Leslie B Wagle

I liked the weird climbing domes of what seemed like natural branch forms. I suppose they’re not rocket science to construct, but what about the dreaded “liabilities” as they age etc.?

Meanwhile here is a page on some fascinating water features that don’t quote price but I imagine are very expensive (also look at other uses in the overall…[Read more]

I’ve worked in a planning department and in teaching also, but if I think back and confine my answer to what I saw working in 2 very small LA firms and 2 medium sized architecture firms, along with being a consultant to a third in that category, here goes: 
1) The amount of concentration on a type of project or client sought by the office…[Read more]

I just wanted to add another link to a nice big whopper of a document I discovered on this topic:
http://naturalplay.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/naturalplay_infopacket_small.pdf

There is a central blog type site here
http://www.healinglandscapes.org/gardens/
But I have been confused myself on how the terms “healing,””meditation,” and “therapeutic” are used. ASLA seems to imply that the latter are more active and associated with a facility. I think it would depend a lot on what the staff of the place would want, and be…[Read more]

Another one:
http://dogwoodcanyon.audubon.org

I have a bit of “mixed reaction” to the museum approach that sort of expands on older roles but still seems a bit contrived, like this first one (although during a lot of the year in that climate, to keep up traffic it might be necessary). 
http://www.trailheadkids.org/about/the-trailhead-video/
Even in warm climates or places with limited space…[Read more]

I had to blink when I read Coordinates “you can easily get massive perks into your account in no time.” My perspective is that maybe you can CONTRIBUTE on large-scale projects IF you land a position within a LARGE firm. What exactly most impacts the environment will not necessarily be in project scale, and there is always a danger of large scale…[Read more]

Yikes! (amen).

There are also places like
http://beholdnature.org/ilcn.php  and
http://www.stratfordecologicalcenter.org/docs/global/SEC%20strategic%20plan-%202012-e.pdf

Yes, I agree that “free range” children would be the ideal, like how my husband grew up in a rural area and still tells about how he wandered unsupervised among the woods and fields and streams etc. but I’m afraid even in rural areas, that dream is long gone (and I suspect even his mother had no idea what he got into). I think the natural child…[Read more]

NC State U has done a lot of work on this under a special initiative.
One of their pages: http://naturalearning.org/content/projects

You can also listen to “Forgiving Landscape Details & Detailing for Ease of Construction” right here in the webinars under the events tab at Land8, which was offered in January. Then you might look into buying that author’s book.

Well there are ads out there but they a) seem to be asking for people who can walk on water and/or b) will probably get piles of resumes; however keep it up and something will eventually happen.

In the meantime, since you didn’t ask only for job leads, and you look healthy and maybe mobile, it occurs to me that the summer is coming on, and there…[Read more]

I think that most of us would admire watercoloring done well, and it is seen sometimes for sky or ground tones mixed with other media, but for the main subjects and details, it requires more skill than applying markers over pen or CAD linework. And I think that markers came into architecture and LA for that reason (along with being neater to…[Read more]

I think it just comes from the feelings you get when even after years of hoping this would change, you state your profession and someone responds “Oh, I need you to come over and tell me what I can do around my mail box!” It’s not that doing a real artistic total solution garden is not noble etc. but that there is a tendency to want quickie free…[Read more]

This is coming from someone who doesn’t need or use anything in that area, but I have some handwritten notes from a seminar about using software in the landscape business I’ll pass along. Pardon if there are misspellings and you’ll need to investigate them further (or maybe this will get some others to comment thumbs up or down):

CRM (Customer…[Read more]

I’ll go out on a limb here but I think it’s the most accurate prediction anyone could make. After the election (no matter who “wins”), the country will survive with little evident change and 1/2 of Americans will proceed to disagree with the other 1/2 of Americans. And the reverse. People don’t change because someone across the street votes…[Read more]

You wouldn’t by any chance be thinking of responding to this, would you? It might have potential but I have some reservations myself:
https://www.elance.com/j/ebook-landscape-architecture-topics/33857266/

Well, I think some people do self-select out, but you have to remember that as you go back in time, there were fewer and fewer of us out there in the past (due to a continuing upward trend in numbers of schools and graduates over time). That is, perhaps many more of the “old people” did stay in the field on a percentage basis than might appear.

It IS sort of a trade-off. On the employee side, you have to do whatever the sales force brings in (and you may even get  drawn into being part of the sales force) plus you don’t have any security when the times are rough.

On the consulting side, you may also have to do whatever you can find, but you can “steer” yourself a bit and downturns may…[Read more]