Sharon DeBell

Oona,
LEED has been growing extremely fast these couple of years, at least in California and the bay area. Clients, public and private, are becoming much more aware of LEED and are requesting that we follow the requirements whether they are or are not applying for accreditation on a project. About half of our office of 50 is now LEED certified.…[Read more]

Excellent idea, Jennifer!

Hi Doug,

Check out the California Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance, at http://www.owue.water.ca.gov/. It is in the process of final revision and is set to go into effect January 2010. It outlines the services and responsibilities of CIDs.

The CID process is pretty involved with classes and tests and can take awhile to get certified. If…[Read more]

Doug,
Yes there is merit. I run a design build firm that does some bid build as well. Some of the irrigation ‘designs’ that come out of some other offices that we bid on don’t follow simple irrigation principles and spec antiquated equipment.
The IA certification (CID) is a good one. I became certified a few years ago. I am always up to date with…[Read more]

Hey everyone. I’d like to get your opinion. Does anyone see any merit in becoming certified in irrigation design? The IA offers courses and testing in irrigation design that we as landscape architects would be eligible to take. While there is a great irrigation knowledge base at my office, I feel like so much has changed over the years that I need…[Read more]

hi everyone, i just sign to this group. I have my own company here in UAE (Ajman) for (planning – designing – production – installation – construction) theme stages, wedding events, artificial rock work, fiberglass casting, mall decors, theme parks etc… check my profile i have lots of sample pictures of what my company has to offer. can anybody…[Read more]

Is anyone marketing “green building” or LEED more heavily these days?

I graduated in May 2008 with my BLA and emphasis in Natural Resource Management. I am considering getting my master’s in Natural Resource Management.
Does anyone have any thoughts on how an MNRM degree would help or not really effect my job hunt?
Thanks!

Shimi; Thanks for the advice. I’ll give you a mini-review of the Vectorworks and its capabilities once I get started with it. I’m also interested to find out about an add-on program called Doodle. It looks promising. I’ll let you know. Thanks again.

I still have not found an intuitive terrain modelling platform for us landscape architects.
Rhino can produce nice surfaces, which can be pulled and pushed to get the aethetics right, but its contours are inaccurate and, unlike Civil 3D, very static. Civil 3D on the other hand is very dynamic and great in live sections and contours, but falls…[Read more]

Thanks RFox. I’m going to download a trial copy of Rhino and play around with it. I did that a few months ago with AutoCAD Civil and found the new interface pretty intuitive. I still need something that’ll be a simple interface with a landscape design focus. Right now, I don’t need super high-quality rendering capabilities, but I would like to…[Read more]

Personally, I would recommend Rhino 4.0. It is an extremely easy to learn platform and combines 2D and 3D design quite well. Plus there are really good render engine plugins like Vray.

Rhino is also very good at importing and exporting a wide variety of different file types from Autocad to Digital Projects to Maya. I don’t know the exact pricing…[Read more]

Thanks guys. I’ve seen many of the previous discussions on this topic. Reviewing my last post, I realized I had mentioned I had been running LandCAD. That part was true. However, I have not been using LandCAD. In fact, I haven’t used it for a single project. I couldn’t get out of the tutorial phase. The LandCAD folks have offered me extremely…[Read more]

John – this question keeps popping up and is a testament of the range of aspirations, skill sets and experiences out there in the industry.
I have seen them all and to date, I have not seen THE tool for landscape architects. We have to use various platforms to deliver the wide range of services we provide.

There are quite a few parameters to this…[Read more]

I personally would go with Autocad over Vectorworks for a couple reasons. To start, Autocad is the industry standard as far as drafting goes so alot more people know the program. Also, as more schools push digital rendering, more and more students are using software like 3ds Max and Revit which don’t play well with Vectorworks linework. On the…[Read more]

I’ve just started a one-person design firm specializing in residential. I’m trying to decide between the various cad programs and think Vectorworks would be the best fit for me. I have owned EaglePoint LandCADD (2000) but was running with its stand-alone cad engine (not AutoCAD). Now, years later, I’m really thinking it’s time to try again with…[Read more]

Steve,
I just so happen to be installing a RainMaster Oasis, with 15 controllers and a Weather Center II, and will be completing installation of the controls this week. All seems to be going well with installation and configuration.

Let me know if you need any additional information. I can update you when system is up and running.

Regards,
Paul

Hello,
Has anyone spec’d or installed the Rainmaster Weather Center II on-site weather station? It looks like this is a weather station with some commercial qualities. I’m looking to spec. it in a urban community center project.

thanks,

steve

I am looking for some of your best exemples of rain garden project, rain managment etc. I am in a preparation of a seminar and will enjoy to see what is really happening outside my own practice. Please feel free to share informations and projects….

I’ve been aware of SSI but hadn’t seen their latest report. Go to: http://www.sustainablesites.org
You’ll find a link to the report on the first page. I must say, the “documentation” requirements suggested in this report read like an undergraduate studio assignment for a year-long class. My recent work on a small LEED project looks like a total of…[Read more]