WHAT IS LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE?

Landscape architects analyze, plan, design, manage, and nurture the built and natural environments. They have a significant impact on the quality of life in communities, creating public spaces and parks as well as active transportation routes. They also shape the health of ecological services by creating, conserving, and restoring wildlife habitats and fluvial systems.

Landscape Architects...

• communicate clearly with confidence; both verbally and visually.
• think spatially.
• solve problems creatively, adapting to conditions.
• pay attention to the big picture as well as details.
• address environmental dilemmas ethically and responsibly.

Some landscape architects choose to focus on residential design, though most of the work is at a much larger scale than a home yard. Landscape architects design city parks, like Central Park of NYC, restore habitats, design urban malls and plazas, and much more!

Landscape architects are designers, not gardeners. Site analysis and construction supervision takes landscape architects out into the field but they do not personally install and care for projects. A landscape architect's typical day takes them from site visits to client meetings combined with design time.

Landscape architecture projects are defined in many ways. One boundary is the property line of the client's site. While a design addresses the client's property, landscape archtects always consider the larger context of the project including the systems the site connects to. Landscape architects analyze the interactions between water, wildlife, and humans as a connected network.

No! However, it is helpful for landscape architects to know the common plant species in the region they work in. Some landscape architects specialize in plant materials but most consult horticulturalists for assistance with plant selection.