[Albert C]

A quick list having worked in the City for the last 14 years:

Mint Plaza, neat little urban plaza done by CMG Landscape Archtecture

Yerba Buena Gardens, nice open space in SOMA area

Crissy Field, Presidio, location, location, location

Drew School Assembly Wing, something completely different a vertical garden done with Patrick Blanc using like over 100 native plants. A real technical achievement, hydroponics,fertigation and gravity driven irrigation to name just a few of the systems making this thing work.   On Broderick at California.

[Albert C]

Go with a MBA or a Real Estate Development with an environmental slant

[Albert C]

Oh I’m going to go, Im sure there will be some sort of introductions, I will tell them I am a landscape architect with 10+ years of experience, part of that in planting design and am curious about how architects approach planting design so I can better work with them on future projects, not as an adversary.

[Albert C]

Microbrew is the only beer I drink

[Albert C]

That show was so great!

[Albert C]

starts at 3 on a Friday, got to see what the schedule looks like and see if the boss into letting me check it out

 

[Albert C]

Flora Grubb Gardens is a retail garden store plants, pots, furnishing, gifts, coffee, etc. in a up in coming neighborhood(Dog Patch). Not a LA firm. That name, good press and when “gardens are your life” this can get you places in bay area. link to the website:

http://floragrubb.com/idx/index.php

[Albert C]

Flora Grubb Gardens is a retail garden store plants, pots, furnishing, gifts, coffee, etc. in a up in coming neighborhood(Dog Patch). Not a LA firm. That name, good press and when “gardens are your life” this can get you places in bay area. link to the website:
http://floragrubb.com/idx/index.php

[Albert C]

I have a box of them somewhere, now its Adobe Illustrator, I do remember Willow and Brick Red

[Albert C]

Where can you throw a frisbee?

[Albert C]

The degree is a demonstration to employers that you can be taught something and maybe more importantly can complete something. My first job I learned tons and my college degree just set the foundation to grow on, but I wouldn’t have got that job with out the degree. I worked with a person with an architecture degree doing landscape architecture jobs because of this, he wasn’t being paid the same and prime jobs would not go to him which are related, why? Inevitably, when talking with clients they want to know, “where’d you go to school?”, once they found out his degree was in architecture, questions come up, is he qualified, why isn’t he working in architecture, why am I even hiring a landscape architect?, the owners didn’t want to put him or themselves in that situation, thus he couldn’t do the same work a person with a degree in LA could do, in clients the eyes, thus they weren’t going to pay him the same. I could see the same scenario, even more so, happening to some one without a degree. Truthfully, junior level staff aren’t going to be the face of the firm to a client, but in the future could hinder advancement.

Its been over 10 years since I graduated and I’m still paying off student loans, but without the loans I couldn’t have the life and career I have now. My financial planner tells me its the best debt to have, its an investment in marketable skills, yourself and its something that can never be repossessed or foreclosed upon.

[Albert C]

Yes

[Albert C]

The process is the absolute worse, I’ve been stuck on grading and drainage for years. I have done every practice test problem out there 3 or 4 times each, went to two different intensive study courses, red line reviewed, studied all of CLARB recommended study material. Now, with in the past two administrations of the test they have introduced a new type of problem w/ no study problems that resemble those, I checked w/ CLARB and those type of study tests wont be out for a year or so. I don’t understand why this process is stuck in the the early 1990’s, the architects have a far better process. Why is it easier to pass the BAR Exam(50% Pass rate) than it is the LA exam(+/-30%for G&D)? Why do I have to wait 6 months between tests? Has anyone ever went to red line review and asked that a problem be re-graded and have it overturned? I could go on and on but the more I dwell on this the madder I get. The worse part is I do Grading plans at work and they work, LARE has no relation to the real work world, the limits and structure of the actual vignettes is not a test in grading and drainage but a test on how good you can take a LARE test. Another thing, why do they nickel and dime us for everything, practice vignettes,test, review, redline review, re-review, yea yea I know its already subsidized, I would like to see this breakdown as financial statement of CLARB, money is being made I can find nothing that says they are a non-profit.

[Author]

Posts