Andrew Garulay, RLA

The time to look for a better job is when you don’t need one. … make sure you don’t get in the position of needing one.

I’m not sure which state you are in, but you can usually drive a bus through any practice act when you get to the exemption list. Basically,”no one else can do this work except anyone who does this work and does not call himself a landscape architect”.
Practice Acts are almost all Title Acts when the rubber hits the road. At least the ones that I…[Read more]

One of the problems with stone materials in a place like Moscow is that has to travel a long way to get there on  the road to nowhere. If it is not at the building supply there already, it will not be cheap to get it in (weight + miles = $$$). Unfortunately, the domographic will not often step up on the budget, so you have to do what the market…[Read more]

The best job skills to learn are those that apply to available jobs, in my opinion. That would be the first consideration. The second consideration should be to self evaluate to determine what you are most suited to teach that applies to the first consideration. That is a philosophical answer.
 
Following that philosophy, you are in a better…[Read more]

Why would you think that all the experience that you are getting does not mean a thing? In reality, it means a lot more than being able to pass an exam and to get a license without experience.Lot’s of LAs spend a lot of time coplaining about other people “taking our work”. Well who does that? People who have experience and portfolios of built…[Read more]

This is the biggest dicotomy of the LA profession. We have too many LAs right now so that no one can get an internship to make themselves yet another LA. So, the notion is that because there are too many, we should drop the standard and make even more yet with less experience.
 
How will that help anything other than individual egos in the…[Read more]

We have two things that are working in opposite directions. That is a flat price to make a sale and an hourly rate that you need to meet which can scare people off. It scares them that it will cost too much if the hours rack up. It also scares then if you tell them you are only going to put a small amount of time into their project. You have to…[Read more]

What did you do?

If you are working in a municipality or state office, you might want to contact the licensing board. I believe that there may be a few states that allow government workers who work as landscape architects and have LA degrees to sit for the exam ….  I know this is true for some licenses here in Massachusetts, not sure about LAs.

All jobs that I have had have given some type of bonus at the end of the year.Almost all seem to be based on a combination of the success of the company and individual performance (ie, different every year and usually a round number – not linked to payscale or a percentage). More recently, I have been getting surprise bonuses, usually just befor…[Read more]

There is a clear difference between a “mulch ring” and a “mulch volcanoe”. I don’t think anyone defends mulching against a trunk. The article is on mulch rings in general. There is a time and a place for a properly maintained mulch area around a tree that is surrounded by turf.
In fact there are times when someone may choose the wimsy of a goofy…[Read more]

It has nothing to do with what you want to do and everything to do with who a client hires. They tend to move from who they need first toward who can enhance the project if and when they think the people already working for them are failing to do that.
 
More often than not the most important thing is the building and they start with an…[Read more]

I would not say that technical issues are not a concern of ours. I’m simply pointing out that projects move from required professional toward beneficial professionals and that in many cases the required professionals have completed much of the design that the beneficial professionals would work on. The situation seldom works in reverse and if an…[Read more]

Everything starts from where people go first to get whatever type of work they need done designed. Any time that we have expectations to be a part of something we need to be realistic as to not only what we can do, but where in the process we actually fit in from the client’s perspective. I believe that it is unrealistic to expect anyone to…[Read more]

The people, and there have been at least three in this thread, who stated what they did that made them fail are almost asserting that they did not follow the directions, but clearly know what they are doing.
 
Perhaps, the failing in the academic area is that students are given too many passes when they make mistakes, re-invent the assignment to…[Read more]

I’m hitting the “Like” button on Tom’s response.
 
While all of the arguements against tree rings are good, there is a time and a place for everything. The article is good because it makes the point of what needs to go into the decision of doing something rather than automatically doing it. But, reprogramming to automatically dismiss an idea…[Read more]

Congratulations! Now you have the opportunity to give them reasons to give you raises through what you do. You will and they will as well.

So everyone who is talking about it is not doing it because “the man” is keeping them down? What is the problem? Why is it being talked about instead of being done and closing the firms of the establishment?
 
Nothing is outmoded until it is replaced.
 
Someone step up and do it and I guaranty that in the end there will be leaders running it and m…[Read more]

Does anyone not see that the closer the concept comes to reality, the closer it comes to being a regular firm that hires temps? It won’t be a co-op. It will have execs at the top and a lot of people working part time and short term. The people who hope to gain the most from the co-op (the unemployed and recent graduates) are the ones with the…[Read more]