[Mark Di Lucido]

Not to minimize your predicament, but when I started out, I also was asked to perform grunt work even though I’m a member of the ‘y’ chromosome club. In my case, the culprit was the 1990s groupthink of the design professions (think Madmen) to heap tedium, long hours, low pay, and lesser tasks onto apprentices so the partners and owners could do the fun work and then go drink martinis. Regardless, it’s disappointing that the old boy club mentality (and yes, old girl club thinking exists too) with their ‘pay your dues before we give you meaningful work’ groupthink, is still with us.
As Bob says, look for a way out, but while you’re there, “pay yourself first” as much as you can. And don’t discount DB firm employment or better yet, ownership. After you’ve designed parks for a while the novelty may wear off—it did for me. Now, if I had to choose between owning a DB and doing park design, it’d be a no-brainer—DB ownership would be my choice, hands down.

[Mark Di Lucido]

Edward Tufte’s books are the gold standard when it comes to the display of quantitative information. Left-brained people like engineers, and half-right and half-left brained people like architects will relate to Tufte’s logic. You could even present the same information simultaneously in traditional spreadsheet format (which Tufte characterizes as ‘imprisoned’), and via the Tufte way to see which your audience prefers and why.

[Mark Di Lucido]

I’m not doing what I hoped to be doing the day I started classes but am pretty sure I couldn’t go back to my original career expectation and find fulfillment in it. While in college, my goal was conservation oriented—like working for the National Park Service. Now, as I wind down my career, I’m a bureaucrat managing public art. In between these, I did a lot of site-planning for large-scale residential projects as well as commercial and municipal design. Guess this means my career goal has evolved and that’s OK.

Many of the professors I had didn’t impart much wisdom about the future professional directions available to us. Those that did had lots of real-world experience. My original mindset, as well as thoughts about remaining in the profession weren’t changed by any of them disabusing me of my early understanding of the profession; they were changed once I graduated and experienced the mind-numbing, eye-ball straining sameness of production work that many of us do as LAs starting out working for others. That along with comparatively low pay, I believe, are partly responsible for many of us getting out of the profession.

[Mark Di Lucido]

Key phrase in your question is ‘higher median salary’. Depending on many variables e.g., policy versus physical planning, big/small market, private/public sector etc., LAs can make much more, or less than planners. And I would argue that the Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t consider the potential income from moonlighting available to LAs.

In the private-sector, I worked alongside those with planning degrees to produce urban designs (physical planning) for private and public-sector projects. There was trivial difference in pay assuming the planner and LA had the same years of experience and tenure with the firm and were both registered.

Now as the lone LA within my agency, I make about $10,000 less per year on average than those with planning degrees and similar years of experience and tenure though strictly speaking, I do physical planning (create exterior space) instead of policy planning (and by most accounts have more fun/less stress doing so).

At the university I attended and from anecdotal evidence, LAs and Planners take many of the same classes, so I would say yes, it’s possible for MLA holders to get planning jobs though they may be limited to entry-level. Then as you learn the ‘planning ropes’ just as an employee with a planning degree does, you’ll advance.

[Mark Di Lucido]

I switched from architecture to landscape architecture after doing architectural project management for several years. Got tired of the endless minutia architects and architectural project managers deal with including AIA Standard Forms, door schedules, phone-book thick project manuals, seemingly endless change orders, interior modular office design (ugh!), CAD and CAD standards (more ugh!), cookie-cutter design, and coordinating all disciplines’ work. When I decided to switch, I was hired by a small LA firm that used my architecture skills for production of CDs. In return, I got exposure to the design of exterior spaces and plant palettes. Later of course, Mr. Reality called, and I discovered that both professions have their dark underbellies of production tedium so unless you’re extremely lucky and/or talented, you’ll be paying some tedium dues in either profession.

