[Eric McQuiston, RLA]

I have not posted in Land8 in some time but I found this to be of some interest to me. I think that what our Slovenian friend,  aaVlaDoR, is asking about is the business concept of ‘Perceived value’.

I agree wholeheartedly with Andrew and others with one exception. I think the emphasis in this thread has been assigned to how we as practitioners perceive ourselves rather than as the public or other professionals perceive us.

Perceived Value is defined as – The worth that a product or service has in the mind of the consumer. The consumer’s perceived value of a good or service affects the price that he or she is willing to pay for it. For the most part, consumers are unaware of the true cost of production for the products they buy. Instead, they simply have an internal feeling for how much certain products are worth to them. Thus, in order to obtain a higher price for their products, producers may pursue marketing strategies to create a higher perceived value for their products. – from Investopedia

 http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/perceived-value.asp#axzz1vcL9yGg4 

I also suggest looking up ‘Subjective Theory Of Value’ on the same site.

Since Landscape Architecture is such a diverse field it has diverse consumers. Some of these consumers are developers, related professional practitioners and residential or business owners. The value of our services to each consumer group is different according to how valuable they perceive our services to be.

For example; since in many states practice law does not permit a landscape contractor to charge a fee for design but does allow them to prepare drawings relevant to their work, they offer ‘Free Design’. This ia a legal loophole that the contractors have turned into a marketing ploy. I don’t fault them, but, the residential consumer is typically not familiar with the law so their perception is that design services are ‘free’ or have little or no monetary value. After all, how else could they be free?

I was recently approached by a developer who is building five hotels in my state. He ‘had someone’ in another state work with the local planning and Zoning commission in developing a ‘planting plan’ that met all local criteria. His problem was finding someone locally to stamp the drawings. One local LA offered to review/stamp the drawings for $300 bucks. The developer felt that was too much!

That is our value to him! (I didn’t stamp the drawings but offered my services on his future projects.)

This is a rant I have been on before and I can only say that it is incumbent upon us to educate our consumers on the value of our services. We certainly cannot rely on ASLA or anyone else to do so. 

[Eric McQuiston, RLA]

This is an interesting and important question. I too have looked for some kind of standardized fee schedule for landscape architectural work and found very little. Architects typically charge a fee of around 7-15% of the construction budget. Sometimes this is a sliding fee; Lower dollar budgets have a higher percentage and higher budgets have an inversely lower percentage. I use something similar in my own practice except on very small jobs that I bill on an hourly basis.

I would be happy to share what I have with you.

[Eric McQuiston, RLA]

I just finished reading this entire thread and, wow, talk about a ‘hot button’! It seems to me there are a couple of issues weaving through this. The first being Architects muscling in on our turf. And, second, who is the better designer. I agree with Dennis that we must all become better ambassadors of our profession. While practicing in Pennsylvania I can recall hearing a radio commercial from AIA promoting their members while reading that legislation was passed allowing only engineers to perform grading and drainage design. Unless we as a profession educate the public about what we do and demonstrate the value of it, we will continue to find ourselves being marginalized by other disciplines.

 We also must continue to educate ourselves. For example, I have seen far too many irrigation designs done by LA’s that were not only inadequate but ignored costs associated with installation and operation. (I wonder how many LA’s know the cost/performance differences between class200 pipe and PVC?) As landscape architects we should be all over this! Instead of complaining that we are losing work to Certified Irrigation Designers, maybe we should join IA and become certified ourselves?

If we can show ourselves to be experts at the design of safe,practical, and functional outdoor spaces that are not only aesthetically appealing but also address the ‘unseen’ systems such as irrigation and storm water management, then we might not be having this conversation.

 

[Author]

Posts