An “ah-ha” moment on Defining Landscape Architecture

[Steve_White]

“You can be a Landscape Architect and also a painter, furnishing designer, illustrator, etc. etc. but if you have not passed the LARE then you are a painter, furnishing designer, illustrator, not a Landscape Architect.”

 

 

I get what you are saying here and I agree to some extent.  Even though I am not licensed I am a Landscape Architect.  I went to school for LA, I read about LA work, I learn about LA.  Just because I can’t professionally collect money to be called a landscape architect doesn’t mean I am not one.  

 

I am saying its a frame of mind, clearly there are no laywers who have not passed the bar. But there is legal advice from lots of people.

 

Now, since moving to CO I have since stopped calling myself or telling people that I am a landscape architect b/c most of the time the title is not understood or not respected.  So now I advertise myself as a landscape designer(really helps get a foot in the door with design build’s). that is more in tune with the attitude here but I am still a Landscape architect. 

 

sooo when will design firms be hiring in denver again? its been 3 years and I am still waiting…

[Mark Sanford]

i agree, i have yet to find a LA to work under. So, because of this, all this experience I am gaining with a landscape contractor and working along the side of other Landscape architects, does not mean a thing. So, as of now there is no official LA license in my future!!!

 

Though, i did go to an accredited school for Landscape Architecture….

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

This is the biggest dicotomy of the LA profession. We have too many LAs right now so that no one can get an internship to make themselves yet another LA. So, the notion is that because there are too many, we should drop the standard and make even more yet with less experience.

 

How will that help anything other than individual egos in the unemployment line?

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Why would you think that all the experience that you are getting does not mean a thing? In reality, it means a lot more than being able to pass an exam and to get a license without experience.

Lot’s of LAs spend a lot of time coplaining about other people “taking our work”. Well who does that? People who have experience and portfolios of built work, that’s who. What really matters to you? Do you want to be working designing landscapes or sitting at home playing with a rubber stamp and ink pad?

Why do you want the stamp? One would think it is so that you might have more credibility to get a chance to design landscapes. What are you doing now? Designing landscapes, it would seem.

This is a good thing AND it is going to give you a competitive advantage whether it is in getting a job to finish your internship or in landing more design work with or without a stamp.

Your degree has given you knowledge, with or without a stamp, that is helping you do what you do. That gives you a competitive edge in ability not from anyone caring that you have that piece of paper.

Another dichotomy in the LA profession is that we complain that the public has no awareness of what a landscape architect is yet we feel we are made or broken on whether we hold a stamp or not. While it is a personal achievement and there are some benefits to having a stamp , having good knowledge of the design business is the biggest advantage a landscape designer or architect can have followed by being a good designer.
Few clients care, if they actually know what one is, whether you are an RLA or just an experienced designer with a nice portfolio of built work. When that is the case, the stamp means next to nothing as a direct advantage. Having gone through the experience of earning it is what gives you the competitive edge, not the stamp itself.

I often wonder if many people have a big let down after the high they get from getting that stamp. The expectations seem to be sky high. Maybe others got instant success from it, but the biggest thing that I got was that I was able to stop worrying about getting it. It did not take too long for me to realize that it was not an instant pass.

for the record – I am licensed (over ten years). ….. and was a landscape designer for more than 15 years before earning my degree or getting licensed.

[Stephen Quick]

Unfortunately Andrew, the issue for many new graduates is not so much in the license, but in the practice. In my state, for example, there is no such thing, legally, as a Landscape Designer. If you don’t have the stamp, you are not allowed to perform duties related to it. 

 

Other states vary, of course, which is one of the many reasons I am looking to move.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

I’m not sure which state you are in, but you can usually drive a bus through any practice act when you get to the exemption list. Basically,”no one else can do this work except anyone who does this work and does not call himself a landscape architect”.

Practice Acts are almost all Title Acts when the rubber hits the road. At least the ones that I have read.

