What are /r/LandscapeArchitecture's favorite Products & Services?

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https://www.amazon.com/Black-Landscapes-Matter-Walter-Hood/dp/0813944864

Good read came out this year. I’d start with contemporary Issues in landscape architecture first before you develop century old biases from the earlier pioneers in the profession.

This book briefly shows the most famous designs over the last 100 years. Many graduating LA students, let alone someone with 10+ years experience, has seen most of these before. This is very much a coffee table book with little real content that will be skimmed through once and probably put away on a bookshelf for the rest of its life. (LAs have lots of these generic books and almost never look back on them)

I think what J-Chen was getting at is to find a book that goes into a lot more detail about a specific topic that might actually help your friend broaden their knowledge or keep up with new trends. Landscape Architecture is a pretty broad profession with many interests and focuses, so I don't know what your friend is really interested in.

• On the planting side of LA, maybe try something like "Planting: A New Perspective" It is about the same price on Amazon and still has lots of nice pictures, but it really teaches a new way of planting design that is used in several famous modern designs like New York's High Line park or Chicago's Lurie Garden.
• On the sustainable design / stormwater side of LA, maybe try something like "Sustainable Stormwater Management" This also looks to be a good book with lots of in depth information about an important topic we deal with every day.

There are many other aspects to Landscape Architecture, but these two subjects are a good place to start.

Your website is well designed and has a very professional feel to it. I notice that it is missing the more intimate glimpses into your design process. You have a lot of finished 3D models and well put together projects, but where is your process? From my experience firms love to see rough sketches and the madness that led to your final product. Most likely each of your projects has a story being told of how you reached the final design... think of your portfolio in that way. For each project try to show struggle and constraints through process drawings and site analysis (sketches, rough models, anything you use to help wrap your mind around a project). Show solutions through your representational tools (section, plan, elevation, iso/axo... proving that you can represent your design through multiple mediums and fully understand what you are producing from all angles). Final project drawings should be the flashy stuff in your portfolio (renderings either by hand or digitally, 3D models, photography, construction drawings in CAD, any tool you learned while in school to help better show your final product to a teacher or perspective client. That is what I picked up from my professors and interviewing experience. Also http://issuu.com/search?q=landscape+architecture is a great resource to view hundreds of LA student portfolios, undergrad and graduate. Good Luck!

I've had a side hustle for a while now making aerial maps for small residential designers to use as a base. Basically, I only had to buy a ~$600 drone and then get the commercial UAV Pilots license (takes passing a pretty easy test which has an additional $100 fee). Now I just fly a site for about 30 minutes and create an orthomosaic map of the property, then I bring that into CAD and trace the important elements. It's not survey-grade detail, and the topography you can get from photogrammetry is limited, but it makes a good base for early-stage design work and for clients with limited budgets who can't afford a full survey.

The software I use for the orthomosaic maps and topo is Drone Deploy: http://www.dronedeploy.com

I like to look at people's portfolios on issuu. Just keep on finding them under related publication. You can also get ideas for layout and such!

http://issuu.com/paulinedegorostarzu/docs/portfolio_degorostarzu_print

It's been around for at least 25 years.

https://www.amazon.com/Regenerative-Design-Sustainable-Development-Tillman/dp/0471178438

The term was coined by John T Lyle, who was one of my teachers in school - Cal Poly Pomona.

The world heritage of gardens by Dusan Ogrin is a great one. Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/World-Heritage-Gardens-Dusan-Ogrin/dp/0500236666

It takes a historic perspective and goes through all of the important eras of garden design, describing how basic design principles such as contrast, harmony, rythm etc. were used to convey different messages. It won't provide you with any recepies for designing but it is still great to understand historical significance of landscape structures. Highly recommended to anyone dealing with landscape design.

Another one I would recommend, but which is more general is The cultured landscape. https://www.amazon.com/Cultured-Landscape-Designing-Environment-Century/dp/0419250409 This one is a bit more philosophical but great to understand where landscape architecture is moving in general.

Enjoy your reading.

I really enjoyed looking thru Laurie Olin's French Sketchbook that I picked up at ASLA last year. Amazon has it -https://www.amazon.com/France-Sketchbooks-Travel-Artists-Designers/dp/1943532575/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=laurie+olin+sketchbook&qid=1670354723&sr=8-1

My two thoughts:

1) A Pattern Language by Christoper Alexander--- a little bit academic but kind of a fun read imo

2) Any graphics book by the firm EDSA. Like this one They are hard to find but contain beautiful hand drawings. Im not sure why there are so few copies out there.

Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards already mentioned, so here are some useful books for detailing:

- Detail in Contemporary Landscape Architecture (Virginia McLeod)
- Construction for Landscape Architecture (Holden & Liversedge)
- Landscape Detailing (Littlewood) Four volumes, google it...

>podocarpus

Just ordered this - thanks for the advice. https://www.amazon.com/Podocarpus-Macrophyllus-Japanese-Evergreen-Privacy/dp/B01KW64U7U/ref=asc\_df\_B01KW64U7U/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309769305053&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8446261059471820178&hvpone=&hvptwo=&...

>Any advice on how to become more of a "horticulturalist/planting designer," short of quitting my current job and trying to get hired somewhere that does more of that work (I may have to do that anyway, but curious if there are courses, certifications, etc. to look into).

Get instagram (you'll need it anyway to market your office) and start following:

terremoto, james golden, themontedon, practice landscape, soft studio, nocturnal medicine, ken smith workshop, yard works, joost emmerik, piet oudolf, the new perennialist, katheryn herman, arjan boekel, acres wild....

You have to expose yourself to tons of viewpoints, find what you like, and emulate that. Make it your own. This takes a lifetime, but it takes a lifetime for everyone so you aren't late if you start now.

A good place to start would also be to buy or check out "The View From Federal Twist" and/or delve into Jame's blog

>-Any advice from current sole practitioners? How did you break out on your own? How did you build a client base? Are there any project types outside of single-family residential that you have been able to build into your practice?

Find the one thing you're really good at, that you love doing, and just do that thing. You can't be someone else. For example I don't do traditional picturesque, I don't do rinky dink plop plants down and get creative garden design center nonsense. Part of your job is to market yourself to the right clients and that can only happen if you know what you can and cannot do. Also, get good at telling clients "no". You aren't their whore.

The counter is looking for a value for specs option. I got something like this MSI laptop in 2020 for under $1400 and have really liked it. Benchmark might be cyberpunk on medium graphics settings.

MSI Pulse GL66 Gaming Laptop: 15.6" 144Hz FHD 1080p Display, Intel Core i7-11800H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, 16GB, 512GB SSD, Win10, Black (11UGK-001) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09127DDVT/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_Z5AR0F7811JZ69V8MPF1

Considerations I had were screen refresh rate, lightweight mobility (4lbs is great), decent RAM I wouldn't go below 16 and a mid tier graphics card and processor. The 3d modeling is demanding but nothing this can't handle. The advantage you'll notice with a very high end machine is the rendering time for photorealistic renderings which imo is not worth paying double and shaving off half the time. Let your future employer shell out for that computer down the road.

Last thing I think is very very very important - I had to have something with good cooling fans and vent placement - heat is the enemy of your internal components over time. But also the type and quantity of ports. In 2020 the lightning C port wasn't as prevalent, but it allows you enough BUS power to potentially run external upgrades 5 years from now. That way you can mod something like the graphics card externally when yours starts to show it's age.

If you are still looking, you can try Quire. It's a project management software that I am currently using. It has comprehensive features that project management software needs.

Personally I think Rhino in conjunction with grasshopper. Rhino is a super powerful modeling software which in my opinion is far more efficient than sketchup and has far greater capabilities. Rhino is great for modeling topography and landscapes and grasshopper allows you to create complex designs more efficiently and provides the ability to utilize numerous plugins that allow for more in depth site analysis.

For learning basic Rhino there are plenty of useful tutorials on youtube but this playlist might be particularly of interest for you as an LA.

If you’re interested in exploring grasshopper and parametric landscape design take a look at this book.

And as for site analysis plugins I would look into Lady bug and Buffalo. You can download them on the food4rhino website.

Yeah, start small. I used to give a lecture on design that was titled 'How to design if you can't afford the paper.' Basically, it said these things. Every step in the process is the same size, it's only when you add the steps together do you get the stairs. Learn how to do every step of the design process. Do not stop at the renderings, or the iterations, or the prototype, do something that you can go all the way from the beginning to the end in. To do that, start small, and if that thing is too big, go smaller. Go as small as you can do and go up from there. A book that I recommended about the process is this -- https://www.amazon.com/Pencil-History-Design-Circumstance/dp/0679734155 and if a pencil is too big, think of the paperclip.