So, to your question “If I wanted to eventually work for a landscape architect firm do you think they would accept an architect with a non-LAAB accredited landscape degree?”, I would say yes but it’s likely you will start in CD production until you demonstrate knowledge of site planning, planting design, and the ability to create exterior public space. I believe they might also hire you without an LA degree because many of the production skills between the two professions are similar.

About taking the LARE without an accredited degree: From CLARB (and will vary by state): “If you do not have an accredited degree, you will need to obtain pre-approval before beginning the exam process. Please contact CLARB for more information.”

[Mark Di Lucido]

The exam also requires test-taking skills in addition to landscape design knowledge. That is, you will need to use your design knowledge, however acquired, correctly and quickly in sustained focus for several hours. This means good time management skills (you’re racing against the clock) and the ability to swiftly and fully understand what is asked for and then rapidly conceptualize solutions, especially for design and grading. You may, or may not, receive the design experience you need from your place of employment and even if you do, remember that you’ll have much less time during the exam to recall and apply it to the problem vignettes. I found that attending a LARE prep course was much more efficient than work experience, though work experience certainly didn’t hurt. By the way, my LA degree was probably worthless as preparation for the LARE but maybe LA curricula now better prepare students.

[Mark Di Lucido]

A standard concrete slab is 1’x2’ in your neck of the woods—who knew? Are the ‘slabs’ prefabricated (think big pavers)? Smaller, discrete sections of concrete (slabs) in a sidewalk setting would have more of a tendency to heave, crack, subside, etc. in different directions making for a sidewalk that may not meet Americans with Disabilities Act (or perhaps your region’s equivalent) but that’s another story.

Here, sidewalks are almost always poured-in-place, with the poured size as large as possible to help prevent the large cracks and grade changes mentioned above, plus it’s more economical. Construction and contraction joints are included in the design to control cracking, and scoring joints are added for aesthetic effect as well as crack control. In the downtown area of my city the standard minimum width is 5’ so the score joints would be at every 5’ and the construction joints at about every 20’—there’s more on this in Architectural Graphic Standards and Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards.

If you’re not limited to the 1’x2’s and can ‘pour’ the sidewalk you could ‘celebrate’ the sidewalk’s radius by having the concrete slab’s joints radiate from the center point (centre for you) of the big curve, with the score joint spacing equal to the sidewalk width and construction joints at approximately every 8 to 12 metres.

If you’re stuck w/ the 1’x2’ size my first suggestion would be to realize that most people will never see whatever pattern you come up with from your vantage point (plan view) unless the building is a high-rise and they have nothing better to do than stare down at the ground. In my experience, concrete sidewalk patterns aren’t usually noticed unless they’re strikingly good (or bad). Of course coloured pavers are another story. If labour isn’t prohibitively expensive, your installer can use a concrete saw, and there’s no other design logic to complement, I’d consider a geometric pattern such as herringbone. If you have the flexibility to alternate colour in the ‘slabs’ consider other patterns like basketweave, argyle, etc.

And to set the record straight: one yard = 36”; one metre = 39.37”

[Mark Di Lucido]

Perspective from the other side of the pond . . . I’m guessing you’re mid-40s which is certainly not too late to retrain. Mid-50s might be pushing it. I can’t speak to how it’s done in the UK, but in the U.S. there’s a tendency to hire younger workers, in part because they learn applications faster (a little bit of irony here because you already have skills using many graphic art apps). LA’s just starting in an office usually produce construction drawings using Autocad or similar apps. Most of us that have gone through this would agree it’s pretty tedious and mind-numbing, and I’d bet it’d be especially so for you because you’ve been on the sharp end of the pencil for many years (read: you’re already a designer except in another field). With your proven graphic skills you’d have to be assertive and tell potential employers you want to do LA design; otherwise you may get pigeon-holed into doing what you’re ostensibly trying to get away from. Remember, employers think about how a potential employee benefits them, and many will see your skills as providing their firm with the ability to produce renderings of their LA designs much cheaper than they can outsource.

