[Rick Spalenka]

I tried to add text to the photo of those barrack looking buildings.  That was a project I did in Garmish, Germany in 1979 while in the Army.  That building was then the “Russian Institute” where our army prepared people for “visiting” the USSR.  We had some left over money and I was asked to build a “garden” over the parking lot without removing the asphalt.  I had many “leftover” cobblestones” and a “platoon” of Lithuanian “guest workers.”  We outlined the walkway with a couple of tiers of cobblestones and filled in the green space with soil.  Care was taken to make sure drainage went to the existing storm drains.  The soil was mounded Scottish golf course fashion and planted with a few pines and many edelwies with boulders.  From the google photo looks like Uncle Sam did the same for the other buildings since my tour.  Test that landscaping over asphalt works.

[Rick Spalenka]

[Rick Spalenka]

I still have one role model to keep me going.  Jens Jensen.  One of the greatest designers in our profession and he didn’t open his professional office until he was 65 years old.  I got one more year to yet be discovered 🙂

[Rick Spalenka]

I completed my degree in 1977 and now licensed in two states.  I have heard this discussion many times.  Landscape Architects are Rodney Dangerfields plan and simple.  I can not make a living as an LA here in Western Colorado.  I’m not willing to relocate.  My current peeze is with ASLA.  I am reading too many articles in the ASLA journal about the problem women face in the profession and all that ASLA is doing to address this.  Enough is enough.  The real problem is ASLA does not spend enough resources on promoting all of us.  I see where AIA is promoting their profession on National TV.  Why doesn’t ASLA?

Yesterday I took a call from a lady who saw one of my projects in a local home improvement expo.  She wanted to know who can put in a concrete swimming pool.  I asked if she had a master plan and she said she didn’t want one.  “We’ll put the pool in and design around it.”  That ignorance is far too common in these parts.  I’m too exhausted fighting it.

[Rick Spalenka]

I started out with autocad ver 1 and went to Vectorworks about four years ago. Will never go back to Autocad. There is a saying that Vectorworks makes Autocad autocan’t. The 3D is fantastic at the cartoon level. I’m not at the photo level, yet. I now design more in 3D than I use to. Any changes in 3D are automatic in your plan. Love it.

[Rick Spalenka]

The first time I took my registered nurse exam (yea, I’m both an RN and a PLA) I looked for the right answer and only answered 75% of the test before my time ran out. The second time I took the test I eliminated the wrong answers without looking for the right answer and passed in record time. I disagreed with the right answer but knew the others were flat outright wrong.

[Rick Spalenka]

When taking a multiple choice test I find it helpful to not look for the right answer. I eliminate the more wrong answers. Sometimes I don’t even look at the remaining answer because it just makes me angry.

[Rick Spalenka]

It’s been awhile since I posted or even lurked. Don’t see many of the regulars but do remember Craig. Two years ago I had too much time on my hands because of this lousy economy so I got involved in ASLA Central. Now that my chairmanship is up I’m back to this lousy economy. I too had come out of early retirement but I’m doing it in a geographic location that is difficult for LAs who are not long time locals or “family.” Most advice to me is “go back” to retirement and fish. Oh, I also have a large library and now I’m growing my Japanese, Korean, and Chinese garden design collection. I think I’m going to see if the fish are biting in Suzhou next Spring.

[Rick Spalenka]

It is still ugly out there.  Around here anyways.  Half the LAs I know locally are not doing what they were doing 5 years ago and the other half are lying.  The architects are hurting as bad.  The best news is that the architects have time to talk to you now and get to know you.  We are all in this sinking boat together.

[Rick Spalenka]

In the early 80s I was working for a very talented landscape architect who had supper client skills but terrible leadership skills.  He took on design/build and did great projects.  His abrasive personality caused many employees to leave.  I first took on the maintenance of his past projects as my own company and withing ten years was doing my own design/build, graound maintenance, green houses, garden center and nursery.  Very little capitol but I was at the right place at the right time.  Now may not be the right time and you know Denver better than I.  You may not be happy but you are one of the few who have a job.  Learn than do.

[Rick Spalenka]

In my limited experience it seems landscape code is typically written for the gas station chains, ie conocos and kum and go’s rather than private local developers who want to do good projects.

 

Hi Nick.  You comment is true in many more progressive areas.  We live in the OutBack.  Watch out for the kangaroos.  Are you packing enough water when you trek through Western Colorado?  The developers here will do the absolute minimum they can get away with.  Rock, rock, rock.  It’s cheap.

[Rick Spalenka]

Here’s the link to the newspaperr with the cited article:   http://www.deltacountyindependent.com/news/top-stories/24846-city-hopes-to-make-regs-more-business-friendly.html

 

Here was my letter to the editor which they said they will print next week:

     It was with concern and dismay when I read the DCI’s front page story on December 14^th concerning the City of Delta backing away from site development standards.  It appears our local area is potentially regressing back to the stone age.  I’ll explain that direction shortly.

