[mark foster]

Great advice from Walter and Alan  

I have tried the grass pave but do not use it anymore.  My area (ohio valley) has heavy clay soils, and the grass pave sub-base is too incompatible in structure– making it too dry or too wet (depending on relative elevation).

[mark foster]

A good source:  http://watershapes.com/

[mark foster]

“Have you branched out from traditional practice? How are you ‘pushing’ the boundaries of your LA practice?”  I am design/build, specializing in construction–so yeah, I would say I am on a twig on a branch.

“Are you self advocating?”  All the time.  

“What, if anything are you doing to drive the profession?”  I often meet people who have misconceptions, or no conception, of what a Landscape Architect is.  I give a very good, short memorized speech. 

“Participating in local ASLA Chapter, or other committees?” No, I left the ASLA long ago—got tired of being treated like the only used car salesman in the room.

“Do you believe ASLA is doing enough?”  Yes,my state chapter is doing enough harm. 

[mark foster]

I agree with the other posts, especially Andrew’s point about getting the client’s “buy in”.  

If you suspect the client is nervous about the expense of the build, you have every right to ask them what their budget is.  

[mark foster]

Alissa,

Applied design is the building block of landscape architecture .  Drawing is a communication tool.   That said, I know lots of LAs who do neither–especially as they move up the ranks into office management/marketing/education etc, or move sideways into related professions.

So, you have interests in design, aesthetics, function, creativity, urban issues, and are science and people based?  That sounds like a perfectly strange and conflicted recipe for a landscape architect.  🙂

[mark foster]

Kelly,

Of the dozen jobs I have had, I only got one through a traditional channel (advertised, interviewed etc), and it sucked.  The best ones came from people I met while doing something else.

Great advice by everyone here–especially about networking and face time.  I would add that your best channels are not the folks hiring, but the folks who know who is hiring.  This would include your classmates and/or past graduates from your schools.  

Good luck.

[mark foster]

Anything which requires repelling skills by the maintenance staff is probably not a good idea.  

[mark foster]

The devil really is in the details.  Unfortunately, with gov cuts (planning) and the rest of us working 60 hrs to make the same as the old 40, those with much to gain are taking the process over–changing the meaningful things and leaving the window dressing.  Noble initiatives get morphed into faintly recognizable marketing tools. 

[mark foster]

I think it’s mainly the numbers–we are a tiny profession.  Also, most of us can’t say what we do in one sentence.  

[mark foster]

From a growing media perspective, I have found the plastic pavers (i.e. “grass pave”) perform better than the concrete ones.  Some of this may be due to the lime leaching out of the concrete (especially at first).  It also seems that the concrete pavers cause the medium to dry out more quickly–probably acting like a wick.

The only drawback to plastic is it is sometimes too successful–the grass completely grows over the grid and makes it indistinguishable from lawn.  We usually line the edges of the parking to delineate it if we suspect this to be the case.  

A year ago, we installed a “light use” grass parking area (used for once every month or two) using nothing more than 50% topsoil/50% rounded river stone (1″-2 1/2 diameter) in a 6″ lift on native soil.  So far, this has been very successful, but it may be too early to declare complete victory, and will probably only work in clay soils which have good compaction/bearing capacities.

Also, if you choose a paver, take the specs with a grain of salt– If you follow the entire profile (rock, sand, soil cloth, sand/soil mix), it may be able to sustain a fire engine, but it turns the growing medium into something more akin to a golf course green– which requires much irrigation.

[mark foster]

1st veg garden at age 5.  Lived in trees and tore apart every toy I ever owned to see how it worked 5-12.  Camping, hiking, kayaking etc 12-20.  Studied (something else) in England for a year, fell in love with the parks and estate gardens 21.  Applied to Env. reclamation program in engineering college, referred to LA.  Never looked back.

[mark foster]

Time to get out my “I WILL!” shirt.

[mark foster]

Finally,  modern art you can walk on.

[mark foster]

You may want to consider Japanese honeysuckle.  Loves heat.

[mark foster]

Hi Mike,

I took a good hard look at this several years ago, and was amazed how large a percentage of overhead it represented.  And, I don’t think your 50% “closing the sale” figure was much different than mine at that time.

The best thing I did was to charge for anything past the first meeting (we specialize in construction, so most projects need to be designed and detailed, which entails more than one meeting)– not much, but enough to determine if the clients were in earnest.  

The most surprising thing for me was that our “close rate” has actually increased about 30% since then.   Could just be a coincidence, but I think it has something to do with the psychology of the sale.

[Author]

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