 

My belief is that a good Practice Act would allow LAs to do more work that is limited to other professionals such as light architectural design and some grading, drainage, and dite design issues otherwise limited to architects and engineers. I don’t like Practice Acts that exempt others from doing landscape design. We should be able to out compete those when the job needs more than they can handle – they’ll out compete us when it does not.

 

What can you not do in your state that an LA can besides going after work that the developer requires a licensed LA?

[nca]

In Colorado you can perform ‘landscape design’ as long as you dont cal yourself a ‘Landscape Architect.’

 

Public work requires a stamp, but even that said it isn’t ‘illegal’ for a landscape designer to design a public landscape. They just cant stamp the construction docs, so it often makes more sense for a client to hire the person who can perform all of the required tasks. You see artists designing public landscapes all the time, someone just has to stamp them at the end of the day and not many LA’s want to risk their liability by stamping other designers work.

 

As far as I know, I can perform essentially all the duties of a Landscape Architect up to the point of stamping the drawings. I design and create construction docs, as many ‘designers’ do all the time (under supervision of an RLA of course.)

[Stephen Quick]

Here is the link to the PDF for any who wants to read the whole thing: Nevada Practice and Title Act

 

And below I’ve added the relevant portions:

Landscape architect: Any person who engages in the practice of
landscape architecture.

Practice of landscape architecture: To provide or hold professional
services out to the public, including, without limitation, services for
consultation, investigation, reconnaissance, research, planning, design,
preparation of drawings and specifications and supervision, if the
dominant purpose of the services is for the: preservation, enhancement or
determination of proper land uses, natural land features, ground cover
and planting, naturalistic and esthetic values, natural drainage, and the
settings and approaches to buildings, structures, facilities and other
improvements; and consideration and determination of issues of the land
relating to erosion, wear and tear, lighting characteristics, and design of
landscape irrigation, lighting and grading.
The term includes the location and arrangement of such tangible objects,
structures and features as are incidental and necessary to that dominant
purpose, but does not include the design of structures or facilities with
separate and self contained purposes for habitation or industry whose
design is normally included in the practice of architecture or professional
engineering.

Prohibitions/penalties for unlicensed practice: An unlicensed person
is prohibited from engaging in the practice of landscape architecture or
using the title landscape architect, landscape architect intern, landscape
designer, landscape consultant, landscape draftsman or any other title or
term indicating or implying that he or she is a landscape architect or
landscape architect intern. Violations are misdemeanors.

 To be fair, there are exemptions:

Interprofessional practice: The law exempts architects and civil
engineers.

Exempt persons:
• Owners of property who make plans, specifications or drawings for
their own property.
• Any contractors who provide their own drawings for their own
construction activities.
• Any person, who designs, manufactures or sells irrigation equipment
and provides instructions pertaining to the mechanical erection and
installation of the equipment but does not install the equipment.

 

What do you guys think? (Not intended as snarky, just honestly inquisitive. I may have read it wrong, after all.)

 

 

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

No snarkiness there.

That seems pretty clear as you described. My opinion is that this is everything wrong in a Practice Act. It should not be about making a profession out of making it illegal for others to do things that are reasonable without a license. Killing an entire industry to try to favor certain people is just plain wrong even if we are the beneficiaries. 

 

…. by the way, has this made landscape architecture a booming business in Nevada?

 

Let’s see, no job opportunities in the profession, no ability to freelance, no water, one of the worst economies in the country, …. I’d say it might be time to go, but you probably have a house that is worth  $50k less than you paid for it  like me.

[Stephen Quick]

No, thank goodness. My wife and I successfully avoided falling into that particular money pit. We recognized the bubble for what it was, and held off on buying a house until I was done with school.

 

And thank you for stating exactly what I was thinking as far as the Practice Act here. No, it is certainly NOT a booming industry here. Believe me, the missus and I will be leaving Vegas as soon as it financially practical for us to do so.

 

 

[Claudia Chalfa]

Andrew: “What can you not do in your state that an LA can besides going after work that the developer requires a licensed LA?”