Andrew’s suggestion about being a subcontractor is good but also consider talking to small LA firms about possible partnership tracks.

Most LAs enjoy the work if they’re designing. If in production, not so much.

[Mark Di Lucido]

• The hard part is getting the perspective correct which you’ve already done w/ Ketchup. Now the fun begins!
• The interplay/combo of light, shadow, and consistent color of elements within the light you choose are what really brings a rendering to life. Nuance is your friend here.
• Combining photographs (the guy in the leather jacket) w/ non-photo elements doesn’t work. Take Prisma (free smart phone app) photos of your friends, modify as necessary (or buy entourage elements online) and insert into your .PSD. for a consistent feel.
• Consider same for boulders, trees, etc.
• tree trunks when viewed up close usually have a shadow gradient (light can’t bend around a curve)
• don’t be afraid to hand draw elements, scan, insert, and then tweak.
• Take photos of real paving patterns to use underneath the pavilion and other foreground features. Use the Transform command to scale, rotate, skew, etc., to proper perspective and insert and trim.
• Sidewalks are never white and the closer (foreground) they are to the viewer the more detail (score lines) they should have. Sidewalks that are far (background) from the viewer don’t have score lines.
• Shadows of trees in foreground should be jaggedy–like real leaves cast the shadow. Use special effect brushes for this.
• Shadow color seems too light. 
• Give more color to the sky–use two colors and the Gradient command.
• Use the Blur command to decrease/blend background detail.
• the curb next to the sidewalk is shown flat. Because this is in foreground it should have height.
• No shadows of the first row of flags are indicated

[Mark Di Lucido]

I don’t think I’ll invite any of you to my Christmas party.

[Mark Di Lucido]

Haven’t tried the Viewer yet but . . . I noted all the examples are of interior architecture so my question would be how well does it work for exterior public spaces?  Would I take a series of 360 images, apply my proposed design to the images via Photoshop, etc., and then, voila!, I’m done?

[Mark Di Lucido]

Put anything you worked on in your portfolio but explain to the person(s) interviewing you what your role was if the example does not consist entirely of your efforts. For digital job applications (when you’re not able to explain in person), add annotations to the graphic which explain your role. This will show employers that you understand some of the process of landscape architecture even if you don’t yet have professional design experience. Keep your school work in your portfolio until you’ve built up enough professional examples that showcase your professional knowledge, skills, and abilities. It doesn’t hurt to keep a few academic examples especially if they’re well done and if they convey design process, or if they happen to represent a design area that you’d eventually like to specialize in. I still have a few academic examples in my portfolio 20 years down the road because they’re still some of my best work and show potential for things I’ve yet to accomplish.

Employers will understand that as a new grad you will likely have limited examples of professional design work. In addition to design, drafting, and rendering, make sure to include other skills and experience such as writing, public presentations, research, project management, and marketing because these are all part of the profession and what you may have to offer.

[Mark Di Lucido]

Putting your work (sub-consultant) on a client’s (prime consultant) title block and sealing the sheets that only have your work is very common. And it makes sense because the disciplines’ drawings will have consistent information such as issue dates, revision numbers, addenda, etc., and it makes for a professional looking set. The bigger reason though is it helps agencies that review the drawings, builders that need to be aware of latest changes, and the end client. The key is that you’re only sealing the sheets that have your work.

Dave’s answer might be viewed by state boards of technical registration as not quite consistent with professional registrant requirements, namely, anything a registrant seals has to be prepared under his/her direct supervision so I’d tread lightly on that one.

Of course all this is moot if you’re not registered in FL. Sealing drawings for a project in a jurisdiction where you’re not registered could be grounds for disciplinary action by your state board not to mention that the reviewing agency would bounce them out anyway.

[Mark Di Lucido]

Thanks Jason.

[Mark Di Lucido]

Thanks Rob.

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