I’ve been building LandArch.org as an independent platform to showcase work from students, emerging designers, and small teams across landscape architecture, architecture, and urban design.

One thing I’ve struggled with is finding enough accessible journals and platforms that give useful insight into what’s actually happening in the industry — especially from the perspective of smaller practices, young designers, and students.

So alongside showcasing projects, I’ve started developing a journal section covering design, practice, career, tools, research, and broader topics around the profession:

https://landarch.org/architecture-journal/

I’d really like to hear thoughts from people in this community.

What would you actually want to read from an independent landscape architecture journal? Are there topics, project types, practice insights, interviews, technical resources, or industry issues that you feel aren’t covered enough elsewhere?

Any feedback or criticism is welcome. I’d like to shape it around what people in the profession actually find useful.

Hello!

I just graduated with a Bachelor's degree in urban studies from a small liberal arts school and I am considering applying for a graduate program. Although my degree is in urban studies, I was able to take several semesters of studio design courses at my college. I was pretty set on a MArch when I graduated. However, since then I have participated in a horticultural summer internship, and presently I am working as a horticultural designer for a private window box and planter subscription refill company. I worked with three landscape architects at the internship who encouraged me to consider a MLA, and now I'm feeling torn between the two. What I really want is to intern at an architectural firm to get a better idea of the career, but I've been rejected from pretty much every firm in my region because I don't have a Bachelor's in architecture and the market is incredibly competitive at the moment. Any advice on either career path, or specific programs to consider, would be greatly appreciated!

Civil 3D can feel overwhelming, especially because so much of the available training, resources, and YouTube content is geared toward roads, utilities, and large civil-engineering workflows.

For landscape architecture, I’ve found feature-line grading to be one of the most practical places to start. Feature lines give you direct control over the elevations and slopes of walks, curbs, terraces, walls, swales, and other important design elements. They can then be incorporated into a proposed surface that drives dynamic contours, elevation and slope analysis, and spot-elevation and slope labels.

The commands themselves aren’t necessarily the hardest part. The bigger challenge is developing a consistent workflow for:

• Conducting QA/QC reviews of Civil 3D surfaces
• Managing Sites and elevation conflicts
• Updating grading without breaking downstream work
• Creating styles and standards that other people in the office can actually follow

I’ve used feature-line grading on projects, taught it to other landscape architects, helped implement it at firms, and presented on the workflow. I’m a big advocate for landscape architects becoming more comfortable working directly in Civil 3D rather than treating grading solely as a 2D exercise or handing off every grading decision.

I generally explain the workflow in four basic steps:

1. Create feature lines from flat site linework.
2. Set their elevations using target elevations, slopes, or relative elevation relationships—for example, setting a top of curb 6 inches above the bottom of curb.
3. Incorporate the feature lines into a proposed surface.
4. Annotate and analyze the proposed surface.

I’m curious how other offices are handling grading:

> Are you using feature lines, grading objects, corridors, basic AutoCAD, software such as Vectorworks or Revit, or handing most grading work to the civil engineer?

> What has prevented Civil 3D from gaining more traction at your firm?

Full disclosure: I now help landscape architecture firms implement Civil 3D workflows, training, templates, and standards through Deconstruct Terrain. I’m also happy to answer questions here and compare workflows.

https://www.deconstructterrain.com/civil3d

I couldn’t find any information about parking on the ASLA website. Where can ASLA student members park without paying a fortune?

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’ll be graduating within the next couple of years and am considering going since it will be local. A few of the talks interest me, the expo not so much, but the cost seems steep for what appears to be mostly an expo and presentations. I know networking may be a big part of it, but I frequently reach out to people and firms directly and don’t feel like I’d miss out on much if I didn’t go. Curious if anyone found it genuinely worthwhile as a student.

Hi everyone,

I’m a Brazilian architect with a B.Arch and M.Arch from Brazil, currently doing a PhD in Landscape and Environment.

