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 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 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.

So this year Im going to start landscape architecture in uni and i would appreciate if somone told me what i should and shouldn't get for it. And if theres something i should get i would like a reccomendation abt maybe brand or what it should contain/be

Hello! I’m in need of advice. I am about to be a 3rd year student at UIUC. I was a transfer student in the spring. I declared as an economics major, because I found out that if I did Landscape Architecture I’d start classes this fall and not the spring. Because it’s a strict 3 year sequence program. Which would have delayed my graduation by 1 year.

After a semester of doing Econ work, I found that the major does not excite me. I’m really thinking about switching, as LA would combine my love of design, math, and outdoor spaces. But I don’t know if it’s worth it at this point to switch. My main concern is employment after graduation (because I do have student loans to pay off) and staying another year at the university. Though I do want to go to grad school. There is a masters in landscape architecture at UIUC so I’ve possibly considered that also. Though I would need to switch my undergrad degree.

My 50+ husband was recently laid off from a commercial landscape company in Southern Ohio that was sold to a huge private equity company. They were assured their jobs were safe, but as smaller landscape companies were purchased in 2026 the debt grew, and layoffs began to offset the deficit.

After 8 dedicated years at the company his severance was a measly 8 weeks, health insurance terminated immediately. They listed positions and ages of others let go and had him sign an agreement he wouldn’t sue for ageism in order to receive the severance. Felt a bit like extortion, but what are you to do when you need the money for your mortgage, healthcare and car payments? He was earning $100k + car allowance + gas. He abruptly left hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of project designs incomplete on the table, without a replacement in the region within the company. He offered his services as a consultant in order to finish the designs but client and employee satisfaction are not a priority with private equity.

He has applied for unemployment, started an LLC, and applied for the few jobs in the area he was able to find. There are several landscape architect positions available, but he doesn’t have his license, just 35 years of experience in commercial and residential design, employed with several large companies over the years. He has a BA in English Literature from Miami University of Ohio and just shy of a MA in Landscape Architecture from University of Texas. (He had an unidentified illness/auto immune disorder his last semester that has been diagnosed and successfully treated in the last 15 years.) I don’t know the specifics but he says he would need to retake a couple of classes and the finals (a 100 page thesis) and study for a year for a 3 day licensure exam. It has been 35 years so I’m wondering if the requirements are still as complex?

He has loved his career in design and produces wonderful color renderings using AutoCAD. With the economy, his age and salary he is concerned this may be the end of the road for this career. I’m seeking advice as he is busy searching for employment…is it possible for him to get his license and is it as difficult as he believes it will be? Is it worth pursuing? Or, are there other opportunities in other types of companies that his knowledge and experience would transfer well into a different career?

Hi everyone,
I’m currently in the final year of my Master’s in Landscape Architecture, and I’m planning to apply for a PhD in Europe (especially the Netherlands) or the United States.
I’m still deciding on my master’s thesis topic, and I’d like to choose something that will strengthen my PhD applications and align with current research trends.
In your opinion, what research areas or thesis topics are currently in high demand in Landscape Architecture? Are there any fields that would make my application more competitive for PhD programs in Europe or the US?
I’d really appreciate any advice from current PhD students, faculty members, or anyone who has gone through the application process.
Thank you!

Hi everyone 👋

We're the team behind D5, and we recently released D5 3.1.

As we were working on this release, we kept coming back to one idea: landscape visualization isn't just about the final render. It's part of the design process. And with D5 3.1, we wanted to make the iterations process a little easier.

Some of the updates we think landscape architects will find useful include:

• Seasonal Vegetation, so you can quickly switch between spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
• HeightField Tracing, which adds richer terrain detail while keeping performance smooth.
• Interactive Presentation, so you can explore different materials, planting schemes, and lighting conditions with clients in a live scene instead of preparing multiple renderings.

We also expanded D5 Lite to Rhino and Revit, alongside SketchUp. The goal is to bring visualization into the design process earlier. Review materials, lighting, and atmosphere while you're still modeling, then continue into D5 Render when it's time for high-quality visuals, animations, VR, or client presentations.

If you give 3.1 a try, we'd love to hear what you think. Your feedback genuinely helps shape what we build next.

