[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

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 serious.

Shockingly, COVID has created a boom on top of an already thriving situation. We are 3-6 hours from metro NY where a lot of very wealthy people live and COVID hit pretty hard. Many have summer homes here and escaped the city to work remotely in a safer environment. Some of them had a lot of amenities and some did not. Many others that don’t have second homes here realized their friends and associates had a good situation to be out of the city and enjoying life while they were shut in and now want the same in case it happens again. Still others had smaller places with few amenities and now want outdoor living in a big way. All the small CE offices are buried in work – much of it is to raze and replace homes on or near the water since there are no new lots to develop on the water. I am refusing an average of three pool with outdoor living jobs a week because I am too busy. I’m staying busy with the raze and replace waterfront homes.

I don’t know the dynamics of the human behavior in the fire ravaged areas or the urban unrest in Portland, but I am sure there will be some people changing where they want to be and/or what they need out of their property. You just have to pay attention what people start doing – especially if there is any regional migration. I would be looking at where wealthy people are enjoying second homes – especially the areas that are not likely to have wild fires. There may be some movement of wealthy second homes toward “safer areas”.

There are more residences in the world than commercial properties. I would say there are more residences of wealthy people than there are of commercial property as well. That should translate to more opportunities in the wealthy residential sector than other areas of the profession. This sector reacts faster to changes as well. I would go further to say that this sector is much easier to get involved in because there are so many, the projects are of shorter duration, and the projects are not controlled by a limited amount of elite firms – rather they are done by a lot of small local architects, engineers, and designers.

The rest applies if you feel you have enough experience and knowledge to work on your own – look further below if you still feel that you need work experience with others. The tough thing about breaking into the residential market as an employee is that it is not difficult to operate as a single person firm, so there are not a ton of employment opportunities. Also, many are afraid that they are training a future competitor.

If you find such a place and situation to target. Such places usually have review boards to help control how things are done. That is a big marketing help because you get seen by others doing similar projects if you present to such boards. Because there are a lot of small firms (architects, engineers, custom builders) serving the same demographic there are more doors to try to get your foot. If you get your foot in the door with an architect of engineer on one or two projects the others will soon learn of you.

If you still feel that you need to develop more skills and you think you want to work the higher end residential niche on your own later I would suggest the most overlooked opportunity is to get into one of the small civil engineering firms that does a lot of work on those high end residences in an area where they are getting built. Drafting positions in such firms are hard to fill with trained people – presumably, you have been trained on how to draw site plans in CAD. You are also not a threat to open a competing civil engineering office. Small offices don’t have pigeon holes. They will want you do do as much as you can handle which means your skill set will develop quickly.
You will see who the players are outside of the CE office and where opportunities are out there. You’ll see how other landscape architects are doing things in that particular market – which you may want to follow or you might see that if you did something different it would give you a competitive advantage. You’ll see and maybe participate in going through the regulatory boards. You’ll learn the local zoning and other regulations whether you want to or not.
The big thing is that instead of being one of a couple of hundred trying to get into one of a few LA firms that they all want to be in, you’ll be one person with a good skill set looking at many CE offices that are not the first places that people with CE degrees are looking to work at.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

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 important, I believe, is that the Contractors can easily read and understand the Contract Documents (for biding & construction purposes). I also have a bit of an issue with the “autoCAD” plant symbols. I’ve seen plans that have 40 to 50 “plant symbols” on a Plant Key. The LA understands them, of course, but, IMO, I believe there will be Landscape Contractors who might be “confused” in the field…making SURE they’re planting the correct plants/trees where they’re designated to be planted. Personally, I have always felt that using “leader lines” and an abbreviated Plant name like “TCM” Tree Crapemyrtle with a quantity, like (5)…is clearer for Landscape Contract Laborers to understand. Communication of ALL Contract Documents is KEY.

100% agree. I don’t usually do leader lines to plants because I almost always have single sheet plans and already have a ton of text with leaders, but I do agree that it is much easier for the contractors to have them. Line weights make a huge difference in readability as well as the aesthetics of the plan.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

“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. Maybe it is all of the different players in the design and permitting process, but there is definitely less value placed on the quality of drawings. Drawings had more purposes in many cases in the past than they do now. I think there is more separation from the home or property owner and the drawings, perhaps.

I know that in my case the homeowners are not that interested in being dazzled by the appearance of the drawings and much more trusting in the design teams (or I’d be out of work). Whether that is from looking at built work by the different members or by trusting in reputation I am not sure. It may also be that there are so many things they are dealing with in the process of building their homes that it is too overwhelming. They seem much more focused on the end product than the appearance of the plans.