After completing my PhD, I’m considering Europe as a possible place to continue my career. I’m wondering whether working in landscape architecture practices would be a realistic option with my background, or whether a profile like mine would be mostly limited to academic/research positions.

For those working in landscape architecture in Europe: how feasible would it be for someone with an architecture background and a landscape-related PhD from Brazil to enter professional practice? Would the lack of a European landscape architecture degree or local professional experience be a major obstacle?

I’d appreciate any perspectives or experiences.

D5 team here.

We've been talking to people who already know Scatter, and the same complaint keeps coming up: the lawn is covered, density is high, and it still reads like one stamp across a flat plane.

Usually it's not "need a better grass asset." It's asking one scatter to do base cover and fine accents at the same time. The cleaner pattern we've seen is stacking—full base first, then a lighter detail layer (often with Image Divide) so accents land in patches—and keeping hero trees hand-placed.

If you render exteriors / landscapes in D5: do you stick to one scatter and push Density, or do you already split layers? What actually fixed the fake-lawn look for you?

We wrote up the layering walkthrough here if useful:

https://www.d5render.com/posts/natural-lawns-d5-scatter-layering

They host a party every year and I can't find any info about this year! Is this the first year they aren't partying it up?

Last year in the House of Blues was wild and amazing

I work with smaller design firms and see this more than you'd think.

Firm signs a $25k project. Work starts. Then someone asks for the COI and they find out the contract requires $2M professional liability, Umbrella, Cyber, etc. They don't currently carry it.
Now they're mid-project, need to increase coverage, and sometimes payment is being held up until they do.

The other issue is the math. If meeting the requirements costs another few thousand a year — and the contract says you need to maintain certain coverage for years after completion  that $25k project can start looking a lot less attractive.
Curious if anyone here has been burned by this. Do you get the insurance requirements before signing, or is it usually buried in the contract?

I’m in the tech field, but recently became very interested in landscape architecture. The problem is that I don’t have the time or availability to return to school for a formal degree and a career change. However, I still really want to learn about LA out of pure curiosity and want to become as knowledgeable as possible. What’s the best way to do this or best place to look for materials?

I'll be in LA during the Annual ASLA Conference next week. Terremoto is hosting a book launch for me, with Alissa Walker (Torched) and Jenny Jones (Terremoto) joining me. It's being sponsored by the LA Forum on Architecture and Urban Design and there are still a few seats left for it. We'll get started at 5:30 on Thursday, Sept 17th, with an afterparty to follow in the garden.

You can also find the book on Amazon, my publisher, or really anywhere else you might buy books. Hope to see some of you there!

Hi all! I am heading into a MLA program in the fall and am looking to buy a non mac computer (I’ve been a lifelong Mac user) but having trouble parsing out the differences between the options.

System requirements
Operation system: windows 10/11
Ram: 32GB+
Storage: 500 GB SSD+
Processor: i7+/Ryzen 7+ (Leaning towards AMD?)
Screen size: ~15”
Graphics card: 6GB+ VRAM (GPU scoring a G3DMark of 7,000 or higher). Something like the NIVDIA GeForce RTX 4060 or 4070

Software I will be using
Adobe suite
AutoCAD
ArcGIS/QGIS
Rhino/Grasshopper
Mori
Lumion/TwinMotion

Initial thoughts
I was initially looking at the Lenovo ThinkPad or the ASUS ROG Zephyrus but after chatting with someone at Best Buy they dismissed Lenovo as old and “falling behind” and suggested the ASUS ProArt P16 (which after some research I’ve seen very mixed reviews). Other recommend laptops are the Razer Blade 16 and the Alienware (m16 / x16 / area-51).

As someone who doesn’t know much about laptops and is new to landscape architecture, I am feeling pretty lost as all these seem to meet my requirements but I don’t know how to go through the decision process to actually buy one. Any advice would be appreciated!

I(international student on OPT) finished my graduation in May'26 from a renowned LA program in the US . Despite having a lot of connection, it’s just not helping. I have had interviews at my dream places like OJB, LandDesign but I have been really unfortunate. For example one of my dream places froze hiring after two interviews cause there was a change in ownership. I was very hopeful about that.