D5 Render 3.1
https://www.d5render.com/download

D5 Lite for SketchUp, Rhino, and Revit
https://www.d5render.com/d5-lite

Thanks! Looking forward to hearing what you think.

Hello!

I’m preparing for the IAP exam and looking for additional practice exams. I know LAREprep offers two and CLARB provides one, but I’d like to complete more full-length exams for extra practice.

Does anyone know of other reliable resources, practice tests, or question banks? Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Which way?

I’m looking for some advice regarding a career pivot.

Background:
Education: MLA from the UK.
Experience: 4 years in landscape architecture consulting in East Asia (specifically HK).
Current Status: Recently resigned due to burnout.

The "Why":
To be honest, I’ve found the traditional consulting path in this region to be soul-sucking. It often lacks the creative or sustainable design focus I care about, and the construction industry in the region has been in a significant downturn since 2024.

The Pivot:
I am currently working on a community garden project in Japan. While this is my first time handling site assessment and hands-on material exploration, I’ve found the process incredibly rewarding. I’m seriously considering pivoting to garden design/fine-scale landscape design.

My Questions:
1. Market Insights: Does anyone have experience pivoting from large-scale consulting to garden/boutique design in either Asia or the UK? What is the reality of the work-life balance and pay structure compared to large firms?
2. Valued Skills: Where are the skills I gained from an MLA and 4 years of consulting actually valued in the "garden design" sector? I want to leverage my experience rather than starting completely from scratch.
3. Education/Courses: Are there specific certifications or short courses (UK/Asia) that would help bridge this gap?
4. Mobility: I am open to relocating if the industry offers a healthier culture and fair compensation. Are there specific regions or companies known for valuing the "craft" of garden design over volume-based consulting?
Any advice, warnings, or personal stories would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Why do people become Landscape Architects? I'm sure it isn't the promise of money. 

I believe it is because those of us who choose this profession want to create spaces that are comfortable and livable for both humans and nature. Because nature makes our life livable and comfortable. And they are aware of that. 

As such, I'm sure you can imagine my disbelief and disgust at the surge in AI use that I have seen amongst my peers and professors at school and in this field (I am a 3rd year MLA for context, and 90% of my classmates use AI constantly and indiscriminately). Because the current unregulated growth that AI systems are seeing right now threatens the very foundations of that which we seek to create and protect with our work as Landscape Architects. 

Their data centres destroy and pollute land, water, and air.  They consume energy in unprecedented amounts, leading politicians to use them as an excuse to build pipelines and move away from renewable energy. 

They steal your ability to think for yourself, to sort and process information, reducing your neuroplasticity.

All this is COMMON KNOWLEDGE.

So why would you choose to rely so heavily on a tool, that while convenient at times, harms everything we care for? It's hypocrisy. I am shocked at the amount of people I know who are cognizant of these harms, who claim to care for land, water, and air, and yet cannot find the strength of will to stop using a thing that threatens them all.

The work we do seeks to make things BETTER, yet so many choose to not only use, but often to fully rely on, a tool that makes things WORSE. 

I know that my writing of this is confrontational. That you may feel uncomfortable at being called out. If I were to post it under my name (eg. LinkedIn,), some may see it as hurting my career to speak so publically. But I believe that it is an important hill to stand on, to die on. Because I firmly believe my ethics and values, and that the skills and knowledge I have built myself, are what make me valuable and capable as a landscape architect. I do not think that my rejection of AI is holding me back from being better at this job. Because my ability to think for myself, to process, to problem solve, to ideate, to discover, to design, without a super computer doing it for me, is the foundation and the strength of my work. 

Don't let the system tell you that you need to use AI to do this job - that's capitalism talking. It's the devil on our shoulder, telling you to make more, make it faster...so that someone up the chain can make more money off your "increased efficiency".

The choice to not use AI is easy if you truly care about people, about the planet. Because picking convenience over what is right is what is burning our planet. It is destroying our future. 

If you care about those things, you can do the right thing too. Using AI doesn't make you a better designer, it makes you complacent and a hypocrite. Take a look at yourself, face this discomfort of that dissonance, and do better. Boycott AI.

