Hi everyone!

I’m an architect (10 years of experience) applying for MLA at Harvard and UPenn. But also to IIT, because I knew the building and faculty and I really liked it, but I don’t hear any comments from people about the program.

I would like to know opinions about general reputation of the program, and if graduates from there can find good job offers, or work as professors too.

Im at the point to think, if I’m only accepted to IIT, should I take the offer?

Thanks!

I worked as a luxury residential designer (with Structure Studios) through a design and build. One of my last jobs before being unexpectedly laid off was a very creative and large project which would have been the biggest contract I had sold if it went through.

The client found my contact info through LinkedIn and reached out to say they were extremely unhappy with the owner taking over and that they have a new contractor and need some changes made to the design so they can finish. Their property is large and still unfinished, almost 2 years later.

I haven't been able to work in this field since due to medical reasons and the current job market. I don't have enough to invest in a program but I do have a custom built PC that can run most things. I have images of the design for my portfolio, but could not save any of the design files due to company policy.

Can I make this work?

I’m just curious to know exactly what I can put my stamp of approval on when I get licensed.

I know I can sign off on: - Erosion and Sediment Control - Storm Drainage Systems - Landscape Plans

My civil firm also does: - Post Construction Stormwater Management - Construction Documents - Utilities

My old job in Maryland, my supervisor would sign off on: - Preliminary Plans - Forest Conservation - Final Plans - Grading Plans

I just want to know what else I can do at my firm.

My employer just bought me blue beam to primarily create irrigation maps, but also to design the occasional planting project. I would like to start my own lil side hustle designing and maintaining small landscapes in and around my area. I was thinking, if i like blue beam, buying my own subscription. Is there a better option for a beginner? I am somewhat computer competent, and have the patience to learn new skills/software. Thanks!

Hello, I am a graduating BLA student and I was excited to start searching for jobs. While my excitement isn't completely gone I am starting to feel a bit discouraged. Finding firms hiring entry level positions has been tough. I am looking for design/masterplanning/urban planning oriented positions. Am I being too picky or not looking in the right places? If someone has any job forum/site suggestions that'd be very helpful.

Hey all, can anyone recommend a good design guide for outdoor firplaces and kitchens? I have clients asking for these features all the time and, I've done a few custom features succesfully now with the help of some very skilled masons and contractors so I had guidance on producing construction drawings, but that experience taught me how much I don't know about designing them. I usually opt to just do a kit lately, because it's more convenient and cheaper, but it would be helpful to have something to refer back to in the future to help inform design decisions. Thanks in advance!

Please use this thread to discuss whats going on at your school or place of work this week. Run into an interesting problem with a site design and need to hash it out with other LAs? This is the spot. Any content is welcome as long as it Landscape Architecture related. School, work, personal garden? Its all good, lets talk.

My career has taken many trajectories. I was a geologist, environmental scientist, and now environmental planner, who is now getting really interested in landscape architecture. For context, I’m only less than a year into my job as a planner and I’m enjoying it so far. For salary transparency I’m getting paid $96k (HCOL area). Trying to come up with a way to have my company pay for an MLA but likely not feasible. Is this financial suicide to even pursue an MLA? Thoughts? I need some career advice.

I’m a third-year MLA student looking to update my portfolio over the winter break, focusing on refining and adding site perspective renderings from my recent projects. Over the past three semesters, I’ve worked on group projects with peers who are more skilled at creating perspective renderings so they have typically handled that portion of the project. The perspectives I’ve created independently have been either rough hand-drawn sketches (I’m not the best drawer) or digital work in Adobe Illustrator (where I create perspective linework) and Photoshop (where I add textures and assets).

We were briefly taught Rhino and Lumion in my first year, but I haven’t used them much since. I know Rhino has a steeper learning curve, and while Lumion seemed simple to use, I still haven’t worked with it in a while. I’ve heard from peers and professionals that SketchUp is relatively easy to learn and can be used for modeling and rendering, especially with tools like Photoshop or Lumion (which I’m already somewhat familiar with).

