

One of the favorites on my shelf is “The Gardens of California” by Nancy Goslee Power. It provides great images of many major and minor southern California landscapes, with partial plant lists accompanying each project. While I was getting started on my journey into plant knowledge, this book was very inspirational to me. She also has a more…[Read more]

Yes, thanks for the comments Gregory.

It’s refreshing to get an experienced Architect’s perspective in here for a change.
It’s funny. I keep a regular eye on Archinect.com as well. There was recently a thread entitled something like, “What Other Artists/Designer’s Interest You?”

I thought it was pretty telling that in probably 30 responses, not…[Read more]

Like everyone has noted, it’s a difficult question to give a consistent answer too. You’ve got to charge an amount that’s commensurate with your experience and skill while not scaring client’s away. I agree that you have to value your services, but for sidework $100/hour is a bit high. A lot of the fees that go into professional fees are…[Read more]

fun to talk about..thanks for the reply..I took a class when at UPenn designed by Anne Whiston Spirn for architects and LA’s to take together – really interesting..I worte my paper about how I felt concrete was dead, a dead element, and was countered by a very pretty and nice architect espousing the versatility of concrete, and thus it’s…[Read more]

well, i can’t quite defend some of my colleagues in terms of their approach – it is what it is and we don’t spend too much time looking at those projects for inspiration (either aesthetically or as a working model).

gets a little stickier when talking about projects that may have a more deliberate ‘non-design’ landscape. in some cases, that could…[Read more]

thank you for entering the lions den, Gregory W., volunteering to us your status as a sacrificial lamb! You sound like you have very good work ethics in your group. I think in my life I have found many architects who don’t have a clue what good landscape design is, how to match it with their architecture, and care even less. The architects will…[Read more]

as an architect, this has been an interesting (and slightly amusing) discussion. from my perspective – and we love working with strong landscape architects – there are a few things i can offer from my end that we see fairly often:

1- someone has to, imho, maintain the overall ‘vision’ for a project and how all the corresponding parts work…[Read more]

Believe it or not, the last few project we worked on here we designed and drafted the entire site plan independently of the civil, basically only to hand off our linework during CD’s. They took our cad linework and put it on their layers, graded everything, had a meeting about detention and off-site and offf to bid it went. We design the parking…[Read more]

For commercial around here, the civil always controls the site, unless the architect chimes in. This is because the first submission is always the site plan. They usually do some sad landscape design as well just to get approval. If its a third party LA, there is often problems getting things changed because of gov’t reviews already done, or the…[Read more]

civils have control of the site?

we usually have control of the site over the civil. certainly the civil takes the lead on some issues, mostly off site. I have worked in offices with civils and some in which we worked under the civil and it was aweful. It’s just a more natural process moving from architecture to engineering. In my mind its like…[Read more]