[Stephen Quick]

No, thank goodness. My wife and I successfully avoided falling into that particular money pit. We recognized the bubble for what it was, and held off on buying a house until I was done with school.

 

And thank you for stating exactly what I was thinking as far as the Practice Act here. No, it is certainly NOT a booming industry here. Believe me, the missus and I will be leaving Vegas as soon as it financially practical for us to do so.

 

 

[Stephen Quick]

Here is the link to the PDF for any who wants to read the whole thing: Nevada Practice and Title Act

 

And below I’ve added the relevant portions:

Landscape architect: Any person who engages in the practice of
landscape architecture.

Practice of landscape architecture: To provide or hold professional
services out to the public, including, without limitation, services for
consultation, investigation, reconnaissance, research, planning, design,
preparation of drawings and specifications and supervision, if the
dominant purpose of the services is for the: preservation, enhancement or
determination of proper land uses, natural land features, ground cover
and planting, naturalistic and esthetic values, natural drainage, and the
settings and approaches to buildings, structures, facilities and other
improvements; and consideration and determination of issues of the land
relating to erosion, wear and tear, lighting characteristics, and design of
landscape irrigation, lighting and grading.
The term includes the location and arrangement of such tangible objects,
structures and features as are incidental and necessary to that dominant
purpose, but does not include the design of structures or facilities with
separate and self contained purposes for habitation or industry whose
design is normally included in the practice of architecture or professional
engineering.

Prohibitions/penalties for unlicensed practice: An unlicensed person
is prohibited from engaging in the practice of landscape architecture or
using the title landscape architect, landscape architect intern, landscape
designer, landscape consultant, landscape draftsman or any other title or
term indicating or implying that he or she is a landscape architect or
landscape architect intern. Violations are misdemeanors.

 To be fair, there are exemptions:

Interprofessional practice: The law exempts architects and civil
engineers.

Exempt persons:
• Owners of property who make plans, specifications or drawings for
their own property.
• Any contractors who provide their own drawings for their own
construction activities.
• Any person, who designs, manufactures or sells irrigation equipment
and provides instructions pertaining to the mechanical erection and
installation of the equipment but does not install the equipment.

 

What do you guys think? (Not intended as snarky, just honestly inquisitive. I may have read it wrong, after all.)

 

 

[Stephen Quick]

Unfortunately Andrew, the issue for many new graduates is not so much in the license, but in the practice. In my state, for example, there is no such thing, legally, as a Landscape Designer. If you don’t have the stamp, you are not allowed to perform duties related to it. 

 

Other states vary, of course, which is one of the many reasons I am looking to move.

[Stephen Quick]

Claudia makes excellent points. As a recent graduate, it is immensely frustrating to be unable to practice or earn a living with my hard-earned degree.

 

In order to even apply to take the LARE, I am required by state law to work under a licensed L.A. for two years. As there are no firms hiring in my area right now, I am effectively at a standstill when it comes to licensure. I have no objection to the LARE itself. There should be standards that every L.A. must be able to demonstrate competence in.

 

I do strongly object to the apprenticeship requirement, however. There are many, many other professions that require a degree and testing for licensure, but without the year or more of apprenticeship. Why not ours?

 

 

 

 

[Stephen Quick]

There are really quite a lot of boundary-pushing technologies out there for sustainability…but they require at least a basic understanding of science and engineering to utilize them effectively in landscape architecture. In my experience, many instructors will encourage students to consider using solar panels, wind turbines, green roof systems, etc., without giving the students an effective understanding of how these technologies work.

 

I’ve seen countless student presentations that incorporate solar panels (either as roofing replacement or shade structures), and not one of them could tell me how much power their installation would actually generate.

[Stephen Quick]

To be fair, we’ve come close. I’ve had a few opportunities to work with state and local government entities through class projects, and am grateful our classes were chosen to give design input on sites that have a good chance of being built.

However, the closest we’ve come so far to an actual design/build was an end-of-semester project where the class as a whole did a planting/irrigation/lighting install in a small courtyard. Digging through caliche sucks, by the way. 🙂 I loved that whole experience, and felt it was a great way to really understand what we had learned in class that semester.

I only wish more courses followed the same model.

[Stephen Quick]

In my own experience, I wish there was more emphasis given to the practical, actually-in-a-firm type stuff. Most of us know how to draw plans and come up with design, but little instruction is given on the practical aspects of getting something done.

I wish we could do at least one exercise sometime during our curriculum that went from start to finish. Like, concept to schematic to plan to actual execution. Maybe do a volunteer job on someone’s backyard, or re-do a parking lot. Anything to let students see the entire process.

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