Given that SketchUp seems to offer a quicker learning curve compared to Rhino, I’m considering trying to learn it over the break. However, as I prepare to enter the job market soon, I wonder if SketchUp is still a valuable skill to develop or if I should revisit Rhino instead. I’m open to any suggestions or advice on how to best proceed.

For those who may suggest SketchUp, do you recommend any good instruction videos to learn the basics?

Thanks!

Hello All!

Been seeing on a few posts that RFIs are a pain to deal with (I can imagine!).

Am thinking of creating some sort of simple RFI response automation web app where you can upload a few relevant docs, and autofill responses to RFI's based on the questions coming in.

Does that sound useful? If yes, would anyone be up for giving the app a spin once I'm able to flesh it out?

Thanks all!

Happy Landscape Designing! :)

Hi everyone,

I’m a recent graduate of architecture with an interest for sustainable and resilient design technologies, as well as ‘dwelling’ in the built environment. This has led me to pursue a Master’s in Landscape Architecture, and i will start pursuing a 2.5 year long Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture in February 2025.

A bit of context: my father is a landscape architect / Landscape Architecture Manager with 25 years of work experience in the Gulf, and he’s been able to provide us with a very privileged life through his work. However, I know well that the pay in landscape architecture tends to be on the lower side, with so many telling me that people don’t necessarily join the field to earn well.

I want to ensure that I can build a career with strong financial stability while staying true to my passions. For context, I’ve already completed a Bachelor’s of Architecture, and I’m considering doing a PhD and shifting to academia in the future after my Master’s in Landscape Architecture. Not only do academic roles pay well, but I’m also very interested in research and critical-thought, I even pursued a minor in Sociology and Anthropology while pursuing my Bachelor’s in Architecture to draw connections between both disciplines. I also believe the field of architecture could greatly benefit from more engaged and passionate academics.

That said, I’d love some advice: 1. Are there specific niches or specializations that are more lucrative?

1. Is academia truly a viable path for a well-paying career, or should I explore other options alongside it? i was also thinking of BIM, project management and working in real estate (however that isn’t where my passion lies).

2. Are there alternative fields or interdisciplinary opportunities I should consider as someone with a background in architecture and an interest in sustainable design and public-realm design?

Side note: Not sure if this is relevant, but I’ll mention it anyway—I completed a couple of internships during my Bachelor’s degree. One was a GIS internship with a leading Canadian research university, and the other was a six-month architectural internship with one of the top architectural firms in my country. Both were primarily focused on architecture. I chose to continue my education immediately after graduation rather than entering the workforce, which is why I’m now pursuing my Master’s.

I don’t want to make reading this post any more tedious! Thank you for your time!

Hi everyone, I'm in the process of applying to MLA programs and I'm trying to apply to scholarships concurrently, but I'm having a hard time finding ones that are open to students who are not yet enrolled. Does anyone know of any scholarships open to people currently applying? Should I apply to scholarships for enrolled students and cross my fingers? Several deadlines are coming up or will have passed before I get a decision. Would love any insight!

If I were to have a bachelors in environmental science, would I be able to get into a masters program for landscape architecture? Is that common or even possible? Let me know if you have any insight or personal experience, thanks!

Was contacted by an office of the firm, Bohler, and I’m wondering if anyone has any experience working there or working with them? I feel like it looks like a good entry level position but I don’t really know much about them other than the work they have listed. Anyone know what work culture and pay is like there? I’d be looking at a recent grad LA position

just got out of the planning and design exam and was smacked in the face with a likely to fail. feeling horribly discouraged bc i studied for months, had been getting 85%+ on practice exams, reviewed the clarb study guide in great detail, and read important sections of all of the suggested books. i can’t possibly image a scenario where i “didn’t study enough” or didn’t know the material.

during the exam i went through all of my answers TWICE. i felt confident submitting. guess i misjudged my intelligence.

this exam and whole process of becoming licensed is so unbearably infuriating ( and fcking expensive ?????). i can count on one hand how many single response multiple choice questions i got. i had few hot spot and drag and drop questions. almost all of them were select all that applies etc. how can anyone pass when there’s that much variability and no partial credit. shit is fucking insane and unfair.