Some of that disconnect is that they rely heavily on either their architect or builder to manage things for them.

I’m not saying it is a good thing. I’m just saying that we have to play the game as the game is being played and not how we wish the game is being played.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

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 they only certify what is on the stamped print and not all of what may be found in the dwg file.

You should always request a pdf of a stamped plan along with the dwg. That will help you separate any questionable things in the dwg. A good frequent example of that is that there may be a house under construction which was revised by the architect after the proposed house in the PL’s dwg was drawn or a wetland could have been re-delineated later. There are very good legitimate reasons for the disclaimer. …. and sometimes there are people who are not so good at what they do and need to cover their tails.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

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.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

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 or others rather than the LAs themselves. Pay attention to what they have their land planners produce and learn what is valued. That will show you the opportunities that exist. Then you can figure out where you can fit.

We are taught to do certain things and then to hope there is someone out there that will hire us to do those things. It is backwards. Find out who is out there and what they need and see what you can do to meet those needs. You can’t miss.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

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 they run the rest of their affairs may be very different. They are still moving forward with buying other people’s older waterfront homes for the lot and tearing them down to build their new dream homes. Others are still looking to add swimming pools and outdoor living amenities.

The engineers and architects that I work with are not seeing a change in demand. They are not having clients in their offices. They have employees working remotely for the most part. The residential builders and their subcontractors here in Massachusetts have been able to continue to work without missing a beat – supposedly following social distancing and wearing masks.

Until this past week, we had to do meetings by Zoom, Skype, Gotomeeting, and such. I was able to meet on site with Conservation Agents during all of this.

I’m on Cape Cod, so we are a resort area with a very high percentage of vacation homes and have lots of people who rent out their second homes by the week when they are not using them or simply as investments. The short term rentals are not allowed at this time and restaurants can only do take out which is going to have a huge impact on a lot of people. However, the waterfront multi-million dollar home owners mostly from Boston, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut are only impacted by the restaurants and bars not being opened. … golf opened last week.

I have had some calls for adding swimming pools and outdoor living amenities to existing homes for the reason that “if we are going to isolate we want to have things to do”.

A builder of custom homes and some high end spec’ homes told me that he sold 2 houses since the “shut down” to people who decided it was time to invest in a vacation home partially so they had a place to escape the city if this ever happens again.

Lots of people escaped the city to “self isolate” or “work remotely” in their vacation homes since this started. We usually have traffic jams on Friday coming and Monday going from here on Memorial Day weekend since there are only two bridges. That did not happen Friday because everyone was already here.

Bottom line: high end waterfront development for rich people escaping the city is still a vibrant market.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

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 while, but I don’t know if any other state does.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

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 needed local survey crew for onsite layout. That seemed like a good way of blending the design teams and not causing conflict. This was very evident with xeref drawing sets with over 100 dwg’s (ridiculous) – it made it easy to see how the work flow was divided.

An airport terminal and parking lot re-design is one that comes to mind and a large municipal recreation center with indoor and outdoor facilities is another off the top of my head.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

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 I worked for several years earlier, so I did do a lot of the parking and drive through design. There was a little back and forth with the CE. This was very similar to your scenario about Chipotle’s.

I got the job because I had done the site plan for another one of the franchises that the same developer owned while working at that CE’s office. The franchise owner was very happy with the result because it got a lot of good feedback from the town because it was a little nicer than most DD shops in the area because it had an outdoor seating area, nicer aesthetics, and a very functional drive through in a congested area. The other two DD shops wee in the same town that can be rather difficult in the permit process. I was probably brought in as good PR in the permit process as much as for the design.

I would say that those donut shop projects were a lot more CE design strategy than LA work. Although, maybe I always brought a lot more LA thinking into the CE site plans than I give myself credit for. Not sure if I mentioned it before – my degree and licensing are LA. Most of my early work experience was CE site plans because I can’t hand draw to save my life and that was very important to get a job in LA offices 20 years ago.

I saw many more residential site plans done by LAs. They usually started with an existing conditions plan from the CE with the zoning setback lines and tables showing the regulatory restrictions like lot coverage and building height, also conservation jurisdiction lines when applicable. The LAs would then have a good understanding of the limitations so that they could design freely. Residential regulation tends to be less complicated even though it can be very restrictive sometimes. …. the projects are much more fun and benefit far more by having an LA or really experienced landscape designer.

