Landscape Architecture: Improving Our Environment
If you like working outside and take delight in gardening or just working with your hands to make your yard beautiful, then a career in landscape architecture may be right for you. Did you know that there are entire schools dedicated to this practice? In fact, there are many government and private positions available for landscape architects and these jobs are vital to our way of living. Let's learn what they do and how to become one.
Not Just America
In America, the landscape architecture field is regulated by state governments, so many states are slightly different in how they run things, although they are generally very similar. However, Vermont is the one and only state that does not regulate the business, but good business practices filtered their way up there anyway so it's fairly similar. Canada regulates on a provincial basis, which is essentially the same way in America, and Australia regulates the entire country.
There are many different ways to become recognized in the field of landscape architecture in a given country, although they generally revolve around certification by a technical school or a college. To become a licensed professional, a landscape architect is often required to attend interviews by veteran professionals or officials in the field and attend seminars.
Once a landscape architect gets their certification, it's time to delve into what jobs they will encounter. Some of the more visible projects which they undertake include campus design (such as designing how paths will run around campus to maximize both aesthetics and functionality), regenerative projects to beautify parks and reserves, and reclamation projects (as in the case of destroying a building to allow forest to grow there again). Less visible projects include storm water management, offshore development, and lots of land appraising and research. As you can see, the jobs landscape architects carry out are extremely varied and important to our way of life.
As the name implies, landscape architects define the architecture of the land, and they are vital to our society. They constantly improve the environment, and increase the functionality of roads and buildings. Just like building architects, they are also paid fairly well, and they can live quite comfortably off their single salary or wage unlike many other professions, although they do put a fair amount of work in. By attending school for several more years after high school, you too can become familiar with landscape architecture, helping to beautify our environment.
