It’s WLAM—Let’s Talk About Landscape Architecture!

For those who don't know, April is WLAM (World Landscape Architecture Month). Landscape Architecture is a field that is often misunderstood, sometimes rightfully so! It is interdisciplinary, can attract people of all backgrounds, and impacts the built environment more than one may realize. At UDP, we can take on various roles throughout the life-cycle of a project: visionaries, site planners, community-engagers, tree-measurers, amenity designers, horticulturalists… I could go on! For WLAM, the Rachel duo in the Charlotte office wanted to share some insight into what Landscape Architecture is to us.

  Why Landscape Architecture?
Landscape Architecture is at the intersection of multiple fields: Civil Engineering, Urban Design, Architecture, and Horticulture. When looking into colleges, most are offered the "design" option - Architecture, or the "math option" - Engineering.  The center of both is what we decided to pursue. We both agreed that landscape architecture attracted us because of its direct impact on the public realm. Outdoor spaces can be designed on all scales, and when done right, foster a sense of community within themselves. In school we were given freedom to design, sometimes without consequence, and then professors would give us parameters and constraints that we never would have considered. At the intersection of multiple groups, landscape architects are lucky enough to be in the center of it all!

  What People Think We Do
A primary misconception about landscape architects is that we are landscape contractors or yard maintenance workers. Living in Ohio, I once had a barista ask me on my way to work "When do you get to drive the snowplow?". We take on a role that tends to be more behind the scenes, spending most of our days in the office site planning or doing planting plans that will later be executed by a contractor. Others believe that we still get to design whatever we would like without constraints, but we often pause to consider things like city requirements, client wants/needs, budgets, soil types, sun/shade areas, and more. A final misconception is that we design buildings (the word architecture lends itself to that). I like to tell people that a landscape architect's scope starts at the exterior walls of any building.

  What We Actually Do!
As landscape architects, our days can look different depending on the types of projects we are working on. While we spend a lot of our day doing site planning or planting plans, that can vary greatly! On any given day we could be out on-site meeting with Urban Foresters, measuring trees, or meeting with clients. We also spend some time drafting construction documents and details for anything from concrete sections to trellises which we work with structural engineers to design. One of our favorite parts of the job is creating renderings to send out to clients, illustrating the site and helping them envision the final product of all of our combined efforts.
 
Landscape architecture is sometimes overlooked, and we genuinely appreciate the opportunity to share our passion with others. At UDP, we take pride in our role as creative problem solvers, designing spaces that reflect our values and vision. WLAM is an excellent time for us to raise awareness about the meaningful work we do and the fulfillment it brings us.