Andrew Garulay, RLA

J.,

Now you can develop your side work without a conflict of interest. You also don’t have to rely on it for your sole source of income. I used that to allow myself to pick and choose side work to develop a portfolio of built work and develop methods and strategies that worked for me.

It helps that you do not necessarily have to charge top…[Read more]

J.,

I’m glad to share.

The secret to walking on water is knowing where the rocks are.

My mentality is to harness energy that already exists rather than trying to force something. If you pay a lot of attention and observe where the energy is or more importantly where it starts to grow.

An analogy is to put your mill wheel where the river is flowing. Recently, all the good mill sites were filled so there was no place to put your…[Read more]

I can only speak from my own little area and my own niche. Two “disasters” have benefitted the niche that I work in.

First is the boom in seal population on Cape Cod which has made a steady and fast growth in Great White Shark sightings and a few incidences in the last 8 years or so – this has raised a high demand for swimming pools. I am quite…[Read more]

And, I totally understand that “autoCAD” is where the LA profession has been for many years. But, I’ve seen way too many “autoCAD” drawings where maybe only (1 or 2) line weights were used…very difficult to read & understand those drawings. A variety of “line weights” makes a huge different, whether it’s “autoCAD” or “Hand Drawn”. What’s…

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“Whether drawings are created using “autoCAD” or “Drawn by Hand”……both the Design and the quality of the drawings need to be “outstanding”! Creativity, Strong Graphics, Good Line Weights, etc…High Quality Design & Graphics, regardless of the method/s you use should be a high priority, IMO.”

I’m not sure why it is. Maybe it is the computer age.…[Read more]

I have never had to sign anything, but it is pretty standard practice that a dwg is sent with an email stating that the dwg shall only be used exclusively to do the landscape plan or whatever the request is for. It protects them from you passing it along to another surveyor to stake the job. More importantly is that they are making it clear that…[Read more]

The simplest way would be to say that you would like the lower slope concave and the upper slope convex, or so I think this is what you want to describe.

Definitely agree that there are lots of people in lots of different boats in society at large and lots of different niches in the landscape architecture world. Some are in calmer waters than others.

This is a good time to pay attention to which segments of the market stay active and who keeps doing well. I’m talking about the people who hire LAs…[Read more]

I have a one person home office since I started working on my own nine years ago, so that is a zero change for me. I do residential design – 90% raze and replace home projects on desirable vacation home lots, so it is a demographic that is not as “financially inconvenienced” as most. They still treat their personal lifestyles very well while how…[Read more]

I have not worked in a big firm, but what I seen is that the CE takes the drainage responsibility. They are all using software like hydrocad as an add on to Autocad. I don’t know that anyone is doing drainage calc’s the old fashioned way these days.

I don’t know ow many states allow LAs to do drainage calc’s. I know that Idaho did at least for a…[Read more]

Another thing regarding commercial sites with LAs. I did see several projects that most of the site was planned by the engineers with the details filled in by landscape architects. I was not involved in the site plans, but did have to prepare the survey crew’s data to stake local medium sized projects that were designed by bigger distant firms and…[Read more]

WBS, you also added the question of how the work would be divided if the developer or business wanted to use an LA.

I saw a few commercial projects where the CE did a rough site plan and then the LA enhanced it. I did a few Dunkin Donut plans after I left the CE offices. I had a bit of a long leash because the CE on the projects was someone that…[Read more]

I’m not saying it is true in every case. Your original post was about smaller scale commercial sites.

” It appears that it is very uncommon for an LA to do the site plan, grading plan, and drainage plan for a commerical site, is that true? I am talking about smaller-scale commercial, like a fast-food restaurant.”

I’m not saying that the…[Read more]

One look at the landscape plan should tell you that the requirements are so simple that there is no reason to bring in anybody who specializing in the landscape if you are the developer. You always need a Certified Plot Plan for a building permit, so you have no choice other than needing a Professional Land Surveyor. You usually need a septic plan…[Read more]

The problem is not the ability to do the work. The problem is the ability to get the work. I few years ago I was entertaining the idea of hiring or partnering with someone to get more out of the work that I was getting. Every person who responded wanted to work remotely with no understanding that I did not want to set up tasks or assignments. I…[Read more]

The industry will find the best way to get work done like it always does. That is how it adapts. It may or may not match up with how those looking to work in it feel it should adapt. Those entering will have to adapt to how the industry goes. Water runs downhill.

If he knew and did not disapprove, I think you are in the right for wanting them back.

The first sentence says “shall”. The second sentence says “should”. That is a very big difference.

My opinion is that the employer should have let her have the work unless the work is of a nature that they feel they need to protect it. I also think the employee should have asked if it is alright to have professionally made books of work done in…[Read more]