     First I would like Community Development director Glen Black to provide evidence that municipalities “have shifted away from” landscape percentages.  True Mesa County has readdressed their landscape code to give some flexibility to landscape requirements but to use the phrase “shifted away” is misleading at worse.  The way the City of Delta implements its landscape code is more of a problem than the code itself.  I know from personal experience that developers are afraid to have creative and attractive landscape plans because they fear they will be required to implement those plans to the letter before a certificate of occupancy will be delivered.  It could be more flexible and end results more attractive if developers are allowed to only install the code requirement to qualify for their CO and then be allowed to install fill-in as resources allow.  This implementation would encourage more effective use of the creative talents of landscape architects.

     Second I noticed a typical misunderstanding of the profession of landscape architects.  We are not “certified” but rather licensed no different than architects and engineers by the State of Colorado.  In fact it is first a misdemeanor than a felony to call oneself a landscape architect without being licensed.  We add the post nominal letters PLA to represent Professional Landscape Architects after our names very similar to engineers using PE.  We take a National five part two day exam to qualify for our license that is in fact more difficult to pass than one would take to become a Registered Nurse.  Our first time pass rate is lower than the nursing exam.  I know this from personal experience.  There was a comment about the high “cost” of our service.  Factoring in the hours involved to develop a proper landscape plan we incur more hours and realize less per hour billable than your local automotive mechanic.  The DCI story stated “The code also specifies that landscape plans must be approved by a “certified” landscape architect, which also increases the cost to development.”  Kudos should be given to the City of Delta for recognizing Colorado Revised Statute Title 12, Article 45 that requires all landscape architectural constructions documents be signed and sealed by a licensed landscape architect.  This is not an option for the City of Delta.  This is State Law.

     Third I was not surprised to read the suggestion to promote xeriscaping.  This is probably the most misunderstood landscape practice ever promoted.  Xeriscaping was first promoted by the City of Denver in the early 1980’s to conserve water use and it was quickly discovered using the term “xeriscaping” may have been a mistake.  Wasted water use is a National concern but Xeriphitic plants should not be substituted nationally.  Xeriphitic plants are typically plants with very small leaves to minimize water transpiration and deep roots to collect any available subsurface water.  A more appropriate term is “Water-Wise” and consists of seven steps.  Not just using xeriphitic plants, drip irrigation and excess stone mulch.  The end result of this misunderstanding and not recognizing the seven steps is people often call xeriscaping “Zeroscaping”, polka dotting the landscape with sickly looking sticks, installing poorly maintained and non functional spaghetti drip tubes that find themselves on top of poorly maintained weed barriers and using stone mulch to the point of Ad nauseam.  This is where I feel we may return to the “stone age.”

     Finally I find our local engineers are trying to solve storm water management problems in typical engineer fashion.  The requirements on developers to meet city storm water code are insane.  Just look at a recent physician’s office in Delta where the code ended up involving five engineers and resulted in a rock pit.  More progressive municipalities in the US and Europe are implementing the use of more porous pavers and paving techniques, bioswales, biodiversified retention/detention areas and water harvesting to sustain an assortment of otherwise difficult to grow flora and fauna and still meet their storm water management goals.  Even our Nation’s Capital is incorporating rain gardens in their government and commercial development.  I was recently personally affronted when a local town administrator told me landscape architects are not qualified to address storm water management problems.  The State code has a summary of provisions that states the “Practice of Landscape Architecture: includes, but is not limited to the following substantive skills:…Project and Construction Administration; Inventory Analysis and Program Development; Site design; Design and Construction Documentation; and Grading, Drainage and Stormwater Management.  Grand Junction’s recent and successful redevelopment of their Main Street was led by a landscape architect firm.

     I seriously doubt that businesses would decide to not move to an area because policies and policy makers encourage attractive landscape codes and guideline and instead locate here because the policy makers  encourage returning to the stone age.  

 

Rick Spalenka PLA ASLA

RgsDesigns

 

 

 

 

[Rick Spalenka]

Yea Craig, China’s Mao Zedong and his Great Leap Forward resulted in the starvation deaths of 20 – 40 million Chinease.  Aggressively moving into the future.

[Rick Spalenka]

Henry, if you think the protesters ended the Viet Nam war you spent too much time with Cheech and Chong.  We had a President then who didn’t have a clue to what was going on and history repeats.  I was on the streets in the late 60’s, early 70’s, as a bystander like many others.  The Sterling Hall bomb knocked me out of bed and I walked through the rubble of that blast going to class.  It was the BOOM that people heard and not the shouts that finally caused student unrest to rest.  What does breaking store windows and looting gain?  An unearned TV.

[Rick Spalenka]

My Father-in-law was a high end corporate attorney.  His creed was (not exact words but close), “a $200 an hour attorney gets the job done in two hours = $400.  A $100 an hour attorney gets the job done in 5 hours = $500.”  Might be something useful for us there.  I’ve tried that and low ball still sells.  Just look at car loans.  Salesmanship first skill.

I remember a “landscape designer” on the ocean front who was very successful selling his designs.  You can always tell his work.  Turned over boat, pier roping, bouys, etc.  Looked crappy from a professional designers point of view but the unsophisticated market loved it.  So do we sell high end sophistication or become a peddler of the low end unsophisticated and make money?  BTW a Dollar Store just got landscaped yesterday in our community.  Not quite bouys but just as crappy.

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