Andrew Garulay, RLA

Craig,

It seems that we are on the same page.

The “more qualified” LA was a reference to everything else being equal and the stamp being the only difference making the LA more qualified. Nothing is standard in pricing from one designer to another or one LA to another. We all try to get the most return for our work. Pricing is set by skills as…[Read more]

Maybe I’m misunderstanding what you are writing, but it sounds like you resent the competition of landscape designers who are not LAs and that you think they drive down the prices that LAs charge.

It sounds to me as though you want it both ways in order to have a competitive advantage. You seem to be telling the LD (John?) to price the same as…[Read more]

Craig,

I’m not sure who you are directing your post to or just to a generic “you”. I am a licensed LA, was an LD before that, and about any other role from mowing lawns to commercial site planning along the way. I have directly experienced several perspectives and have tried to understand each of them and those around me every step of the way. A…[Read more]

I have viewed “competition” as anyone who can legitimately take potential jobs over me and whom I can legitimately land a job over. Sometimes I think people expect licensure to make them a protected species by excluding others for reasons that go beyond simply their ability to execute the job. I don’t think that should be the purpose, although…[Read more]

“The Landscape” needs to be defined before you can begin to consider whether it even makes sense that the particular landscape should be designed for a certain “lifespan” or if there is any reason to think it should go on for perpetuity.

A landscape with a “lifespan” (generally 10-15 years for most residences) can come and go within the context…[Read more]

If I were unemployed and could not get a job within the profession, I’d still need to feed my family. I’d be learning the phrase “would you like fries with that, sir?” long before I’d be travelling the world or volunteering for anything. How do you people pay your bills, never mind afford trips to exotic places?

state & local government

I don’t think anything you are saying is untrue. I definitely agree that we can move any project toward our values. I also believe that we can affect projects that are in greater need of such movement if we are willing to work on them. They may still not come close to being model projects, but they were going to get built either way and are much…[Read more]

It is not polarizing. Everyone always jumps to the conclusion that if you don’t make these things your number one priority, you are completely devoid of any of these values which is not the case at all. These are weighted values in every project. Some people do are philosophically predisposed to have an inability to adjust to the weighted values…[Read more]

Great post, Soo.

I would add that it is important to know why you are going into this field and what your views are on the types of projects you are likely to work on. The amount of diversity within the field is somewhat limited by the individuals going into it through their ideals and values. Any project that requires planning on the land is…[Read more]

Tyler,

What specific issues have you experienced with LT?

I’ve used Intellicad and found so many issues that I decided to go with LT. I really wanted the Intellicad (downloaded at least three different brands including Bricsnet & Progecad. Problems with layer controls in multi-layer blocks comes to mind. If I recall, most of the issues that I…[Read more]

You can go to and from civil 3d and LT and back. I use Civil 3d in the engineering office and LT 2008 in my home office. You don’t have certain commands and no add on programs, but the drawing file is the same. You won’t lose anything and nothing gets flattened or anything. The only question is whether you need functions that LT does not provide…[Read more]

Very reputable. I worked for two (the) OSU LAs and the LA department head at the university (Idaho) that I went to is an MLA from OSU.

Thanks, Chad, Nick, & Tanya.

We are an odd market as a second home summer resort type of community with this weird underlying old New England thing thrown into it – hard to explain. We don’t have much at all in the way of streetscape, urban plazas, or campuses largely to do with the regional regulatory agency and just the character of the c…[Read more]

Chad,

What exactly has been coming across your desk recently? Has it been private or municiple and what has been the scope of work?

You seem to be saying what you expect that it should be and what strategy you think should be taken rather than specifically what your getting. All good things to discuss, but I’m trying to get a thread that does…[Read more]

I did not expect a busy thread, but things can not be so bad that no one is finding any work from any source. I have to conclude that those who are getting actual real work do not want to share where the activity is in this very competitive market.

Sorry about the typos above, Tanya. I catch my mouse pad on the laptop with my unorthodox typing.…[Read more]

I have designed many parking lots, but lately there are not many to design. Your coming from the wrong approach, though, Tanya. It is not what other landscapes would like to see that I’m after. It is what the few people that are having sites designed are lookinng for – the good, the bad, and the ugly. What are people actually buying in the way of…[Read more]

Ooops, wrong thread response above. ….similar subject.

I’m not in a true urban area, yet just an hour and a half from Cambridge – urban streetscapes, transportation, and campus design are few and far between and dominated by the Cambridge companies. There just are not many RFPs out there in our area and when there is, we are contacted as subs as the big architecture and LA teams put together a team.…[Read more]

Real networking help has to be where the rubber hits the road. That is not about philosophy or politics so much as it is about finding out about current opportunities. What type of person or organization has shown any of us any kind of opportunity be that in a job or a design contract. One of the problems facing us is that many of us are unsure…[Read more]