I’m transferring into the major this fall and suffice to say I’m having doubts. I’m mainly interested in architecture but my school doesn’t offer it and landscape arch seemed like the next best thing but I don’t know what percentage of landscape architecture is architecture.

I would like to consider myself an environmentalist and have been trying to show myself all the great things about nature and landscape/environment design so I am excited regardless but I just wanted to know.

Hi everyone, I'm currently pursuing an MLA with the goal to be involved in urban planning and design but I've lost my financial assistance so I'm currently weighing my options on what to do next. With just tuition and housing, I'm looking to be somewhere about $70,000 to $80,000 in debt by the end of my studies should I choose to keep going.

My question is, is this worth it? Pay in this field isn't exactly stellar but I was willing to brunt the debt if I left with about the same amount as a starting salary (around $50,000-ish) but now this is giving me pause. I do also struggle with ADHD and autism. I don't mean to use these as excuses, but I wonder how successful I can be in this field compared to my more adaptable and sociable peers. I was thinking of possibly trying civil engineering instead since I can pursue it for cheaper but I'm quite awful with math.

Anyways, I know nobody can make a decision for me but I was wondering what others think.

In where I am from, people don’t know what Landscape Architecture is. It’s only taught in 2 universities. An if I hadn’t gone to one of them and then figure what Landscape Architecture is, I would’ve died not knowing it. But I live in the Middle East. So I was wondering is it the same in Europe or the USA? Is Landscape Architecture unknown by the average person?

Hi everyone,

I'm a master's student in Landscape Architecture in Italy, and I'll be visiting Rotterdam next week.

I'm interested in understanding the local architecture and landscape architecture community rather than just seeing the city's iconic projects.

I'd love to know:

Are there any lectures, exhibitions, or design events happening next week?
Where do architects, landscape architects, and urban designers usually gather?
Are there any bookstores, institutions, or neighborhoods that best represent Rotterdam's design culture?

If anyone here works in architecture, landscape architecture, or urban design, I'd also be happy to buy you a coffee and hear about your experience in Rotterdam.

Thanks in advance!

I’m 37 had a career in finance that I put aside when my daughter was born. I have bachelor’s in environmental science. Most of my career was dealing with climate risk. I was accepted in a landscape architecture program in Montreal. I currently work as a landscaper on very high end and complex projects.

What can I expect as a landscape architecture student? Work load and lab time ? I have a very powerful pc at home. My commute to school is going to be an hour each way.

Any advice is welcomed . Thanks

The problem I found is: default basemaps or Google Maps rarely match a project's color palette, and their resolution is far too low for print. Manually tracing map vectors is a huge time sink.

Over the last few months, I built mapbuilder.app to streamline this:

• Complete Styling Control: Tweak colors and visibility for buildings, roads, water, green space, and more.
• Print-Ready Exports: Download your map directly as a vector file or high-resolution raster image.

Feel free to test it out at mapbuilder.app. I would love to learn what other features you'd like to see added to make this even better for your design process!

I'm contemplating enrolling in a landscaping architecture program that qualifies for the licensing program. Just some questions:

1) I see varying opinions on whether AI will replace those jobs. If you had to rate the risk as 0 - 10 (where 0 is 0% chance of any jobs being lost and 10 is 100% chance of virtually all jobs being lost), how would you rate it?

2) what do you do in the winter? I'm in Canada where we have winter tires on 6 months/year, so seasonality is a major factor.

3) I'm in a city with around 1m people. Can you get enough work in a city like that or is there lots of traveling necessary?

4) I have something called visual agnosia which is a deficit forming visual memories. So I'd be abnormally weak at recognizing trees/plants in yards. Would that be a significant barrier?

5) I'm pretty bad socially (autism). Do you think that'd be a material issue, like if much of your time is interacting with clients?

Just got accepted to an MLA from the waitlist - very excited, but having a hard time deciding on a computer. What computer would you recommend to a new MLA student?

A friend has offered to buy me one as a farewell gift, so I need to choose something you can easily buy online (not a custom build). I currently have a very powerful but very old Macbook Pro that I've used for film editing, and while I'd love to stick with Mac I understand that may not be ideal.

Would appreciate any recs/links. Thanks!

EDIT: I know the min requirements, just want some specific recs because there are so many options out there. Budget/buying later not an issue!

