[Steve Bartley]

Well last one of the night for me 21.00hrs in UK…..you sound like you got it all well under control there Bob and a lot of jargon I am not used to but I think there is a definitive split developed where you work in relation to which era you come from, yes graduates are pretty fast and slick at the visuals and that is great if you can source them but they are usually from other disciplines here (interior design/architects even) and just would not have time to provide full landscape service as part of their working week as the older (mature) members of staff may be doing………One of my ‘principals’ many years ago said to the LA team once ‘I see you people as all self employed individuals working within this company and you are responsible for providing the full service, including administration duties’ or words to that effect, I definately feel that a new wave of self employed individual companies will rise as a consequence of the recession here and in fact seem to be doing that already, I mean why would you stay working for a company that sees you as self-employed within the context of a company, makes sense in taking out the management level and the overheads there mind and if you are all doing your own procurement why not (the cream grows ever thinner on top of the milk) I heard it described as from bankers recently, but lets not get into that!!

[Steve Bartley]

You are spot on with that spatial awareness Ben and I always thought and imagined things like that before 3D although woke up to a few nightmares also but possesed the mean traditional graphic skills to bail me out……I am into large scale Sculpture now going back to my Fine Art roots and that is so inspiring when you have to make your artwork part of the landscape environment you designed………….a risky business but sometimes those stakeholders just have to ride with it a bit and that is when the best work is achieved.

[Steve Bartley]

Well I took my vacation already Lee but it all depends on how you have your business stacked anyway I started out in that era of hand drawn plans and made the jump to CAD because Design is what I am all about while ‘my principals’ friends over the years alike chose to take the management route as they were not passionate about carrying on as a designer anymore (now why would they do that) so been there and you speak as you find. My first love is Art and Design of which I am qualified also but I tell you what and in relation to the ‘if a client wants to pay me to make films, become a sound engineer, etc., I am not going to turn down the work ‘ they should pay up and go to a professional film and sound person in fact you should go there too because in the end you set up your own thing because you dont like working for others either by the sounds of it.
In the end it all depends where and who you work for, I have been in the private and public sectors of the market and you know CS4 for example is a great thing but that is a whole new ball game and you are coming at the market from that viewpoint as your specialism so you dont agree and that is your perogative and that may be where you get your work but it doesnt alter the fact that if you are spread thinly across the landscape office because you have no support from anybody anymore with serious deadlines looming on site you can do without 3D modelling and taking your degree in graphic / multimedia communication.
Sounds like we are all coming in here from different directions and specialisms and I totally agree that the graphics/visuals being important of course they are but you know everything in moderation should be where we are coming from and I just dont see 3D modellers/visualisers doing the full range of landscape services and office protocol on a daily basis.

[Steve Bartley]

I think you are right Amy the problem is at Principal level because they came from the era of the hand-drawn plan on parchment and they were never any good at it and became management!!…………..very good we nailed that one well and truly!!

[Steve Bartley]

I dont mind doing the graphic stuff but you get pulled so much in that direction the business of landscape design gets taken out of context………like moving from the creative stroke to the business of quantifying raw materials in a Bill of Quantities or a Clerk of Works role, I think thats expected and part of what you are trained for….because the graphics role is huge and of course a profession in its own right and it leads to all forms of art and design, advertising and the leaving poster…………Well you know sometimes you just got to know your limits.

[Steve Bartley]

I dont know about anybody else but in my humble experience all the other professions take three steps backwards when a landscape architect comes to the table….I wonder why!!

[Steve Bartley]

Every landscape architect should create their own artwork or sculpture during their career at some point to understand the transition and development of the initial idea or concept through to the construction phases and siting……..I mean why not take the jump from designer to artist………All art is research in many ways if you think about, as is landscape design and the end results of that are not always what you expect or end up with. To be commisioned to provide artwork by a client can only ever be a gamble on their part if you are to provide original art in the true and pure sense of the word.
In relation to traditional and/or figurative sculpture take the examples of soviet or southeast asian communist artworks where the gigantic proportions of Stalin or Chairman Mao statues provide the abstract element relating to scale, they are still figurative artworks like the statues of a GI soldier from WWI or WWII and / or Civil War general in the Town Square although their scale seems to give them another element and power.
When you think about it there is no one better placed than the LA to decide or provide what artwork will fom the centrepiece of their brilliant conception……in other words all back to college to get your BA’s in Fine Art….and there is another string to our alrerady heavily strung bows.

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