[Scott Lebsack]

In my experience, the burlap is biodegradable – part of the point – but I mostly work with stock out of the pacific northwest. Everything should definitely be removed from the trunk and the top 1/3 of the rootball should be exposed – cut the twine and pull the burlap back.

I was recently involved in a discuss with a Landscape Contractor and another LA on site regarding B&B vs. pots and installation practices. the LC will not warranty any B&B plant that has the cage removed, because this will  result in damage to the rootball and as a result the roots. If a client is insistent on plants without cages, they get plants in pots.

[Scott Lebsack]

I realize this is an older post, but thought I’d offer my suggestions. Generally state laws require RFP/RFQ be “published”, this means you can find them in the legal sections of local newspapers. I check the local newspaper’s website as well as the websites of the agencies themselves directly.

The easier way I’ve discovered is to get involved with government on a local level. I live in a small town, and figured with my education/background I could be a helpful member of the city Planning and Zoning Commission. I started this position over a year ago, when I worked out of town. Since being laid-off in February, the relationships I’ve developed volunteering have helped immensely. I have good working relationships with the other members of the board, usually involved members of the community in various capacities, as well as the city staffers overseeing P&Z. It is amazing how often local officials network with their counterparts in other agencies, and being familiar with them they know I am always looking for work, I generally hear if anything I might be interested in is going on nearly anywhere in the vicinity. 

[Scott Lebsack]

Haven’t been to Detroit, but do understand that Unions bargained against Corporations… To claim unions are at fault for the decisions Corporations made against their own interests is ludicrous.

Corporations at least since the ’80’s have moved to a Quarter focused mindset, cut corners today to get a good share price get my bonus and hopefully I’m gone before the s*** hits the fan. Let those managers that come after deal with the increasing price of healthcare and pensions I was willing to promise in order to avoid pay raises or other concessions today…

Unions are one of the last lines protecting this country and it’s middle class from having to directly compete with third world countries on an even footing, except that the footing is not equal, for that to be the case we would have to eliminate all environmental regulations and the like. I hope we are never that desperate but seems the direction many pro business politicians favor.

[Scott Lebsack]

I’ve never had luck printing w/ transparency? tried on a few pools…

[Scott Lebsack]

Much of your software decision may rest with the style of project you undertake, this is largely determined by the client:

• One type of client, usually a group or government agency hires you to design, document and permit a project, typically through a drawing/specification package which is then turned over to a contractor to build with minimal project management during construction. These clients may spend 80%-90% of the design fee before breaking ground.

• The other type of client may appreciate saving money on documentation and spending money on site-visits and close coordination with the contractor prior to and during construction. These clients may have over 50% of the design fee left when construction begins. The fee may then be spent on tasks such as hand selecting plant materials or placing stones.

I agree AutoCAD is very expensive/complicated, but it is also the industry standard. Whatever program you use be sure it is able to import/export .dxf or .dwg files, if you expect to work in coordination with other consultants, this included surveyors.

I can only make recommendations based on software I have/do use. We currently have all three programs in our office and often use all three for production.

If your work requires a lot of documentation AutoCAD (~4500) or AutoCAD LT (~$1200)  is probably the way to go [the best thing about AutoCAD LT is it’s price relative to AutoCAD]. The learning curve on these CAD Systems can be very steep, but because AutoCAD is so ubiquitous, there is a lot of help available online. P.S. If you are experienced w/ AutoCAD moving “down” to LT is a nightmare…

Sketchup Pro might be a good option for residential and private work, it can import export .dxf and .dwg formats and easily facilitates 3D design for about ~$495. It can also be used to create construction documents. I have used it for 3-4 sheet sets, but use AutoCAD 2011 for anything beyond that.

[Scott Lebsack]

Awesome!

[Scott Lebsack]

The news about AutoCAD for MAC is a couple months old… I did a writeup on my company blog regarding the offering and summarizing some of the questions I still had… http://www.byla.us/byla-blog/2010/10/20/autodesk-apple-and-the-internet.html I think the post gets much more into the weeds that what is being discussed above, but may prove interesting to some.

[Scott Lebsack]

If you are having difficulties I would strongly recommend Ray Freeman’s Review Course, if it is still available. I took it in the Bay area around 2006. I was lucky enough to live locally, but there were attendees from across the country. I invested money in the review before even taking the test.
The course spent an entire weekend on Section C, living in “LARE Land” discussing the test and how it is different from practice; what they are testing and/or what they don’t care about, tricks/traps to watch out for and strategies when taking the test. I don’t believe there is any way I would have passed without the class, subsequently passed on the first attempt..

[Scott Lebsack]

It seems like the Pass/Fail rates especially on this section is one of the points Landscape Architecture Licensing Boards use in an attempt to legitimize the profession. in order to get that rate low, there can be “tricks” used to catch and fail some test takers (example @ the end of this comment). Not to pass judgement, understanding/evaluating a given problem is important, but knowing what a grader is evaluating, and knowing the test must be read very closely are not something one might pick-up in any professional setting. Just like section C the test is a very different environment from actual practice.

I was lucky enough to live in northern California when I began taking the LARE, and had the opportunity to attend Ray Freeman’s weekend long LARE Section E review course. I had a strong technical background and a lot of experience grading, but I believe it was the test prep course that put me over the top. The class instructors stressed the importance of thoroughly evaluating all of the language on the test and gave a lot of insight into exactly what the test might be asking graders to evaluate.

All that said, I still imagine it would be nearly impossible for any graduate who began working in a firm with less emphasis on grading to pass without a lot of study and practice vignettes.

Example… one vignette asked test takers to grade a parking area and adjacent ball field on a sloped hillside, a third element was a small detention pond with a throw away line that included the phrase “collect from all disturbed area” so rather than detaining the water from the parking lot which might be typical, as the ball field is permeable, this line meant that the detention pond had to be at the lowest corner of the project with swales along each side of the ball field and also that the bottom rim of the basin had to be at grade and the remainder of the basin entirely in cut… the phrase wan’t in the problem explanation, I believe it was a description placed under the name Detention Basin on the project legend. Luckily when reviewing my vignette I realized the importance of this phrase and had the time to adjust accordingly.

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