Andrew Garulay, RLA

Jon,
I’m less that 100 miles from Harvard, URI, and RISD. I can tell you for sure that there are several firms who roll in and roll out interns. Up until the last couple of years, they repeatedly advertised for 0-2 years experience. You can look at that as providing opportunity, or you can look at it as exploitation. Either way, most went on to…[Read more]

Did (s)he pass in the Spring of 2000?

I agree with Earthworks. Offices don’t need big populations of creative designers within the ranks because as a percentage of the overall office hours most of the work is other than creative design work. That is not done by newer staff and interns. New staff is usually initially brought in to assist in production in order to free up more…[Read more]

You are absolutely right that the fees are very high. I’d hate to see what they would charge for a beer between exams.

What is the alternative?

CLARB does not have a self imposed right to be the people that decide the qualifications for licensure. That is up to each state. CLARB offers a standardized test that has undergone and continually undegoes a lot of scrutiny legally, by the profession, and by the states that use it. It is used by just about every state…[Read more]

I really think that, although it seems stupid and frustrating, there is very little that not being licensed in Washington is going to prevent you from doing. You’ll learn that only some people have a clue that “landscape architect” is not just a fancier term for landscape designer. If you are doing design/build residential, you appear to be…[Read more]

…it must be the TA’s!

Read section 18. Not being licensed stops you from doing …… just about nothing other than calling yourself a landscape architect in the State of Washington.

The good news is that your wife will be able to get reciprocity in three years if she works for you!

The graders can read all they like, can hang posters of you on their dart boards, but they will have no idea on whose test they are grading so it really won’t matter.

Everyone wants respect for the profession, but then they get bent out of shape when tough standards are applied that they don’t meet right away. Everyone wants the standard to be…[Read more]

… tell that to the person with the basement apartment after the 25 year rain storm.

The first thing that should be obvious before we get caught up in the minutia of the test is that your overall mindset has to be on safety and minimizing conflicts – slip ups in that will cause you to fail (drop offs on the wrong side of the driveway or car, putting main drives between the parking and he building, unnecessary pedestrian…[Read more]

The trick to it is to keep it simple. No one is grading you on creativity or artistry, only that you are technically correct. Concentrate on the information that they supply to you. It is as much about following directions as anything else.

He’d probably like it if we all spelled his name right. I’ve been guilty of it in the past, too.

When it is all said and done, it is all about communication and efficiency. Bill Belicheck always talks about players who are smart enough to understand “situational football”. It is the same with this. “Situational Communication” and “Situational Efficiency” dictate what media makes sense.
The difficulty is understanding the “situation”. Who are…[Read more]

If you draw using CAD forty hours a week for years, it becomes very second nature and not at all awkward. A pencil is more awkward to me now.
I remember when I first started doing plans in CAD. It made me crazy (yes, that is what did it) because I had no “feeling” of scale. I could not tell if I was looking at two inches or two hundred feet. But I…[Read more]

I do draw to work things out for myself, but it is not as constant as it is with many other LAs or as much as I was told was absolutely necessary while going through school. It is like a Smart Phone, if you have a good one you use it all of the time, but if you don’t, you find a way to stay productive. …. but you still need a phone!

It depends what you are working on and it also depends on your own physical abilities to draw as well. The result that we are actually after is what is built on the ground. How we get there does not matter outside of communicating those ideas prior to the fact, marketing, and being competitive with others.

Do you truly need to draw well to be a…[Read more]

Vertical gardens – the little green pill.

All discussion of vertical gardens should have the following disclaimer:

Check with your structural engineer to make sure your building is health enough for a garden. If your vertical garden stays is sustainable for more than four hours, call your botanist. Some buildings get window leaks or other side…[Read more]

Yes, the key is to define the scope and lock it up as tight as you can. Then it is easy to price. I often put a cover letter in saying that this is the scope that I think matches their needs, but I can revise it if they feel like they need more services included, which would change the bottom line. That will keep you in the mix much better than a…[Read more]

Now I see what you are looking for. It is a flat price that they are after.

The trick to not getting screwed on a flat rate job is to define exactly what you are going to do for that flat rate and then to write very clearly that all things not specifically covered in the contract is an extra and will be billed as such.

I start every contract…[Read more]