Landscape Architect and Architecture

Landscape Architecture

Landscape Architecture

It has been said that on the canvas of the earth only Landscape Architects get to paint the entire canvas. Landscape Architecture is a truly remarkable profession.

I remember as a child being filled with joy and wonder at the damming of a roadside ditch to make a little pond and waterfall; or digging a plant from the woods, planting it in the yard, and watching it grow and flower year by year. Or digging a hole (lake) and watching it fill with water, and using the excavation to build a mound (mountain). I remember making roads for toy trucks, or airfields for toy planes, and using pieces of pipe or cans to make tunnels and bridges.

I remember graduating to making a pretty decent baseball field on one of the farm fields on our 65 acre farm, and even a makeshift 3-hole golf course on another portion of the land. I remember as a 13 year old, convincing a highway department worker on his dozer to push some of his excess fill into a stream valley on our property to make a rather pretty swimming and bass pond that still survives today.

The wonder of it all is that 50 years later I'm still doing basically the same thing, except on a much larger scale, and people pay me to do it! I honestly can't wait to get up every day and play in my "sandbox".

Whether it be a small-space intimate garden for the urban dweller or regional planning encompassing hundreds of square miles, the scale of projects that a Landscape Architect concerns himself with is endless.

The L.A. can concern himself with what is commonly known as "landscaping", but more often than not projects can include parks, recreation areas, public spaces, land and waterway reclamation or enhancement, environmental consultation and ecological planning.

The L.A. is a person of many specialties including architecture, engineering, botany, horticulture, soil specialist, ecologist, liaison officer, permitting specialist, construction supervisor. In many states, including New York, only a licensed Landscape Architect can legally practice Golf Course Architecture.

YLD has worked in association with Foit-Albert Associates, Architects & Engineers, of Albany, NY, on construction and renovations for two State University of New York campuses, the State University College at Oswego and the State University College at Canton. YLD has also worked with Architect Sam Cichello, of Weedsport, NY, on the Capital Improvement Project for the Weedsport Central School System; and on the joint Onondaga County / Cayuga County BOCES facility in Aurelius, NY.

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See below for Links to other Landscape Architecture related Websites:

American Society of Landscape Architects, ASLA