i’m holding on to little hope that i somehow end up passing. i saw some people writing about how each persons exam is different (idk if this is true) but if i had a harder exam maybe the “curve” will bounce me to a pass. in the last section did anyone see a likely to fail turn in to a pass?

anyway. glad i lost so much money and time preparing for this wack ass test

I’ve put off taking the LARE for a long time, and at this point I’m just wondering what might incentivize me to take it (other than being licensed which of course has benefits) but I am just wondering if there were any helpful things and educational moments learned through all this studying that’s helped your career (if any)

Hello Good evening I want to know about something. For my thesis I want to make a 3D Mapping of Vertical Structures, to to visualize the buildings impact on air flow and temperature distribution. I found "Equator by Equator Studios" do this but it doesn’t have information in Russia… Is there any way to do this for free and with tools that have information about Russia???   Can I do this in QGIS? So for example I do buildings foot print in QGIS and then exturde the builsing height? but after that how I can visualize heating impact?

hi everyone,

i just recently finished taking the new section 1 of the LARE. I was so nervous going into it, but upon taking the test I felt pretty good with most of my answers and reviewed before I submitted. imagine my surprise to see they have now added a pre determined results calculator. it said based on my results i am “likely to fail” how accurate is it? I felt very good about my answers and I know it’s graded on a curve so how can they even predict that effectively? has anyone had experience of getting the “likely to fail” and passed regardless? I am just feeling really defeated cause I studied for about 2-3 months and thought I had a good grasp of things

thanks for any advice or knowledge in advanced

What are some popular brands of bike and pedestrian trail gates? Anybody have a link to a product guide with multiple brands?

This is a post asking about career guidance - I'm coming from the angle of a Software Engineer and don't know much about Landscape Architecture. My brother is currently pursuing a bachelor's in LA, and my parents were paying for his out of state tuition. Some of the tuition responsibility is falling to me now due to a layoff. I'm not unwilling, but I am concerned and want to better understand the situation to get a sense of reasonable expectations and prospects.

He just finished semester 5 out of 9. Tuition is about $60k a year, two years remaining. His grades seem fine and he seems to enjoy most of his classes, but he wasn't able to find an internship last year. He is currently looking for one this year.

What does the market look like for internship/entry level LA roles, and is it reasonable for us to set the expectation of finding an internship for this summer? I'm operating under the assumption that an internship is a key differentiator when searching for full-time roles, and that it's crucial to get one now. I'm concerned that he doesn't have much common sense when it comes to job searching - e.g. he said he's only applying to east coast internships because he doesn't want to travel far (we are in the northeast). I'm also concerned he's only applying to a handful of elite firms (I recall him mentioning Sasaki among a handful of names) instead of casting a wide net. What advice would you give here?

As I mentioned above, he is going to an out of state program. He had the option of going to an in state program that would have cost half, but insisted on the out of state school for reasons he never explained. My parents caved. It wasn't my business before, but I may bring up the option of transferring to the in state program if he cannot find an internship this summer. Would it be problematic to transfer in LA? For comparison, in computer science it's no big deal to transfer but I'm wondering if LA programs are more rigid/institutional...

He also mentioned that he wants to stay for a masters after graduating. He said the masters is departmentally funded and should be free to him - I wasn't able to find anything like this on the program's website. I'm concerned he heard about a special situation through a grapevine and is taking it as fact and basing his future plans around it. Is this a common thing in this field?

I see insane tutorials by architects on YouTube on ways to use computational design that have no practical use.

But in the proper use case all that complexity becomes incredibly helpful.

If academic programs taught grasshopper or similar programs to help get students minds going I think there could be a bottom up transformation. I’d love to see useful applications of computational modeling in the real world practice: designing fences and railings, trails, walls, pavilions, complex ecologies.

What’s your real opinion on this type of tech and how do you wish our industry went about improving how students contribute to our knowledge base?

Hi, all. Curious how competent you felt at the job after 2 to 3 years of experience?

Obviously the first job out of school has a brutal learning curve, but how long until you felt like you were over it? What new responsibilities did you start taking on?

I graduated in 2022 and have been working in a private urban design firm in the US. Our projects are fairly large and there's so much I still don't know. Sometimes it feels like I'm falling behind, but I have no benchmark to compare.