So I took quite a while to come up with this layout (I have no clue what I’m doing). The plants are all in a raised bed btw. And the spacing aren’t perfect on paper but this is indeed what I can handle with the space I have.

My main questions to people are..

Do these plants work well together?

Is there any problem that some of these plants have that I should know? (We have an ant problem so do tell if some attract ants)

Do you think the flowering times work well together with where the plants are positioned?

Are any high maintenance? Weeding and trimming weekly is something I can deal with but anything else I’d like to know, thx.

For the dwarf evergreens, got any suggestions? The front door ones would get 6 hours maybe, while the one by the chimney would get 6-8.

If you have any other info you know I’d like to know :)).

I just wanted to share a website I've been developing called Urban Design Index

Link: urbandesignindex.com

Instagram: @urbandesignindex

Urban Design Index is a growing database of photos of urban design elements that designers find interesting. Photos that are uploaded are geo-located and placed on a map, so you know where they are. They are then categorized (as bollards, benches, lighting, etc,). You can also tag any designer, manufacturer, or product to the post, so that it can receive proper credit, although this isn't mandatory. If you don't know who made it, then maybe someone else does, and can edit those fields in the database.

I had this idea to gather photos that I've taken of any urban design conditions/street furniture that I see when i'm walking around, or even travelling. Usually, after taking a photo, I'll forget about it. When I'm back in the office, I'll usually spend a lot of time searching online for precedents, or at the last minute remember that I took a photo of something that inspired me from before.

I want this to be a tool that urban designers and landscape architects use to share great examples of urban design elements they see anywhere in the world.

If you have any great examples that you'd like to share with everyone, Please make an account, and upload them to the site!

I'm also open to making improvements, so please let me know what you think.

Hi! I just graduated with a biology degree and want to pursue a masters in landscape architecture. I'm taking a gap year, and am currently doing forest ecology research. However, this position is seasonal, so I am searching for my next role. What would be a good job to gain some applicable experience before LA school?

I'm based in Columbus, Ohio.

Im on a journey of self discovery with the end goal to offer garden and landscape design services. I started a Master Gardener program for fun and realized I really like designing gardens too. I’d like to get some technical training to help execute projects to become self employed. The Landscape Architecture Technology program offered through NAIT is what I’m looking at.

If I wanted to create a garden coaching quasi garden design business, would a 2 year tech diploma program be useful? I’m looking to do this for personal fulfillment, not necessarily to become a huge successful professional. Any advice?

Of course going back in time and becoming a horticulturist and/or a landscape architect would be better, but I’m not at the place in my life to do that. I am however fortunate enough to pursue something for the sake of enjoyment.

Picture of a rabbit drinking rain water because it’s cute haha

i’m curious y’all’s thoughts on posts like these? i’ve been following CPBBD/joey for a while so i obviously know how blunt and crude he is. i enjoy his overall ethos and appreciate that he’s focused on bringing life back into the landscape and making botany/horticulture more interesting and accessible for all. but i’d be lying if i said these type of posts don’t frustrate me just a little. it just feels like he’s solely blaming LAs/designers for what plants do and don’t go in the ground. sure, we have a lot of say and there’s some not so great planting designers out there in the profession, but i feel like many LAs/designers i know would love to plant an all native, lush planting palette but that’s more often than not unrealistic given the constraints of developers/municipalities input, budget, and future maintenance needs. so we’re often stuck specifying plants we know, and clients know, we can trust that require minimal maintenance. so honestly, i think it’s equally, if not more, of a developer/municipality issue in regard to their preconceived notion of what “looks good” and what doesn’t. and of course budget runs a lot of the project as well which includes how much the install is going to be, are these plants going to stay alive, how intensive is the maintenance going to be going forward, etc. anyways, just curious y’all’s thoughts?

I’ve been creating vector tree brushes in Illustrator, and I’ve found them really simple to use. It’s easy to replace trees, adjust their size and appearance, and edit the paths whenever needed.

Has anyone else used Illustrator for landscape planning or planting plans? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this workflow, including any advantages, limitations, or tips you’ve discovered.

Pen and ink, watercolor.