So, what good is this stuff anyway?

“landscape architecture” (n): the branch of architecture dealing with the arrangement of land and buildings for human use and enjoyment

If you were to ask the average citizen of the United States to define the words landscape architecture you would be hard-pressed to find more than a handful of people who could produce the correct answer. Right there is the problem with landscape architecture, nobody knows what the hell it is, so they could care less about the people who practice this profession and the work that they produce.

Of the landscape architects that I have worked with, most lament the public’s lack of knowledge about their chosen profession, but they have no idea how to change the situation.

First of all, LAs need to get together and do something about the piss-poor state of affairs in their professional organization, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). The ASLA is a joke… low membership, few ties to other organizations, no marketing campaign in the public eye, and they can’t even come up with a definition of what a landscape architect is. No one is going to take LAs seriously until there is a reputable professional society that stands behind them. Once the ASLA is something more than a source for free monthly magazines, it can become the tool that the profession will use to hammer out a place of respect in the design world.