nca

I worked in a small office owned by a landscape architecqt but employing both PE’s and LA’s. My experience there was similar to Andrews–lots of overlap and everyone dug in to whatever task were at hand.
My view is that LA’s tend to and should be generalists. Sure, there are specialized facets that might seem to belong to our discipline such as…[Read more]

Im almost afraid to reply to this thread…after 2009 im just waiting for another contraction. I was in that group in 2008-2009 looking for a job in the midst of the worst recession in nearly a century. I was fortunate in that I was one of a handful in my class that worked for design firms through school. I actually started on my career path as a…[Read more]

Sold it on ebay, went back to intuou5, then upgraded to a cintiq 24hd in february, bought a second one 2 months ago. Love them

The only thing I could see was the mirrored pillows..what else?

Just to offer a different perspective–We have basically built our business model on graphics and fortunately it has led to design and finally we are beginning to build things.
I can only say that our success, however limited it may be, is due to the fact that we put a lot of emphasis on graphic communication. We also happen to work entirely in…[Read more]

You cant model in lumion and the rendering quality is marginal imo. If youre renderings are taking all night I would try to streamline your technique while youre in school.

We use cintiqs

To offer a counterpoint, our office uses 3d on a daily basis both within the design process as well as final production. I might argue that anything can be a design tool. We are 100% digital. You can see some of our work at terrainla.com

Buildings and most site features are very easy to model and dont require an obscene amount of computing power. Landscape, particularly plants and trees are extremely complexin geometry requiring enormous computing power to display well.

Additionally, modeling tends to require more time in production that could be spent on design…with limited…[Read more]

Your degree doesnt/shouldnt matter, your skill set does. Ive always thought it was silly how some firms base salaries on a candidates degree. I would try to find salary data for your specific location. Base your expectations on where you believe you stand in terms of marketable skills–can you draw, do you have local code memorized, are you a…[Read more]

As usual, love andrews response.
‘Start thinking like an owner…’ I think this came naturally to me as before I even set out on a formal education in la i knew I wanted to own  a business. I think this attitude, if you can call it that, both earned me opportunites while simultaneously closing doors in other areas. An candidate employee with an…[Read more]

I could get behind the idea of reducing credit hours in exchange for internship hours (for essentially all professions), but ours seems very applicable.
As a small business owner I’m more apt to hire an entry level with 2-3 years of part/full time experience over someone with 4-5 years full time schooling upon graduation. 
This is not to devalue…[Read more]

I stopped by thinking this was a weird topic, and discovered envirobidnet..Thanks Mark.

Generally agree. Section 4 requires studying basically everything in the two la bibles and then some. 
My take is that the lare is a reflection of the direction the practice is going–less design and craft, more management and delegation.

Glad to say I passed a couple months ago, first try. Also thought sections 3 and 4 were easy, but could see how someone could be frustrated by the material. Section 4 had very few practical grading vignettes. It was mostly multiple choice and required alot of cognition, careful reading, critical thinking, focus, and common sense 
in answering…[Read more]

200k? +/- 20%?

Good for you, sounds like you have a good strategy. I know what it’s like to develop a style and be paid to produce that style on projects. In reality, if you do decide to do some tutorials chances are those that try to replicate your process will only be moderately successful. What clients don’t realize when they’re paying for professional…[Read more]

Those skills are more valuable than you probably realize. I would suggest not spending much time teaching others your techniques. Our profession is headed in a weird direction where everyone strives to become a project manager and craft takes a back seat. Hold on to and develop your own techniques and market them professionally. We are in the…[Read more]

you need to rasterize the objects and use the marquee tool to copy to keep them on the same layer. 

I’ve worked three ways for three different firms–sheet set manager (not worth time to set y
Up IMO), sheets as individual files (good if you have large team working on sheets simultaneously), and plot sheets file (as you described sheets in single file managed in layout tabs (cleanest IMO).

I have an architect client now who thinks they’re…[Read more]