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A Profession In Demand
Excerpted from the American Society of Landscape Architects Site
From city councilrooms to corporate boardrooms, there is increasing demand today for the professional services of landscape architects.
This trend reflects the public's desire for better housing, recreational and commercial facilities, and its expanded concern for environmental protection. Residential and commercial real estate developers, federal and state agencies, city planning commissions, and individual property owners are all among the thousands of people and organizations in America and Canada that will retain the services of a landscape architect this year.
More than any of the other major environmental design professions, landscape architecture is a profession on the move. It is comprehensive by definition-no less than the art and science of analysis, planning design, management, preservation and rehabilitation of the land.
In providing well-managed design and development plans, landscape architects offer an essential array of services and expertise that reduces costs and adds long-term value to a project.
Clear differences do exists between landscape architecture and the other design professions. Architects primarily design buildings and structures with specific uses, such as homes, offices, schools and factories. Civil engineers apply scientific principles to the design of city infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and public utilities. Urban planners develop a broad overview of development for entire cities and regions.
Landscape architects touch on all the above mentioned design professions, integrating elements from each of them. While having a working knowledge of architecture, civil engineering and urban planning, landscape architects take elements from each of these fields to design aesthetic and practical relationships with the land.
A Diverse Profession
Landscape architecture is one of the most diversified of the design professions.
Landscape architects design the built environment of neighborhoods, towns and cities while also protecting and managing the natural environment, from its forests and fields to rivers and coasts. Members of the profession have a special commitment to improving the quality of life through the best design of places for people and other living things.
In fact, the work of landscape architects surrounds us. Members of the profession are involved in the planning of such sites as office plazas, public squares and thoroughfares. The attractiveness of parks, highways, housing developments, urban plazas, zoos and campuses reflects the skill of landscape architects in planning and designing the construction of useful and pleasing projects.
From coast to coast, in every region of the world, examples of the landscape architecture profession can be found. Many landscape architects are involved in small projects, such as developing plans for a new city park or site plans for an office building, other members of the profession have contributed their expertise to numerous projects which include:
- Preservation of Yosemite Park and Niagara Falls
- Management plan for the Alaskan Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
- Design of the U.S. Capitol Grounds
- Design of Mount Royal Park in Montreal, Quebec
- Development of Stanford University site
- Creation of Boston's "emerald necklace" of green spaces tying the city to the suburbs
- Plans for Baltimore's park system and Inner Harbor area
- Design of "new towns" such as Columbia, Maryland, and Reston, Virginia
- Landfill reclamation for Fresh Kills in New York and Dyer in Florida
- Plans for Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco, California
- Sursum Cordan Affordable Housing, Washington, D.C.
- Design for water treatment and park facility in Hillsboro, Oregon
- Master plan for King Saud University in Saudi Arabia
- Restoration of the landscape along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Maryland
Depending on the scope of the project for clients, ranging from a local developer to the federal government, landscape architects may plan the entire arrangement of a site, including the location of buildings, grading, stormwater management, construction and planting. They may also coordinate teams of design, construction and contracting professionals.
Already, federal and state government agencies ranging from the National Park Service to local park planning boards employ a large number of landscape architects. More and more private developers realize that the services of a landscape architect are an integral part of a successful, more profitable project.
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