This all applies to LArch as well.

The way NOT to do it is to do a rendering or a bunch of boards for design competitions and to hope something comes of that and they lift you up to the top. Remember what happened to the kid that did the 911 memorial. Or even Maya Lin. While that does happen, it's not how best to learn how to design or to do design thinking. The fact is, most firms don't design. They shop for the clients. I hate the shopping.

Looking at other fields helps too. I am super inspired by the various battles of the chief design officers at top corporations and their epic missteps and failures and of course their successes. Like that of the Pepsi and the Coke rebrand a couple years back. They tend to walk you through their process step by step.

Anyways, I'm super interested in designing and the act of design and design being a thing and at our best I think we too are designers first and foremost and LArch happens to be our medium and nothing more or greater. Good LArchs are essentially legal secretaries. Great LArchs are designers first and foremost.

I am able to pay off the student loan, and earning the degree was absolutely foundational to my career, so yes, worth it for me. I am a self employed landscape design/builder, which means I design and construct (and maintain) landscapes. It is very creative and custom and I love it. I employ a few people and often hire students from the program. I am also now teaching a class at the university (which the MLA unlocked).

This is maybe not common, but for me my thesis project is one of the things I am most proud of, it has shaped my career and my life’s work. I am planning to turn it into a book aimed at the general public.

Link to free PDF of my MLA project if interested. https://www.academia.edu/14726597/Pacific_Northwest_Design_Strategies

What if I were to pick up a book on soil science like this?

Soil Science Simplified, Fifth Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/147862907X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_5TMK328YB8M11N34FNKT?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

The Twin Cities are amazing. If you ever are up this way, you could come check out the dept. I still have lots of contacts there, and go in and do reviews from time to time. The big thing right now is Design Duluth - an interdisciplinary studio between Arch and LA Masters students. They just wrapped up for the semester.

The College of Design has a publication called Emerging, which you can check out here: http://issuu.com/umndesign/docs/emerging_fall_2015_web

But yeah, how's Colorado? I mean, you get to live in COLORADO.

Garden lights look very nice both on and off. They fit very well into the garden design by the walkway. I also made it possible to enable them remotely, which is very convenient. Wrote a small review. Hope this will be helpful.

That you can draw & paint is great! I'd suggest sketching on landscape/architecture themes/scenes if you haven't already, where you can also mix in architectural drawings related to these scenes (sections, details, etc) and/or trees+plants (which you can also use to learn a bit out plants)

This is a great book for understanding drawing in landscape architecture: https://www.amazon.ca/Drawing-Landscape-Architects-Construction-Design/dp/3869223545

Adobe CS (photoshop/illustrator) are a must, and likely InDesign to organize your portfolio, with sketchup and rhino useful to consider for the 3d work.

Coming from a non-landscape background, I'd strongly recommend doing a bit a reading since design projects will benefit from more developed design thinking.

There are several posts on here about good books to buy, and definitely look for something you want to read (that isn't just a chore). You could also read through a classic like Design With Nature, since it's well written and not overly academic, or look into the books on the work of people like Frederick Law Olmstead (or Cornelia Oberlander for a Canadian vibe).

You can also look into youtube/vimeo for presentations from lots of interesting school lectures and firms about their work, ranging from well known firms like Field Operations, Scape, or Nelson Byrd Woltz.

Hope this helps

christophe girot the course of landscape architecture is a nice coffee table book with the history of landscape architecture

Try this book

Digital Drawing for Landscape Architecture: Contemporary Techniques and Tools for Digital Representation in Site Design https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118693183/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glc_fabc_jRg9FbDSBCDF5

Very lightly glued, you can easily remove pages.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Winsor-Newton-Bleedproof-Paper-Sheets/dp/B017TZM0YM/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Winsor+%26+Newton+A4+Bleedproof+Paper+%28Pack+of+50+Sheets%29+a3&qid=1605012262&sr=8-2

A&M is short for Texas A&M University. The A&M stands for agricultural and mechanical. It's located in College Station, Texas.

