Historic Colorado bridge at US-24 over the Arkansas River / image: Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) Region 5
State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) employ landscape architects who often serve as the aesthetic “eye” for transportation construction projects, selecting colors and textures, developing seed mixes, and providing other expertise to help projects blend into the surrounding context. Many DOT landscape architects conduct visual resource clearances through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process with the end goal of producing visual mitigation measures (see Visual Resources in the Practice of Landscape Architecture for more on this). This article is the first in a series that aims to outline gaps in visual mitigation guidance as well as provide opportunities and solutions to fill these gaps. The first gap that will be addressed is the disconnect between visual mitigation and the timing of project delivery. This article will outline a path forward to clarifying the landscape architect’s role in the NEPA process.
The root issue is that the timing of visual resource studies in the environmental process often restricts landscape architects to selecting aesthetic treatments or landscaping that will not drastically alter design, such as selecting colors, textures, materials, and seed mixes. There is a common misconception that landscape architects and landscapers are synonymous, and that because landscaping typically comes at the end of a construction project, landscape architects become involved at that phase. Minnesota DOT mentions that “early involvement of landscape architects can facilitate climate resiliency, thoughtful preservation and enhancement of environmental and community assets, human comfort, and visually pleasing transportation experiences,” but their Visual Quality Management (VQM) typically occurs at around 30 percent design. With the exception of high profile projects, DOT landscape architects’ involvement often occurs well into design.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2023 there were 24,700 landscape architects in the United States but fewer than 2 percent of them worked for state agencies. State government agencies employ more than ten times the number of engineers as landscape architects nationwide. Like professional engineers, landscape architects must be licensed by the state. The Landscape Architect Registration Examination (LARE) is the professional licensing exam for the profession. The sections covered on the exam include Inventory and Analysis, Planning and Design, Construction Documentation and Administration, and Grading, Drainage and Stormwater Management. Because landscape architects are seldom involved early enough in design, however, they are not always given the opportunities to apply these skills and show that they can do more than stamp a planting plan. Since many DOTs only hire a small number of landscape architects and don’t leverage the training and credentials they bring to the table, there is a missed opportunity to apply their interdisciplinary expertise.
A Public Roads article from 2000 titled “Roadways and The Land: The Landscape Architect’s Role” outlines how the landscape architects’ function shifted away from being a key player in design in the twentieth century due “to the decline of collaborative highway design in favor of urgent, rapid construction of military highways, which provided mass employment and met national security needs.” National standards developed after WWII with the advent of America’s interstate highway system left little room for context sensitive design or flexibility. Ellen Oettinger White, a professor of landscape architecture at the State University of New York School of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF), interviewed over 40 DOT staff members and found that “Landscape architects in transportation settings who felt they had a voice or an influence over what the highway engineers were doing were the ones who had a very long tenure at these public agencies. They spent decades proving their expertise to their colleagues and building relationships, while engineers were granted that assumption of expertise the moment they enter the room.” In Ellen’s 2022 presentation at the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) Innovation and Leadership Symposium titled “Roadsides and the Nature of Power in Landscape Architecture,” she emphasizes the root of this issue: landscape architects need to take back their power at DOTs.
Fortunately there are plenty of case studies in which DOT landscape architects are taking innovative steps to educate staff on what landscape architects do and shift their involvement. Virginia DOT released a memorandum describing the role of landscape architects and how it fits into project development. It could be used as a template for landscape architects at other DOTs to do something similar. In recent years, many DOTs and national research organizations have been prioritizing research on understudied landscape architecture-related topics like pollinator habitat conservation and wildfire mitigation in roadside revegetation. The National Highways Cooperative Research Program (NCHRP) administered by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and sponsored by State DOTs, AASHTO, and FHWA has been a powerful avenue for research funding. Of course, the end result of these studies is usually guidelines, so it is up to individual DOTs, with the help of landscape architects, to ultimately reflect these guidelines in their project delivery manuals. It is the responsibility of landscape architects to not only incorporate our skills into projects but to educate our colleagues about our profession to change the way we do projects. That is an immense task when landscape architects are faced with administrative hurdles, but a small change can have far reaching impacts once embedded in standard processes.
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About the Author:
Liia Koiv-Haus, ASLA, AICP, is a Landscape Specialist for the Colorado Department of Transportation. She also serves as an officer for ASLA’s Landscape—Land Use Planning Professional Practice Network (PPN).