The big difference, in my opinion, of the two professions is that CE’s do what they are told to do and make it work. LAs look to invest thought and analysis to enhance the experiences for whatever activities are happening on the site. A commercial site tends to have fewer and more direct activities with common experience goals. Residences usually have many activities and a wide diversity of desired experiences that need to be sorted out to avoid conflict and to achieve the best possible experience for each activity. There are some commercial sites that fit that as well, but in general they are usually very consistent in my opinion.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

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 developer does not value good site design at all. What I am saying is that typically regulations, including parking lot size defined by building SF factored by the type of use, drainage that is now often required to use retention areas rather than subsurface drainage structures which take up a lot of the space on a lot, landscape standards defined by regulation including buffers to lot lines, buffer to streets, parking lot plantings, and vegetating drainage retention areas is often extremely limiting. There is not a lot of room for high level design, so it really is not very difficult for a CE to design a seating area or a street planting.

Then you have to factor in that the developer is almost always going for highest and best use (HABU). They look to maximize the use on the site. They want the biggest building which is going to be limited by zoning setbacks, lot coverage % to start. Then it may be reduced because there is not enough room for the required parking spaces. Then the drainage calculations might result is a retention area that can’t fit on the lot, so the building gets reduced to reduce the parking to reduce the retention area to make it all fit. These are things the local engineer does all the time. Most landscape architects have a general knowledge, but they don’t eat, drink, and live in regulation land like the CE does.

When you add outdoor seating, you are often adding to the calculation for increased parking and runoff while using up more of the available area for parking or retention. If only the engineer can legally do the calculations and someone else is designing the outdoor spaces, it becomes a ping pong match going back and forth. The LA changes the hardscape and seating capacity and the engineer recalculates. The LA then has to adjust and send back to the CE. … and for only a simple flat seating area, some low maintenance foundation plants, street trees and some required buffer plantings that really doesn’t take significant training to design. Why would you go out of the way to add the complication?

The other thing that we as LAs overlook is that whether we like it or not these small CE firms doing small commercial projects have had to do this type of landscape design all the time for years. They are actually more experienced in small commercial landscape design that a lot of LAs because they do it all the time and we don’t.

Lastly, why the heck would a creative LA want to do small commercial landscape designs other than to fill a schedule and keep some money coming in? The is nothing more boring than that. It would be better to work for the CE doing site plans like I did. It was a great experience, but I’m glad to be done with it.

I’m not trying to be argumentative. I’m just trying to explain in detail what my observations were having sat on both sides of the situation. I hope it helps or at least gives you a different perspective from which you can draw your own conclusions.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

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 of some sort which is done by a Sanitarian which most CE’s have that endorsement. More often than not both these professionals work in the same office, or pair up professionally, or are the same person. It is one stop shopping. The developers start with who is required and don’t add more cooks in the soup unless absolutely necessary. If they start with an LA, they will have to get the other professionals whether they want them or not just because of stamping requirements – so they just don’t do that.

I’m an LA that works with CE/PLS on just about every project that I work on. It is custom residential work, so the need for a higher aesthetic than the CE is interested in doing is client driven. The last thing a CE or PLS wants to do is discuss plant choices with a trophy wife on her 6 million dollar summer home. I do what they don’t want to do and don’t have the experience, training, and disposition to do it.

My opinion is that your approach is 180 degrees from where it should be. It is not your fault. It is what we are all taught in school. You are focused on trying to do everything including what others are already doing. That means that you have to take work away from people who are more qualified and more established. You, or me, would be instantly disadvantaged with that approach and won’t get any help from the people who are already getting the work.

I learned that you if focus on what the people who are already very busy and successful are doing, you will be targeting an active market. I think you are already doing that. Your next step is not to try to do what the others are doing successfully. It should be to figure out what parts of their work that they really don’t want to deal with and see which parts you can do so that they don’t have to. If you can relieve them of stuff that you can do well and they really don’t want to do, they will refer you to their clients on every job that has those things. You won’t have to spend a dime on advertising and you’ll be busy.

Don’t chose a playing field that you can’t win on. Choose the place where you are the strongest. You’ll win every time.

When you try to take other people’s work, they won’t ever help you. When you make someone’s life easier, more profitable, or more efficient they will keep helping you. Never forget that.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

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 needed someone to constantly interact with to develop a project.

I liken it to the difference between designing with other professionals as a team. Sometimes it is just a collection of professionals and each does his task. Other times it is a true team which know each other, which communicate between each other, and all adjust to each other’s concerns to bring together a cohesive project.

You can absolutely do that remotely, but not until you have developed a very close understanding of each other so that you know how each other thinks, what their capabilities are, and what their expectations are. I just don’t think that anyone would start that blindly if there were any other alternatives for more interaction.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

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.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

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

[Author]

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