r/LandscapeArchitecture

Hi all! I’d love some opinions on two paths I’m considering.

I’m in my mid-30s, a mom of two (2 and 4) and making a career change after 10+ years in the beauty industry. I’m currently studying architecture/environmental studies at community college and know that I want to become a landscape architect, especially working in public spaces, restoration, urban greening, and more ecological work.

My two options are:

1. Cal Poly Pomona BS in Landscape Architecture — LAAB-accredited bachelor’s, better financial aid/licensure portability, but I’d have another year of community college first and then a pretty brutal commute from the South Bay for a studio-heavy program.

2. UCLA Extension Landscape Architecture Certificate — I’ve confirmed I can apply without a bachelor’s. It’s a 3-year professional program, mostly evening/online, so it would be dramatically easier with my family and I could potentially start working in the field sooner. The downsides are no bachelor’s and a less straightforward licensure path outside California.

If you were in my position, which route would you choose? I’d especially love to hear from anyone familiar with UCLA Extension or who took a nontraditional path to licensure.

Thank you!!!

I run a small-scale landscaping business that is steadily growing, carrying zero debt, and getting business solely by referrals.

After 10 years of slow growth, I’m looking to put my foot on the gas and pursuing leads. The university down here has a great landscape architecture program. Wondering: Is it worth my time to start cold-calling firms, offering our services? My team is only 5 people so our niche would be smaller residential and commercial projects.

LA hands us design, we source plants, hardscaping etc and execute.

The state has a database of licensed LA’s and I’m thinking of starting there.

Thoughts?

Hey all! I’m new to the world of contracts admin. And am working on pricing negotiations with contractors. When it comes to things like soil etc there seems to be a lot of factors which could bump the pricing up.

To what degree are the bump ups acceptable vs not? It seems hard go gage and I’ve been working off the materials x 3.5 formula. However when contractors ask for increases and present a valid reason. Is there any way to push back other than accept the new pricing?

Thanks

hi everyone, i am looking to start applying for MLA programs in the fall and i need some advice. i got my bachelors in sociology in 2025, and i spent my undergraduate years with a significant concentration in race and labor, specifically unions and building an interracial working-class movement. i still have these interests now, but since graduating my interests have shifted toward LA.

this brings me to my issue — basically everything i did in college tied back to what i was really interested in at the time, and not so much to LA or urban sociology beyond taking a course or two. i got publishing experience, was a TA and research assistant, and did basically everything else expected of a good candidate for graduate studies, but all of it pretty much pertained to my interests at the time. since college, i have been in the service industry and havent done many internships or anything truly related to LA.

how can i show MLA programs that i am truly interested in LA and urban planning, despite my background being a little different? should i look for more related internships while i apply? i just dont want them to think that im not passionate, or that my real passion lies somewhere else. any and all advice is appreciated! :)

I'm (23 M) relatively fresh in my career and conflicted. Long story short, I hate my current job at a corporate 9-5 civil firm but it pays really well for my experience level (70k). I've been there around 2 years. I was recently offered a position with an outdoor start up that I feel extremely passionate about and super aligned with. Genuinely my only hesitation is the pay (58k with the opportunity to be at 63k within a year, after negotiating). My gut says to take the new job and make it work. I'm young enough it won't kill me. But my mind says I need to stay and suffer corporate because it's "right" and "stable"

Has anyone been here before? Regrets?

Hi everyone! I’m a Ukrainian landscape architect with 7+ years of experience, currently completing a PhD focused on urban vegetation, biodiversity and sustainable landscape design. I worked as a Landscape Architect and later Director & Design Lead in a landscape design and construction company, working on projects from concept and technical design through construction and supervision. I also have international academic/research experience in Lithuania, Poland and Bulgaria. I’m currently looking for opportunities in Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and other European countries where English is the working language, and I’m open to relocation. I’ve been actively searching through LinkedIn and company career pages, but I’m finding very few landscape architecture positions advertised in English, so I’m trying to understand how international candidates usually approach the market. I’d really appreciate advice from landscape architects working in Europe: Which countries or studios are genuinely open to hiring English-speaking landscape architects? Which job boards or professional networks are actually useful? How important is the local language for experienced landscape architects? Does contacting studios/recruiters directly work in your experience? Any advice, recommendations or personal experiences would be very welcome.

I am visiting Beijing, Xian and Shanghai in october 2026. Any tips for interesting places to go and explore being landscape architecture related?

Below is a generated image Im at a little bit of a conundrum here. Not sure how to slope these pavers. The numbers at each corner represent the depth in inches I will dig to from the surface to lay the gravel, sand and pavers. The red line is level, the Green lines slope to the bottom right. The pink line slopes down to the corner of the building. My one question is for the white line. Should this line be level or should the white line slope down to where it meets the green line and then both the far right and far left corners would be level with each other?

https://preview.redd.it/lsjulxlngtjh1.png?width=1448&format=png&auto=webp&s=961cc9a89706eabf504cb813fbe64240284a4e3c

My husband and I hired an experienced landscape architect for our front and back yard. We are on a slight hill (lower in the backyard) and .41 acres. It was more yard and trickier than we could figure out ourselves so we thought it was best to consult a professional. We were looking for a long term plan that we could slowly implement over the next 20 years because we don't have $300k to drop on our yard but we want to get things like trees in place now so they have time to grow and we don't have to backtrack later.

