Sharon DeBell

I’m a residential Landscape Designer in San Diego’s East County. Has anyone mentioned Tree of Life Nursery in San Juan Capistrano? They have a nice newsletter as well you can subscribe to.
I like to incorporate garden-friendly california natives in my designs.

I am pulling together a maintenance manual for a design studio that wants to install storm water mitigation in its projects. After reading widely, I have noticed that most information has the same maintenance guidelines. I find it difficult to believe that if sedimentation must be cleaned out 4-5 times a year from an in-street planter in Portland,…[Read more]

Jay,
I have run into similar situations in my work experience, (I’ve worked at 4 firms and have ten years + of construction experience) where registered LA’s are “designing” things but have no practical knowledge of how the thing will actually stand up or be built and a very narrow knowledge of construction in general.It seems often-times the old…[Read more]

Hi Scott
I learned the ropes in the field prior to Licensure; I started at an ornamental tree farm then became manager and head of landscapeoperations, then lead designer, then partner in a design build firm, all the while not fulfilled in my carrer thinking that I took the wrong path by not stepping straight into a design firm. It wasnt until I…[Read more]

Great idea for a group!

I’m glad to see someone else interested in SSI! I’m working on a children’s garden project for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. We’re designing the project to the preliminary draft SSI credits in hopes to create a sustainable landscape project, test the credits and criteria and eventually hopefully become a pilot project.

Here is another recent article from BuildingGreen.com regarding LEED changes : http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/index.cfm/2009/7/28/New-LEED-AP-Exam-Writer-Tells-All.

intheleed.com also has some good explainations:
http://www.intheleed.com/what-exactly-is-the-credential-maintenance-program-for-leed/

Go to the link below to download the “Credentialing Maintenance Program Guide” valid for July 2009 from USGBC – this is the official document addressing credentialling maintenance.
http://www.gbci.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=3665

Just got an e-mail regarding GBCI Credentialing Maintenance Program for those of us that have been accredited without specialization under the old system. Was wondering if anyone has dug deeper into what this really means for us and if upgrading to a specialization will pay off in the end?

Just slid into this group. Many of the Washington State funded building design projects require a LEED certification. I’ve been involved in the number of LEED workshops on projects for community colleges in the state. I am not up to speed on the newer landscape/site related LEED certification. I know from past projects, the landscape/site related…[Read more]

I would like to think that it is the LA who knows best, but sadly I feel that the contractor is the one who is going to be the key in creating the finished project. I would love to get to know my contractors well enough to find out there likes and dislikes but I never seem to be able to work with the same one over again, the market is so cutthroat…[Read more]

That’s encouraging to hear you bring an ‘added value’ to your office and that you’re getting LEED projects (and platinum at that).Good for you!

I cannot speak to PTLexamprep, but I can say that greenexamprep is fairly accurate when they claim that if you can score over 80% on their tests then you are probably pretty well prepared for the actual exam. Hang in there.

To all:
check out my new discussion group: townscapes, villagescapes

Yeah, you’re probably just over thinking it a little. I used the chart in the LEED AP Walkthrough, which is probably the same as the one on IntheLeed.com. I will say that there weren’t that many questions that related directly to project roles in the particular question pool that I had when I sat for the test (maybe 5), what I can say is that…[Read more]

Land F/X is a great tool if you are going to do a concept to working drawings set and are looking for real world ability to create and modify a great set of plans, it is functional within Autocad and now BricsCad ( a cheeper version of ACAD, which looks very powerful for the price), and LandF/X functions with SketchUp (which is not a TOY as stated…[Read more]

Does anyone here have experience with Leit solar controllers? Any issues with long wire runs, durability, etc?

Thanks in advance

Anyone still studying to pass under LEED 2.2:
There are 2 resources that I used to study that I think were critical to success, I think these have been mentioned before but If you’re on the fence about what resources to spend your money on here’s what I think are the two best values:

I have to throw my support behind Intheleed.com’s LEED AP…[Read more]

GCBI WEBCAST: NEW LEED CREDENTIALS
this is a very helpful video that explains the new credential system for LEED 2009/3.0