Non-RLA’s using the title Landscape Architect

[Jason T. Radice]

Architects were not even required to have licenses back then.

 

[Tim Brown]

Just as with lawyers and architects it was deemed necessary that landscape architects be licensed under the guise of protecting the health and welfare of the public when in actuality it was to protect the firms and jobs of those people already practicing landscape architecture, albeit unlicensed as there was no process for registration.

So the apprentice system was abolished and a lousy testing system was put in place….I’d be willing to bet there are RLA’s here who wouldn’t pass the exam if they were to take it. Basically its a system to ensure that the field is not inundated with new landscape architects every year….Just as with lawyers, plumbers, electricians, etc..

The L.A.R.E. is just a hoop that needs to be jumped through to use the title and I’m jumping like everyone else. I do not refer to myself as a landscape architect. Ever.

 But here is what I think…The exam is b.s., especially the multiple choice. There are errors of fact and grammar throughout the exams and its really disgraceful. I’m not proud to say I passed sections a,b, and d without studying. How does that test for minimum competency?

 

I think its a shame that experience and expertise are looked over and the ability to study to a test is the measure of competence.

[Chupacabra]

My state chapter’s website includes an overview of the process they went through to get licensing here and the primary driver was protecting our turf from other professions. I personally am glad they did it and think overall it’s beneficial for the profession.

 

I agree that the LARE has some failings as a metric but since it is only one of the requirements I think the total package required for licensure does insure minimum competency. 

 

An odd tidbit is that the one thing you have to have an LA do in Alaska is your playgrounds.

 

Also, in Alaska somebody working towards licensure can accure their time as part of a “mentorship” where they don’t have to work directly for a licensed LA and instead they can have quarterly meetings where the licensed LA reviews their work and documents for the board. 

[Anonymous]

I pretty much agree with everything you’ve stated. But, thank goodness (for me) that those hoops exist. It’s hard enough to make a living. I guess sometimes you need to play the game.

[Rick Spalenka]

A lot of posts here bad mouth the LARE.  Here’s an irony.  I qualified to sit for the test, attend an LARE boot camp, paid for the test and spent 3 days out of town taking it.  I passed 3 out of 5 sections.  Pretty typical really.  Had to wait 6 months to take the other two sections which I passed.  Hallaleua.  I also qualified to take the National nursing exam, paid to take the test and past it in less than two hours.  Soon I’m injecting morphine directly into veins of patients.  Which exam should have taken longer with a low first time past rate?  BTW you can “inject morphine directly into veins of patients in the US military without a State license as long as you have completed an accredited nursing program.  I was a 2nd Lt Landscape Architect in the Army one year out of school without a State License.  What State License would you use in Germany?   As I said in an earlier post all the LA license means is that its a way for those in approval position can pass the blame for a project that is vunerable to a health, safety and welfare violation.  If you don’t have the stamp you can’t be paid to apply a required stamp.  You can call yourself Donald Duck or what ever but you have to work for opportunities to apply that stamp.  You have to market that Stamp to make it mean anything otherwise your certificate of licensure just covers a nail hole on the wall.

[Rico Flor]

Hello Earthworker.

 

I feel for you.  I’ve also cut my teeth to earn the title in our country (and still hacking away to earn my respectable body of work).  On several aspects, I certainly agree with you.

Meanwhile…

I did not have enough time to scan through twelve pageful of posts, but if this notion has not been presented yet — others do feel comfort that they have earned enough experience, skill, reputation and cohones/schutzpa (whatever your cultural equivalent may be) not to be unnerved at someone else’s unlawful claim to the title.  Or at least earned the title legitimately and is currently beefing up your one’s experience of the practice, focusing on delivering the professional level of service required by the client.

Rather than succumb to any resultant animosity due to this unfair claim, they opt to channel their energies more to supporting the institution that upholds your title’s legitimacy, assurance of quality, and standard.  Usually, the license granting body, and often in addition, a professional association to which you’re bound to belong.  And to continue working one’s heiney off to meet your oath of delivering very high standards…as previously stated, and reiterated here.

I say this because I think the half of the spirit of the title lies in the high quality and confidence in one’s work.  The other half being the stamp of assurance by the licensing body for satisfying the basic requirements to get the title.  While we can lament at the turn of events, I think it falls outside said spirit….

