LARE 101: 10+ Essential Resources for Section 4 Grading, Drainage, and Construction Documentation

LARE’s Section 4: Grading, Drainage, and Construction Documentation is, in my opinion, the hardest portion of the exam. It has the lowest passing rate of any section – before and after the change in format. You will find in your preparation for this section that there is a wide range of topics that need to be covered, most of which you have seen, but probably haven’t mastered. For me, the most difficult of the 120 questions were those pertaining to grading and specific construction details. I would encourage everyone who is thinking of taking Section 4 to give yourself a few months of studying in order to cover the wealth of material out there. There is only one year’s worth of up to date practice tests, but there is a lot you can take from previous incarnations. If...Read More

Factory makes way for community at MFO Park in Switzerland, a multi–tiered vine park that combines the history of an industrial zone and the beauty of nature. The park is part of a massive redevelopment of one of Zurich’s most industrialized zones. The vision of the city is to incorporate new residential areas, mixed use spaces, and green spaces. One goal for MFO was to create a public space for the neighborhood, which also serves as an event hall. The area was once a heavily guarded weapons production and testing complex. The factory was dismantled in 1999 and this regeneration project took its place. The Design The park is designed with geometry and scale, resembling the industrial past of the territory.  It works in vertical, spatial, and architectural direction and is more of a three-d...Read More

Doing things of quality counts, doing things of quality fast is even better! This top 10 is a great example of how small but clever changes have been made to underused, misused or  simply dull sites in a short amount of time. Rapid Landscape Architecture is all about thinking on your feet: how fast can you come up with solutions to a poor site? From 72 Hour Urban Action to the likes of a Pop Up Beer Garden, these guys are successfully starting a new revolution of challenging advancements. 10. Pop Up Beer Garden by Groundswell Design Group  There is something about food and drink bringing people together. Here is an example that involves a bit of intervention and well…booze! The vacant lot in Philadelphia was previously used for a trapeze artist exhibition and was also a parking lot. With o...Read More

Be prepared to be wowed by this Swimming Pool Design from Cipriano Custom Swimming Pools & Landscaping, what they did for their client is amazing! This project includes a custom built swimming pool, two fish-filled koi-ponds, a 12-person perimeter overflow spa and river flow jet system.The surrounding landscape uses boxwood hedge in a “stem design”, rhythmic planted flowers, a path for leisurely walking and specimen trees as focal points and accents for the overall landscape. Motivation and Brief The homeowner, an amateur violin player and collector, came up with the idea of building a pool resembling an exact replica in scale of a 1700s era Stradivarius violin with all of its detail and intricacies. The client, upon realizing his dream could be a reality, soon wanted more than just a ...Read More

Arkitektgruppen Cubus AS, a Norwegian office from Bergen have won a competition for a waterfront in Mo i Rana in the north of Norway. The concept: maintaining the identity of an area, but at the same time infusing it with a new pulse by carefully placing recognizable and innovative spatial elements in strategic places. Over time the transformed hotspots will start working as a continuum, offering a wide range of activities for leisure, play and inspiration. This is the main idea behind the project for the Norwegian city of Mo I Rana. The project took place on the fjord coastline bordering the town’s densely built up space, with a view to the magnificent natural landscape around. The module-based design of the seafront promenade facilitates it for new recreational activities. The seafront p...Read More

“I find that pulling out pens, pencils, and tracing paper and sketching, especially in meetings, changes the mood and the design experience for others in the room in a very noticeable way. The sound of a pencil swishing across the paper, the movements of the arms, people watching something interesting being made with the simplest of tools – it injects fun into the atmosphere, and credibility for the person holding the pencil.” Richard, I’d like to begin this interview with the 25 year-old question: Do hand-drawing skills have any relevance in the landscape design office of the 21st century? Yes, for specific reasons. The first reason is production. There are times in the design process, especially early on, when a sketch is hands down the quickest way to develop or present an idea. The sec...Read More

