Matt Landis

It is tough…and on the first day, the faculty gives a speech that admits there have been several students that began there studies married…and ended their studies single. It is a bit of a scare tactic, (although there is some truth to it)…but I honestly don’t remember ever being bothered by the time committment. I was ready for the program…[Read more]

Do you have specific questions? RISD is a great program…but it is definitely a different approach than a school like Cornell or the GSD. Not for better or worse…it just depends on what you are hoping to get out of the program.

Nick…thanks for starting this discussion. I would like to point out where this discussion started. I believe that your interest in this was sparked by a discussion that Andrew started called “Obstacles Facing Our Profession”.

If we are in this profession because we love it, we want to help better society, or give back to our profession….the…[Read more]

I think what you are mentioning can definitely play into more compensation. Experience counts…without a doubt. Again, most of what I mentioned was an “average” situation. I had a friend in grad school who did Landscape Construction before getting his masters (he is on Land8Lounge)….and he was extremely surprised that after having completed a…[Read more]

There is more money coming right out of school at state and federal offices (such as National Parks, or a local/regional planning office). However….these jobs tend to level off at a much lower pay scale than in private practice. Private practice jobs out of school are typically lower…and as was discussed in the string of discussion “obsatcles…[Read more]

All some very good points….and I agree that both architects and engineers do feel that they can do our jobs…which they “can”…just usually not as well.

To expand upon Adam’s comment regarding lack of organization…something else that I feel plagues our profession is pay scale compared to engineers and other professions outside of design.…[Read more]

My vote would be San Gimignano, Italy. It is an incredible 12th century town not too far from Florence. Also, if you go to Florence….the Boboli Gardens are beautiful. A must in Paris is the Parc de la Villette by Bernard Tschumi. (see link). Finally….who could resist Brussels for some incredible beer?

http://www.archidose.org/Feb99/020199.htm

Here are the default Hotkeys for AutoCad. You can also customize them under the options menu.

A ARC
B BLOCK
C CIRCLE
D DIMSTYLE
E ERASE
F FILLET
G GROUP
H BHATCH
I INSERT
L LINE
M MOVE
O OFFSET
P PAN
R REDRAW
S STRETCH
T MTEXT
U UNDO
V VIEW
W WBLOCK
X EXPLODE
Z ZOOM

These are the advanced HotKeys (introducing Ctrl, Shift, etc…)

F1 displays…[Read more]

Some good arguments…(I think)…but not sure if I fully understand your point, Les. It does seem a bit pessimistic, overall. I think the times are a changin’….and today’s students (and younger professionals)…are very tuned into innovative trends in design that take into account whole system approaches that I believe you are eluding to. “Do not ask…[Read more]

We also drive pick up trucks with big trailers and mow grass. How could they forget the most important aspect of our job?!? I mean the precision trim that we can give a shrub far surpasses that of any other landscaping profession.

AutoCad is far and away the industry standard for architecture and landscape architecture. I forget the exact statistics, but it is more than 80% of all firms. Microstation is sometimes preferred in Civil Engineering, but they still use AutoCad for the most part. Vectorworks in my opinion is like drafting in Illustrator. After having used AutoCad…[Read more]