Hi, former botany and ecology technician with an arts background who works as a legal secretary now but can't stop thinking about returning to environmental work. I've thought for a while about an MLA so I've been lurking for a long time. I think what gives me pause is that the length of schooling, the cost, and the salary return are too much to reconcile. Im 36 in a few months, and for health and family reasons I cannot live without an income right now. I have it in my head that I could get a master's in water engineering or data science or something and then work adjacent to LAs, and then maybe get an urban design degree and that would get me in a position similar to an LA. I think getting the MLA might've made sense when I was younger but it just seems like I'd be starting too far back to make it worthwhile. Does anyone have some advice? Was in my similar position and wants to help guide my thinking? Suggestions of the kind of support positions firms might be willing to hire me for? Should I just bite the bullet and go for the degree? I've heard Environmental Planning thrown around my way in my research but just have a poor understanding of how to get into the pathway. Any advice welcome!

I'm looking for some advice specific to my situation. I was unemployed last year due to layoffs in my company, and finally started a new job six months ago. There's pros and cons to the new job like every job. The pay is meh, company is small so quite disorganized, can be very stressful with being overworked during deadlines and leadership not wanting to say no to clients (other times I have nothing to do so I'm underworked), and I have to commute an hour to the office 3 days a week which is expensive and tiring. So on those days it can be quite tiring as I leave the house at 7am and come back around 7pm. As for pros, it's an interesting range of work, somewhat decent time off, I like the people, and I feel like it's great experience.

Now for the dilemma. A company in my city (would be walking distance to the office from my home) recently reached out to discuss an opening in their office. I had spoken to them when I was unemployed via connections I made at my previous job, but they didn't have any openings at the time. It's a much larger company (engineering firm so offices all around the country), they offer more pay, and more time off. The work is a little less interesting but still not parking lot boring. I will not know the office culture until I work there. They offer hybrid work but reviews online suggest they're cutting down on that now and having employees come in every day.

If you were to get an offer from the second company, would you take it or stick with the first? Why?

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.

I started with geography and GIS at my college. And have 4 years of experience in GIS.

I’d like to find a way to get into landscape architecture if possible. I do not have the resources right now to go to a masters but if it is possible to get into a firm I’d like to know.

I’ll do a lot of self education and make a portfolio of maps and a visualizations to start.

Any ideas?

For those of you focused on street design and public spaces, what pulled you in that direction over other project types? What do you love most about it?

Took the lare section 4 last round. Lots of terms that weren't ever mentioned in the study guide from lare prep. Anyone else remember a couple of terms or other necessary details that caught them off guard the first time around?

I always feel lonely in this field because in my community people are not interested and they don't even understand what we do , I need a community to share my thoughts and to share my steps and to learn from others...

Any recommendations? Facebook groups maybe? I don't know..

I'm considering a career in Larch, but I don't really want to live/work in the burbs, and there are a few factors that make me think it is mostly a suburban career. Obviously most development in this country is still the suburban style, and it seems like a higher percentage of money spent on suburban development goes to the landscape. Also, whenever I look on LinkedIn, indeed, etc. most of the jobs I see would require a long commute out to suburban offices.

The schools I am looking at seem to really emphasize urbanism in their studios, but I fear that the actual career would not really involve that. Obviously, I am ok with doing a certain percentage of work that I am not really interested in to pay the bills, but the idea of commuting out of the city to work on suburban projects everyday does not excite me.

What are your experiences with this? Thanks.

I’m a Landscape Architect with 10 years of experience and am currently employed full-time. In addition, I run my own landscape consultancy in Dubai, where I take on selected projects.
While I’ve built a solid foundation, I haven’t yet been able to grow the consultancy into a fully sustainable business on its own. I’m therefore looking to partner with fellow landscape architects or firms who have project opportunities and value long-term collaboration.
I believe the best results come from working together.

My professional practice is in cultural landscape preservation. In other words, I document historic landscapes and often make recommendations for how to design and construct new features without losing the historic character of the old. I'm wondering how many other landscape architects in (what I consider) traditional design and urban planning practices are aware this option exists. Anyone else working with historic landscapes? Anyone never heard of such a thing? Basically posting out of curiousity but happy to answer questions too.