Andrew Garulay, RLA

Things in the landscape are getting built and people are designing those things. That part has not changed other than volume going up or down as the economy swings. I don’t know (or care) about the statistics of how many have BLA/BSLA, or MLA, or any other degree or whether or not they have LA stamps, some other stamp, or no stamp at all. What I…[Read more]

What you are describing is a active niche for sure. I live on Cape Cod and do residential landscape design. Many of the projects here are the razing and replacing of water front vacation homes (multi-million dollar summer homes). These are all heavily regulated to protect the many wetland resources that occur in these settings. Almost all of these…[Read more]

TYY,

First – I think a lot of us go through a phase where we don’t see that our careers are moving forward. It is very easy to let yourself think that you don’t have what the employers are looking for. I am someone who is missing a lot of the skills on the check list of what “All Landscape Architects” need to be good at. Once I stopped worrying…[Read more]

We do also need to be careful about laws regarding drones and also liability insurance. My insurer recently sent me information letting me know that they will not cover liability for drone use. Also, most of my work is done within 5 miles of one airport or another. My understanding is that it is illegal to fly a drone within 5 miles of any airport…[Read more]

I’m not sure about that either when applied to landscape maintenance. I think there are some loopholes where other restraints are accepted, but you and I know that residential landscape maintenance companies think OSHA is an island in the Pacific. It will only be a 29″ drop on this job anyway. Thanks for engaging in the discussion.

Since there is no definition of “walking surface” this Building Commissioner is defining it as “anything that you can walk on”, so we are going to add planters in front of the wall to reduce the drop to <30″ where we can and add railings where we can’t. Fortunately the homeowner is fine with dealing with it. …. I’m just not sure about the other j…[Read more]

I use RLA because the professional license in my state (MA) is as a Registered Landscape Architect. I’m not sure that anyone outside of our profession pays any attention to it. It seems logical to use the abbreviation of the license as it is the norm in other professions. I see that most states seals have “Registered Landscape Architect” or…[Read more]

You have to go after work that you are not only capable of doing, but that you are likely to get. The first thing that you need to accomplish is filling your schedule with work or it will go nowhere.

The ONLY reason people hire us or other people who do similar work is to remove doubt from the outcome of the project. Part of that is the design…[Read more]

Different states have different requirements. My state, Massachusetts, does not have any surprisingly. However, a General Liability policy is something that you’ll need when working for other businesses because their insurance require the subs to be insured – usually $1m with a $2m aggregate. I pay around $800 per year for that. Errors and…[Read more]

The amount of work experience required in most states to sit for LARE is probably going to be the best preparation anyone could have.

1. How did you know when you were ready to go solo?
I’m not overly reckless, so I made sure that I already had some flow of work coming to me. I did something similar to what you sound like you are about to do. I worked on the side for quite a while in order to develop a volume of plans with built work that went along with them. That builds a…[Read more]

Arran, this is a highly variable thing with so many factors that can influence it. The bottom line is how much does the person paying value what you are doing?

A huge issue is who is providing the prospective client – you or the installer? If the installer just needs you or someone else to draw up a more presentable plan to help with sales there…[Read more]

Leslie, I agree with what you just posted regarding the effort that you need to put in ahead of time is huge. The good thing is that you might be able to collect on that investment for quite a long time if the situations and competitors don’t change and if you keep paying attention and adapt to changes.

I think this subject also goes back to what…[Read more]

I would disagree that 1/3 of the total effort of a project goes into just getting the project. That only happens if you just market to the end client. It should be easy to gain referral if the homework and groundwork is done to make yourself more useful and more valued than the next person or firm looking to get that project. You have to sell…[Read more]

It is not enough to exist, it is more about being useful and valued. I don’t mean that in a philosophic way or in a general way. It has to be in specific ways to specific people. That is the essential part of success in Landscape architecture whether it is a big firm or a single person residential design shop such as mine.

It starts with…[Read more]

My view of the profession is that it is a lot more rewarding if you are not working for someone else and you have to put in your time working for others in order to position yourself to get out on your own.

It is not a great profession if you want to have a job working for others until you retire expecting promotions and increasing pay year…[Read more]

I actually did a photo overlay from google earth last week on the project that is in my new avatar photo. It was very poor even on only a 3/4 ac lot to the point where I could not use it.

I keep “Plan Notes” text on all of my plans that has some variation of “THIS LANDSCAPE PLAN IS BASED UPON PLANS BY OTHERS, TAPE MEASURING ON SITE, AND NOT FROM INSTRUMENT SURVEY. THIS PLAN IS SOLELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF LANDSCAPE PLANNING AND SHOULD NOT BE USED FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE. LOT LINES ARE APPROXIMATE.”.

Another really good source for…[Read more]