Trust me, you likely would not have liked Harlow, particularly if you were female. He had a bias towards women for some reason. He knew his material, but he was short with people and had no problem dressing you down in public.

I'm willing to bet that they still require his book for the introduction to construction class.

Here's a used copy on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Landscape-Architecture-Construction-Harlow-Landphair/dp/B005YVLZRW/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=harlow+landphair&qid=1565577476&s=books&sr=1-1

Thank you!

Great question -- There are tons of programs out there, but most seemed geared towards professionals (costs $$$$) or were iOS only (I use Android).

After way too much searching, I settled on these:

Pro Landscape (Android, awful reviews, slow, but eventually works. Hint: do not copy objects too often, will cause it to crash. It's the only AR style one I could find. It has potential but needs updating.)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.prolandscape.home&hl=en_US

and

Home Outside (Android, works very well, appears simplistic, but you can create pretty nifty top down designs with it and its stable.) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jmmds.palette&hl=en_US

Honestly, there is a decent market here for an Android AR style app. The Landscape pro app is the only out there at the moment (iScape isn't available yet and the team wouldn't tell me when it would be). Someone please make one!

Great question -- There are tons of programs out there, but most seemed geared towards professionals (costs $$$$) or were iOS only (I use Android).

After way too much searching, I settled on these:

Pro Landscape (Android, awful reviews, slow, but eventually works. Hint: do not copy objects too often, will cause it to crash. It's the only AR style one I could find. It has potential but needs updating.)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.prolandscape.home&hl=en_US

and

Home Outside (Android, works very well, appears simplistic, but you can create pretty nifty top down designs with it and its stable.) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jmmds.palette&hl=en_US

Honestly, there is a decent market here for an Android AR style app. The Landscape pro app is the only out there at the moment (iScape isn't available yet and the team wouldn't tell me when it would be). Someone please make one! I did use a little Gimp and Pain at the end to combine the images into a collage.

Hello! It's important to understand grading to get licensed and also to do work at many companies. You will learn in your class all of the different applications for grading and drainage. That said I want to answer your other question about how important it is to your career. Of the LAs I know personally all who have had multiple jobs at this point in different areas of the country I will tell you that it depends. I have literally never done a grading plan. A friend in government never has. Another friend that's all she does every day. The rest are a mix of occasionally having to do some small scale stuff and subbing it out to engineers. So if it's something you hate, you can find companies that don't focus on it.

Also, for practice I really enjoyed this workbook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0557385075/ref=cm_sw_r_u_apap_WNiOsgxp4dgZx

This book helped a lot with the LARE for me: https://www.amazon.com/Landscape-Grading-Study-Guide-Examination/dp/0557385075

Plenty of info on swales in there too

I highly suggest the HP Designjet T120.
It’s a workhorse, handles high volumes of prints, B&W and color. Print quality is more than adequate for technical drawings. Can have paper roll for large format (in my case 24x36) prints and 11x17 or 8.5x11 loaded simultaneously. Perfect printer for a small firm, can print via web or network. I’ve had this model for over 7 years, I haven’t even had to replace the printhead and use cheap replacement cartridges off amazon. It has paid for itself many times over. There is probably a newer model available. Does not scan, but tbh if I need to scan I find my phone will suffice.

Here's a link to Applied Ecological Services in Wisconsin...I would imagine every region having similar firms. Consider civil engineering as well for the hydraulic study behind restoration projects...horticulture for plant production.

I'm an LA and avid fly fisherman...Better Trout Habitat by Christopher Hunter has some really cool info on stream restoration. You could talk with folks at Trout Unlimited, Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants and Quail Forever, etc...

Landscape Architecture, Fourth Edition: A Manual of Land Planning and Design 4th Edition

This book covers urban designe very well. It also includes useful illustrations in the margins.

This list is great - thanks!

I'm curious if you have more positive associations with the portable handbook as opposed to a more detailed, longer text along the lines of Landscape Architecture by Barry Starke.

I'm realizing there may be a different among "the basics" depending on the emphasis on technical operations, versus more aesthetic, pictorial emphasis.

decent library here: http://vyonyx.com/

Edit: Also there are a lot of tutorials online about creating your own entourage using the species you actually plan to implement in the design. A great book is Digital Drawing for Landscape Architects: http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Drawing-Landscape-Architecture-Representation/dp/0470403977