Pedestrian bridges — or footbridges — are structures that link two distinct areas, providing access for pedestrians (and, in some cases, cyclists). In a world that is mostly vehicle-oriented, these elements are a great way to facilitate motion in the chaotic urban environment, where increasing traffic is a relevant issue. In terms of function, footbridges must provide safe and easy access across streams, roads, railroads, and so on. Although they are built more to a human scale (compared to highways and vehicular bridges), pedestrian bridges still make a big visual impact on the landscape, so aesthetics is very important to ensure that this impact is positive. With that in mind, designers have turned these elements into real works of art — check out our Top 10, featuring ...Read More

The Office of Cheryl Barton, a San Francisco-based landscape architecture firm, recently released an excellent behind-the-scenes look at the work of a landscape architect. The short film, which was created by ConnectED Studios, follows landscape architect Janice Nichol and her thoughts on “the importance of creative expression and past experiences when creating eye-catching public spaces.”   From the video: “What I love most about the field [is] the fact that we’re creating space, the places that people live in and spend their lives, and get to make them more beautiful, more functional, more enriching.” – Janice Nicol   Day in the Life: Landscape Architect from ConnectEd Studios on Vimeo.   Missed last week’s Filmtastic Friday? No worries, you can check out our full...Read More

I’ll show you some simple workflows that I use to save time and make AutoCAD work even more efficiently. Trim and Extend are two important commands that I use – A LOT. These tips for making those commands work even faster can save you a little bit of time that will add up to a lot of time saving in the long term. METHOD 1 Start the trim tr; or extend ex command – press enter twice …now everything is a cutting or boundary edge METHOD 2 Use the fillet f command, select first line then shift select second line to extend and join lines in one step. Thanks to Beekee for alerting me to this little gem. QUESTIONS? I hope you found this helpful. Let me know if you use this method too! Click on the CADsmarter logo below to email me   Paul Stafford

WHY REMOVE XREF LAYERS FROM THE LAYER LIST? Every consultants drawing that you xref into your drawing has layers that show up in your Layer Manager. This quickly adds up to lots of xref layers to navigate through to find what you need. You don’t want to be scrolling through hundreds of xref layers searching for a particular layer. This takes valuable time – and time is money – particularly in a small business. So what is a smarter way to use the Layer Manager? WATCH THE VIDEO TO SEE HOW TO REMOVE THE CONSULTANT XREF LAYERS KEY INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPERTY FILTER FOR YOUR XREF LAYERS NOTE: at 1:10 in the video the four (4) characters to enter for the property filter are  shown in the image below: MY PREFERRED METHOD AND WHY I prefer the second method of creating a proper...Read More

Bernard Trainor is founding principal and design director of Bernard Trainor + Associates in Monterey, California. Many of BT + A’s large-scale projects include sites adjacent to California’s protected areas and state preserves. So by necessity and desire, BT + A’s design work performs that integral dance between design intent and the elements of nature. His recent monograph, Landprints: The Landscape Designs of Bernard Trainor, by Susan Heeger, beautifully portrays 10 of these special places.   “I have come to realize that I am just adding a layer to the good work of the many who came before me. I am happy with that–I just want the layer I am adding to be really good!”   How does a young surfer from southeast Australia find himself designing regionally approp...Read More

If you are into plant design, nature, and/or landscape architecture, chances are that coating the world in vigorous greenery is up there on your to-do list. However, sometimes doing so isn’t as easy as it seems, because without sufficient planting-design expertise, sooner or later you are bound to blunder. The following 10 names are professionals possessing authentic horticultural and planting flair, so take note. 10. Paul Thompson Landscape architect and deft planting designer Paul Thompson is a leading figure on the Australian scene. Forty years of experience has resulted in Thompson accruing serious plant performance know-how for species that aren’t so commonly cultivated in Australia. He was the brain behind the planting design for The Australian Garden, winner of the World...Read More