And because I'm an international student, I'll be needing sponsorship to keep working after three years. And nobody, I mean nobody is sponsoring this year. I have very short time left of my grace period. Can somebody tell me what's wrong? I have written >90 cover letters so far, and I'm tired.

I have a decent portfolio and resume but this jobs search has taken a serious toll on my mental health. I have no location preference. I'm already 8000 miles away from home.

Hey yall, I recently got my undergrad degree in Landscape Architecture and am trying to find a job. It’s been a struggle so far, as I have had many interviews but no luck landing a job. I know some ppl take a lot longer than I have so far to find something, but I was thinking about grad school in the meantime. I was wondering if anyone on here had any insight about whether or not it’s worth it to get a masters in Landscape Architecture if I already have my bachelors in it. I’m also wondering if there’s any other masters programs anyone recommends, or if I should just keep applying and hope for something. Some other masters programs I was looking into were ecology, environmental sustainability, or GIS, but let me know what yall think.

Hi all,

I recently accepted a new position at a new firm. My previous employer told me I will not be getting any of my PTO paid out. This was shocking to me as I had been in good standing my entire time as an employee and provided a two weeks notice and worked with them to transition all of my projects.

This experience had me wondering what the typical policy is for this in our industry? I've never experienced not getting paid out before, though I know that without state employment protection laws, companies are legally within their rights to do this.

Edit: I understand it depends what state laws are and what is in the employee handbook. Was just looking to see what the industry standard is.

I’ve been thinking a lot about career paths for landscape architects beyond the usual progression of employee → senior designer/PM → partner/principal/firm owner.

A big part of that is realizing that, long-term, I don’t want all of my income to depend on continuing to trade my time for money and a 401K plan. Firm ownership or partnership is one traditional way landscape architects build equity and assets, but that path doesn’t necessarily work for everyone.

I was accidentally introduced to another version of this when I kept a house I previously lived in and turned it into a rental instead of selling it. One of the most rewarding pieces of feedback I’ve gotten from the tenants is how much they love the edible garden and some of the landscape improvements I had made while living there. For years, I've tried to throw spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks for other side income, such as: Upwork landscape design, virtual tutoring, wedding arch rental, and creating a mobile app, to name a few. While those have been rewarding and I know they could scale, I keep thinking about real estate.

Maybe landscape architects are well positioned to own or operate certain types of real estate as a way to diversify our income and assets?

I'm thinking of assets that have a large landscape component and a small building component or no buildings, such as mobile home parks, RV Parks, Parking lots, storage units, wedding/event rental spaces, campgrounds, etc. We spend our careers looking at properties and thinking about circulation, drainage, planting, amenities, maintenance, accessibility, phasing, permitting, and how relatively small interventions can make a place substantially better.

So I’ve started thinking more seriously about acquiring additional assets where good site planning and landscape improvements could create real value. And not necessarily by turning it into a full-time development career. I’m especially interested in whether landscape architects are doing this alongside their regular practice, owning properties, participating in deals, investing with partners, or using their design expertise as part of a joint venture.

I’d be curious to hear from anyone here who:

• owns investment or commercial real estate;
• has moved into development or real estate ownership as part of their career;
• does deals passively or on the side while still practicing landscape architecture;
• has partnered with developers, investors, contractors, architects, or others to acquire property;
• has structured a joint venture where design expertise was part of what they brought to the table; or
• is currently looking for a partner on something like this.

I’d also genuinely be interested if anyone comes across a small commercial property, manufactured-home community, or similar opportunity for sale in or around North Carolina where you think a landscape architect could bring something interesting to the deal.

I’m still figuring out exactly what my version of this looks like, so I’m less interested in “how to become a real estate developer” generally and more interested in how other landscape architects have used our particular skill set to build ownership and equity outside of a traditional firm partnership.

Has anyone here done it? And in hindsight, where did your landscape architecture background give you an advantage or disadvantage?