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A Day in the Life of a Landscape Architect

If you are thinking about becoming a landscape architect, you should have an appreciation for nature, a creative flair, and a passion for working with your hands. You should also have strong writing and researching skills and an affinity for engineering and environmental sciences. All of these skills will be useful for mastering the art and science of the analysis, planning, design, management, preservation, and rehabilitation of land. Landscape architects apply their skills to site planning, garden design, environmental restoration, town and urban planning, park and recreation planning, regional planning, and even historic preservation. The growing popularity of this profession is understandable. Where else could consecutive job assignments find you planning a site for corporate office buildings, then have you managing a large wilderness area, and next creating public parks that won’t interfere with the natural environment? Even though landscape architects appear to keep average hours, project deadlines can create a lot of overtime. Working through weekends is very likely. A major job, like planning a corporate site, can take more than a year to complete. A landscape architect must work with all the other professionals involved in a project. The list includes architects, engineers, and construction contractors, and a landscape architect must see that their design concepts will work with the overall project. Surveys of the land at the site itself must often be made, taking into consideration complex factors such as drainage, slope of the land, and even how sunlight falls on the site. Once this is done, they spend the majority of the remainder of the project in the office, preparing presentations for clients that include cost estimates, sketches, and models. After a project is approved, landscape architects prepare even more detailed working drawings and outline explicitly the methods of construction and lists of construction materials. Some landscape architects even supervise the installation of their designs, although this is often left to a developer or separate contractor. Landscape architects can also choose to specialize in areas such as residential development, parks and playgrounds, restoration, or even shopping malls. Only a few, however, are exclusively devoted to individual residential designing because the income is too small compared to the earnings from larger, commercial projects. Most of the profession is centered in urban or suburban areas, and while the majority of landscape architects work for landscape architecture services and firms, a full 20 percent of people in the profession are self-employed.

Paying Your Dues

Entrance into the profession requires a bachelor’s or master’s degree in landscape architecture (from an accredited school), training, licensure (in all but five states), and specialized skills. It is a long road to becoming a licensed and professional landscape architect. The bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture takes between four and five years to complete; a master’s can take two to three years. During and after school, prospective landscape architects serve as interns to professionals in the field for a period of at least two years. Finally, they will have to pass the L.A.R.E. (Landscape Architect Registration Examination) to obtain their licenses to practice landscape architecture as certified professionals. However, if they choose to take jobs with the government, the process can be somewhat shorter; the federal government doesn’t require its landscape architects to be licensed.

Present and Future

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) was founded in 1899, and one of its charter members was 77-year-old Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who designed New York City’s Central Park. Today, the ASLA has more than 15,000 members across 48 chapters. An ever-growing number of landscape architects are using computeraided design (CAD) systems to assist them with presentations. Proficiency with this technology is becoming a requirement in the field. Larger-scale projects are often planned using geographic information systems technologies and computer-mapping systems. The level of computer-assisted design in the profession will continue to increase. Job opportunities will be best for landscape architects who develop strong technical and computer skills. Knowledge of environmental issues, codes, and regulations will also give landscape architects an edge in the marketplace. The continued and growing concern for the environment should see the demand for landscape architects increase as the need to design environmentally sound development projects becomes even more pressing. Urban planners have cited the greening of roofs and courtyards in cities as effective approaches to cut down on energy costs and reduce pollution, making landscape architects in greater demand as society increasingly understands how the natural world can alleviate some of the strains people place on the environment.

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Quality of Life

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