We initially met with our architect who came to our house and looked at our property. We liked him and thought he understood what we were looking for but I didn't go into a ton of detail since we hadn't hired him yet and he didn't really ask. I incorrectly assumed (my fault for not asking) that we would discuss things again before he began his design. He sent us a quote a few days later and we gave him a deposit. He came out to measure our property a few weeks later but didn't talk to us. About a week later we got his design for our yard and it's not really what we were hoping for. We are expecting our 6th child in February and wanted a kid focused yard with the front yard geared towards playing with neighbor kids. We did mention this and our kids were running around in chaos so I don't see how he could miss this. He sent us a beautiful design that we feel left kids as an afterthought and didn't incorporate stuff we need like a shed and stuff we mentioned we wanted in our first meeting. Obviously I don't expect it to be perfect on the first run but I'm concerned about the lack of communication and perhaps he's not familiar with designing for families. My husband is freaking out now that we wasted our money as the whole process is not cheap. We don't mind paying for services we are just concerned that maybe this person won't be able to understand where we are coming from.

My question for you all is, is this how the process normally works? How do I tell my landscape architect that the entire plan doesn't work and we need to start from scratch (or I do just say that?) How many redos do we get?

I’m thinking of signing up for PCC’s Landscape Design program and am curious if others have taken this program and what they thought about it. Did you find that it was helpful in getting started in the Landscape Design field? Have you been able to make a career of it?

Now that we live full time in Tahoe Vista I planted a flower garden in the backyard. The soil here is rocks, boulders and hard pack. I bordered the garden with the hundreds rocks I dug up every time I put my spade in the ground. I have amended the had pack dirt with 20+ bags of garden soil. And now the squirrels are digging huge holes killing my lovely garden. I tried the recommendation of sprinkling hot pepper flakes on the soil...they did not care, in fact I think one of them laughed at my effort.
Looking for recommendations of nonlethal squirrel deterents. Do the electronic sound ons work??

Hey there,

I got an international project for some concept design work and I am unsure how I should charge them as there isnt a set standard in the industry, I am fairly new to this. How would you charge as a landscape designer for a design concept project? Scope of work is decided, and we have decided to work on the project as per phases. Recommend me how much to charge for - Site analysis + Research, Conceptual Design Layout (Phase 1) and then Masterplan (Phase 2)

Please be open and honest, as people in our industry tend to ignore conversation surrounding fees.

Hi, I know this has been asked about a lot already in this thread but I wanted some personal advice about this. Seems like most of the people answering the queries are based in the US, but I’m a year 11 in New Zealand with two more years of secondary school left. Potentially thinking about pursuing Landscape architecture, with medicine as my plan B. (My subject choices for next year are Design and Visual Communication, English, Statistics, Chemistry, Biology and Physics) I don’t particularly have a deep passion for this field/ haven’t explored through it enough to know how much I like it but my thought process was that I thought I could enjoy it in my everyday life because it mixes practicality with creativity (more stable than becoming an artist which is my actual passion). I’m having a hard time deciding which career plan I should actually go forward with. I’m not really good at sciences and slightly above barely tolerate them but I think I could do it if I just sucked it up and try harder. I see the possibility of being miserable in the future if I do choose medicine. I understand that medicine is the better option in terms of the job market and money, but is it worth it to pursue landscape architecture and maybe live a more soulful life where I feel more fulfilment or should I suck it up and just go for objective stability in medicine?

Sorry if this is a stupid post, I’m not really sure.

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for a professional handheld LiDAR/SLAM scanner with a budget of around €10,000 / $10,000 maximum.
My main requirements are:
Ability to generate georeferenced point clouds
Good accuracy for outdoor surveying / landscaping / terrain, walls and existing structures
Export to common formats such as E57, LAS/LAZ, PLY, etc.
A workflow that works entirely on macOS
No Windows PC required for SLAM processing, georeferencing or exporting the final point cloud
Ideally a web/cloud-based viewer where I can open the scan and make simple measurements directly in the browser (distances, heights, areas, etc.)
I’ve looked at systems such as the SHARE SLAM S20, but the big issue seems to be that the processing software is Windows-only. I’ve noticed the same problem with quite a few other affordable SLAM scanners.
I don’t necessarily need the manufacturer’s full editing suite to run on macOS if there is another reliable workflow. For example, on-device or cloud processing with a finished georeferenced E57/LAS that I can then continue working with on my Mac would be perfectly fine.
Does anyone here use a LiDAR/SLAM scanner in this price range with a Mac-only workflow?
I’d especially be interested in real-world experience regarding outdoor accuracy, georeferencing/RTK, cloud/browser measurement tools, software limitations and importing the resulting point clouds into CAD software.

Hi, I recently visited Scandinavia and was blown away with the flower beds and mixed planting in planters. Does anyone know of books containing straight up planting schemes with lists for contemporary mixed planting for urban areas? Ideally for an European setting.

Thank you.