 

I can’t call myself a landscape architect.

[Claudia Chalfa]

Here is SC’s practice act:

 

(5) “Landscape architect” means a person licensed to practice landscape architecture in this State.

(6) “Landscape architecture” means the performance of professional services, such as consultation, investigation, research, planning, design, preparation of drawings and specifications, and responsible inspection in connection with the development of land areas where, and to the extent that, the dominant purpose of the services is the preservation, enhancement, or determination of proper site design, natural land features, planting, naturalistic and aesthetic values, the settings and approaches to structures or other improvements, the setting of grades and determining drainage and providing for drainage structures, and the consideration and determining of environmental problems. This practice includes the design of tangible objects, drainage structures and systems, and features as are incidental and necessary to an overall or ongoing landscape plan and site design, and the landscape architect may certify the design of the tangible objects, drainage structures and systems, features as to structural soundness and as to compliance with all requirements and standards of a government or subdivision of it. This practice does not include the design of structures, drainage structures and systems, and features which are not incidental and necessary to an overall landscape plan and site design and which have separate and self-contained purposes such as are ordinarily included in the practice of engineering or architecture and does not include the making of land surveys or final plats for official approval or recordation. Nothing contained in this definition precludes a duly licensed landscape architect from performing the services described in the first sentence of this definition in connection with the settings, approaches, or environment for buildings, structures, or facilities. Nothing contained in this chapter may be construed as authorizing a landscape architect to engage in the practice of architecture, engineering, or surveying as these terms are defined in Section 40-28-210 of this chapter, except that a landscape architect may prepare and certify all design, grading, drainage, and construction plans for roads and site-related projects which are incidental and necessary to an overall or ongoing landscape plan and site design.

(7) “Related field” means architecture, civil engineering, horticulture, or other field as determined appropriate by the board.

(8) “Responsible charge” means direct control and personal supervision of landscape architecture.

SECTION 40-28-30. Licensure; qualifications.

(A) In order to safeguard public welfare, health, and property and to promote public good, a person practicing or offering to practice landscape architecture privately or in public service must submit evidence that he is qualified to practice and must become licensed as provided in this chapter. It is unlawful for a person to practice landscape architecture or to use the term or title “Landscape Architect” unless duly licensed under the provisions of this chapter.

(B) To be licensed as a landscape architect in this State an applicant must be able to read and write the English language and:

(1) be a graduate of an accredited landscape architectural curriculum approved by the department and have had two years of varied landscape architectural experience under the supervision of a landscape architect licensed under this chapter or other qualified person, or experience approved by the board, and satisfactorily pass the written examination administered by the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards or an equivalent examination;

(2) be a graduate of a nonaccredited curriculum or a four-year college with a degree in a related field, as considered appropriate by the board and have had at least five years of varied landscape architectural experience under the supervision of a landscape architect licensed under this chapter, or other qualified person, or experience approved by the board, and satisfactorily pass the written examination administered by the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards or an equivalent examination;

(3) hold a license to practice landscape architecture issued upon examination by a legally constituted board of examiners of another state or the District of Columbia, or a territory or possession of the United States and if requirements of the state, district, territory, or possession in which the applicant is licensed are substantially equivalent to those of this State; or

(4) submit certification documents from the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB) verifying his qualifications for licensure, and an individual holding such a certification may be accepted at the discretion of the department.

[Claudia Chalfa]

“This is the biggest dicotomy of the LA profession. We have too many LAs right now so that no one can get an internship to make themselves yet another LA. So, the notion is that because there are too many, we should drop the standard and make even more yet with less experience.

 

How will that help anything other than individual egos in the unemployment line?”

 

I am only suggesting that we drop the required years of apprenticeship from the standard, which still leaves either 5 years of undergraduate education (for the BLA) or 3 years of graduate education (for the MLA) plus a rigorous exam.  Most people wouldn’t be able to pass the exam without some sort of apprenticeship.  But if they could pass it, why shouldn’t they be allowed to?

[Author]

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