So in closing, may I (1) encourage you to keep your chin up, widen the gap between your quality of work from your own personal Axis of “unEden” with exemplary professional practice, just feel good you truly deserve bearing the title…and (2) just, on a lark, say that Lana Lang’s father (the actress, not the character, hehe) happens to be a practicing landscape architect in Canada.  You can check it out.

 

See? You’re in good company!

 

Cheers!

[Anonymous]

Karl Barrett – Thanks for the shot at my country (referring to your original post about the US of A hate). That was big of you. Sorry, I won’t go there with you. I’ve got nothing but love for the Brits. Further more I have absolutely no respect for someone that makes a ballsy political statement and then immediately retracts it. Say what you mean and mean what you say.

 

You’re as prolific a poster as anyone else here. So perhaps you could use some life enhancement as well.

 

You were one of the first people to post on this thread and you’ve been following along the entire time. You can try to revise history by deleting post, but I’ve been admiring your lovely green sea turtle all along and I think others have as well.

 

Be an adult and admit to your error or crawl-up under a rock. Don’t make yourself an even bigger fool.

 

If I can get the same entertainment value from folks like you twenty years from now, you betcha I’ll be right here – GO USA!

[Alan Ray, RLA]

Karl, you are right. Dood is a designation for an adult. My mistake. I see now that you are not an adult but an arrogant, presumptuous youngster with no respect for your elders. It’s like this Karl, none of us are here looking for a fight., but when the playground Bully hits me, I’ll hitt you back. I’m not scared of Bullies. I see in your personal information that you love to debate so I see what your real agenda is….So don’t come in here spewing your uninformed, uneducated dribble and expect to get a polite reply. You get back what you give out…..besides Karl this is supposed to be a forum of peers….find your self another playground….

[Anonymous]

I’m talking about an apology to the people who read your posts thinking that you were entering the conversation with worthwhile thought. Oh and how about your allies over here on the other-side of the Atlantic that you referred to with the now deleted words “US of A hate”. What does that have to do with this? At the very least, I have to say your timing sucks on this one.

 

A misunderstanding on both sides? You’ve got to be kidding I recognized you were from the UK after your first post just by the way you spell certain words. You didn’t get a clue from all of the states and cities mentioned in the posts that you were in a room with a bunch of Yanks (and they say Americans don’t know anything about geography). It wouldn’t occur to you that we might do things a liiiittle bit differently over here. No Karl you stand alone on this one. You misunderstood.

 

Like a lot of the posts here, the most recent ones (excluding yours) have been all about having a little fun. No ones bothered or being nasty.

 

Yes, I do love the Brits. And you’re a lousy representative for the country. All the Brits I know would recognize American humor… even through the funny accents.

 

Good Day!

[Anonymous]

That sounds like yet another impotent explanation coming from you Karl. To a certain extent it sounds even worse. Especially sense you just realized you were having lunch in Topeka, Kansas.

 

I can only speak for this American. And this American could careless about the image projected by Land8 or any other medium. Mostly because I know that people who are wise travelers know not to judge Americans by the Jerry Springer Show or by “Pop Videos”.

 

What’s with this an apology followed by a shot like “Tribal laws of the US” and a reference to how we Americans are portrayed by the international media. Please save your “you too” apology.

 

By the way I still find you entertaining.

[Anonymous]

Good research, but this is called killing time while stuck on a site baby sitting a bad contractor.  And these are billable hours Sir. I refuse to stand over their shoulders while they install a million square feet of vinca minor into prepared soil, especially since I had to work over the weekend. I’m in such a festive mood for some reason, that I’m having a hard time focusing. Thanks for caring though.      

[Alec Johnson, PLA]

Well said.

[Cara McConnell]

…Or better yet, what does it say about individuals who CALL themselves RLAs when they KNOW they are not?

[nca]

13 pages of whining..

 

let the record show that I am NOT a landscape architect lol.

[Jon Quackenbush]

Even better yet,what does it say about individuals who make broad sweeping generalizations about the quality of a person’s character based on a few sentences taken out of context on a web based forum?

[Author]

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