LA firms offering jobs to architects???

[Geoffrey Campbell]

Something I’ve been seeing lately, LA firms with job openings that allow a degree in architecture  to serve as the educational requirement.  Maybe I should just be happy that some people are hiring, but I believe that as a profession we should ban together for the sake of our futures.  I could maybe understand if there were job openings everywhere but when so many LA’s are struggling to find work it seems rediculous. 

A few points:

 Maybe I’m not looking in the right places, but you don’t see arch. firms hiring LA’s very often, (unless maybe they have an LA department but even still many times they don’t bother). 

 

And, how can you tell me that a designer with a background in architecture is as qualified as an LA to do LA!  Of course there are some parallels, but it’s not like these positions that I’m seeing are looking for drafters.

 

 Possibly a company would only do this for clients that don’t fully understand what landscape architecture is, and I could see how this could benefit the firm in the eyes of an ignorant public.  However, this is not something that is helping to educate the public and its certainly not helping your fellow LA’s carve out a place for themselves in the highly competitive world of licensed design professionals.

  

Am I missing something?

[Thomas J. Johnson]

Maybe they are trying to vertically integrate their practice / create a multi-disciplinary team. Maybe they also hire civils and interior designers. For example, for larger firms, it’s often times cheaper to have a lawyer on staff than it is to hire one sporadically. Maybe that’s the approach. If you have an architect on staff and they design one or two buildings, they’re paid for, everything else they do is gravy.

[Geoffrey Campbell]

Well I could understand that; however, the requirements for the particular jobs I’ve seen have asked for either a degree in LA or architecure, which leads me to believe the position they have in mind is a staff LA.

[Jason T. Radice]

That explains a lot! The technology used is the same, but architecture schools focus more on pure design and theory, something that is glossed over in many LA programs in favor of plants, grading and drainage, and other things. Many of the best LAs currently practicing were trained as architects. Laurie Olin and James van Sweden (though van Sweden also has a LA degree) come to mind. Often an LA firm will hire an architect to deal with structural items within the design. Walls, pergolas, even buildings. Architects also have better training with regards to environmental psychology, or how people interact with space.

[Jason T. Radice]

Many states will allow an architects stamp for many LA functions (there is some overlap), unless there is special requirements by the state saying that a LA must stamp the plans. I’ve seen tons of landscape plans stamped by engineers if they are part of an engineering set, and being that I worked in an Architecture office, often had my plans stamped by an architect when part of their drawing set. Just hardscape and planting plans…thats it.

[Aaron Thacker]

[Aaron Thacker]

Well, I would never pay good money to have someone slap a plan together that they think would work, but maybe in some parts of the world people do that..? Who am I kidding? That has apparently happened all over the place! With the help of poeple who have no business reviewing plans or approving them. I think they call it “Tomorrows Ghettos Today”.

Planting isn’t just about making it look pretty, or just not having dead “stuff” everywhere. Any good LA knows that.

I think the orginal point of this discussion was more in line with LA’s not supporting their own due to some theorizing that it doesn’t really make a difference as long as they can draft and design. And, I don’t think it really matters what your background is in as long as you have put forth the effort to be trained to do what you are doing (for any job). If a firm needs to fill a specific type of position they will do it. But, that doens’t mean that any person that can click a mouse and read someone elses plan can do it too.

We certainly don’t need to “beautify the world at all cost” by any means, but at some point it will have been landscaped, or untouched in an act of preservation, or because the ROV was crap. I just hope that the people that play a part in the continuing emergence of that phenomenon, regardless of economic markets, know what they are doing because it is safe to say that the old philosopy has had a few shortcummings.

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