Non-RLA’s using the title Landscape Architect

[Alan Ray, RLA]

no, you can’t….

[Jason T. Radice]

Nope

 

You need a licensed landscape architect to even advertise landscape architectural services. Unless you have someone with a license as a contact person with the state, under whose license the firm is opertating, the word “architect” or “architecture” cannot appear in advertising, as you are saying that you are providing LA services, when you clearly are not (that stamp makes all the difference). That is even more agregious than calling yourself an Landscape Architect without a license, as you are committing business fraud, that is prosecuted BIG TIME. You are also opening yourself up to a big lawsuit and project liability. You can get blacklisted by the state for stuff like that. If you say you are a LA, and are not, they generally ask you not to the first time.  In many states, you also have to register as a professional business with the licensing board of you are a LLC or PA, but if you are sole proprieter, you may only advertise with those words if you have a license. Please stop asking. If you don’t have a state issued license, you ARE NOT a landscape architect and cannot call yourself one.

[earthworker]

So….forget everything I have said about licensure being important.  In my state, Colorado, licensure has been on the books for nearly three years after decades of lobbying.  Congrats to the local ASLA chapter for their advocacy….Right?   Wrong…After three years there are only a few municipalities in the entire state the have ‘adopted’ the state licensure requirement.  Nearly all the municipalities in the state do NOT have a provision requiring a licensed landscape architect to prepare and stamp LA documents. 

In a few cases, the municipalities that require stamping of a landscape drawing of any kind allow an architect or civil engineer to stamp those drawings.  It seems like a big joke and my career is the punchline.  I feel I have been let down by ASLA, my local government, my federal government and this whole dang profession. 

[Leslie B Wagle]

Most states pass registration with a number of provisions that grandfather in people or allow overlapping by other professions, or exempt land areas under 1 acre for the contractors to keep on doing those, etc. Which is ironically why I think Denise has more hiring options than she may think. Engineers sometimes, while continuing to be in the forefront of getting site work, do hire LA’s (when they are aware of how much technical help a good LA can be on more than just planting plans). If hiring is off even in multidisciplinary firms, it’s got to be off in LA led firms. So if the problem is how to make a living, the cure isn’t necessarily being licensed, it goes deeper than that. Admittedly, getting “alternative” experience sometimes is discounted by state boards according to some formulas, but many people have to submit some “mix” or take a while longer to get their requirements than the ideal 40 hours between school and the exam.

 

I hope my first post on this wasn’t too harsh. I truly understand how frustrating and disheartening it is, as I ran into the same thing immediately following my degree (as they say, in a galaxy long long ago and far far away, ha).

[Allysonrae]

I have a BSLA degree from an accredited university, I will therefore call myself a ‘landscape architect’. When I become an RLA I will then call myself a “registered landscape architect”. Get over yourself.

[Heather Smith]

It isn’t about ego…it is about LEGALITY. If you advertise that you are a landscape architect…you are breaking the law. You cannot advertise landscape architectural services. My husband is an RLA in Idaho but not Washington and we live…2.5 miles from the border. He cannot advertise in Washington for landscape architectural services. It isn’t rocket science people.

I am not an RLA…I am a landscape designer…this isn’t a put down. Good grief people.

[earthworker]

By that reasoning, someone who graduated from law school can automatically call themselves a lawyer or medical school, a doctor.  Architects, engineers and even beauticians have to be registered by their state in order to practice.  Allyson, I see you have experience in this industry.  I think with that experience you should know very well the differences between registered and unregistered professionals.  No matter what you want to call yourself, passing the LARE and getting registered is the legal and professional definition of a Landscape Architect.

[Trace One]

but there is no undergraduate or master’s degree in law or medicine.. how about people who have MA in the fine arts becoming full professors…Dr. so and so, professor of painting fundamentals..

what status does a ‘terminal degree’ gain one? Does excluding enthusiasts help us or hurt us?

I like alyson’s answer…she’s got some cojones and a free mind…I have always felt that the teaching profession has been hurt by the requirement for teaching ‘credentials’…good god – they should take anybody with a BA, with what they pay!

[Jason T. Radice]

I don’t agree with the exclusion of non-terminal degree professionals being excluded from teaching at many universities. There are often much brighter, dedicated, and more experienced (REAL WORLD experience) among practicing professionals than those isolated in academia. It is a very different world. Truth is, it is a statistics game. The university can claim “we have so many PhD’s per student” versus another school. It helps them get grant monies and with marketing, ’cause PhD’s are always better, right?

 

Depending on the state, it is also a teachers union rule, meant to keep anyone without the traditional means of entry into academia OUT. I know of one story where a state university denied someone who had a BA degree but 30+ years of research a adjunct position, but then went on to teach at an ivy league school for a while (because they knew the value of his experience). For a profession like ours, it is imperative to have more practicing professionals in the schools.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

…. but what is that experience? If we don’t follow definitions, it could be anything.

[nca]

Meta-tags–The client needs to tell the web designer specifically what words to enter as part of the code on their website. This is probably the biggest loophole out there and is, in my opinion, deceptive.

[Heather Smith]

A free mind? Well then call me Dr. Smith! I don’t see what is so brave and noble about throwing a fit and insisting you are correct. That is just me. I deal in reality.

[Rick Spalenka]

You call yourself a landscape architect in Colorado and you are not we call you a felon.  You get over it.

[Trace One]

no, heather, it is Dr. Smith from Lost in Space I am referring to..It was a joke..You are too  young to have experienced the fabulousness of the sets and costumes..I actually bought the  whole series and can’t watch it any more..

NOT referring to you…Dr. Smith..!!! Some people will remember..Danger Will Robinson was usually something that Dr. Smith had brought on..and the question is, what was he a doctor of, anyway..

here, I’ll delete it so it never comes up in google search..

 

absolutely  NO intention to make any reference to Heather Smith AT ALL..

[Brett T. Long]

Allyson,  You are breaking the law and could be putting your self in jepordy of being fined by your state licensing board by advertising yourself as a landscape architect on land8.  You will not win this fight.  The laws are clear in every state.  Read them.  You appear to be the one who needs to get over yourself.

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