"There clearly is a desperate need for professionals who are conservationists by instinct, but who care not only to preserve but to create and manage. These persons cannot be impeccable scientists for such purity would immobilize them. They must be workmen who are instinctively interested in the physical and biological sciences, and who seek this information so that they may obtain the license to interpose their creative skills upon the land. The landscape architect meets these requirements." -Ian McHarg, FASLA

As a new century dawns, our crowded society is in ever-increasing need of sensible planning. Sprawl, with its related problems of pollution, overcrowding, and loss of open space, has become so prevalent that countless communities are turning to landscape architects to craft "smart growth" solutions.

Always an environmentally conscious profession, today landscape architects are at the forefront of a movement to create livable communities--practical, sustainable, and enjoyable developments that protect the natural world. In increasing numbers, landscape architects are called upon to design large-scale conservation plans, reclaim neglected inner-city brownfields, and restore damaged wetlands and forests. The profession has never been in so much demand.

Yet landscape architecture firms cannot find enough qualified landscape architects to meet this demand. Clearly, the profession is on the rise, and the benefits of joining the profession are many. Budding landscape architects will have the opportunity to work on diverse array of projects and make important decisions that will benefit communities for years to come. They will have the satisfaction of knowing that their work protects the environment and improves the quality of life. And, no less importantly, landscape architects will earn a good living and have opportunities for advancement.

A Profession in Demand

Landscape architecture is a comprehensive discipline of land analysis, planning, design, management, preservation, and rehabilitation. Typical projects include site design and planning, town and urban planning, regional planning, environmental impact plans, garden design, historic preservation, and parks design and planning. Landscape architects hold undergraduate or graduate degrees and are licensed in 46 of the 50 states.

A recent report by a national publication called landscape architecture a "hot-track profession." Not only is nearly every landscape architecture student assured of a job when he or she graduates, it is likely that several offers might be on the table. Entry-level salaries are in keeping with those of other professions, and after a decade or more landscape architects can expect to be making a fairly healthy salary that reportedly surpasses those of architects. A good number of landscape architects attain a well-recognized status and a salary in the six figures.

About 6,000 students attend accredited landscape architecture firms in the United States and Canada. Most undergraduate landscape architecture degree students go on to enter private practice, a smaller percentage work for the government or multidisciplinary firms, and a few seek further education. There is plenty of work to spare.

However, prospective landscape architects should realize one thing about this kind of work. Landscape architecture fulfills a special passion-really, an ethic-that nearly all its practitioners have: a commitment to making the world a better place.

A Noble Profession

The best landscape architects care deeply about the health and well-being of people and cultures. They want to ensure that development does not damage environmental and cultural integrity. And they like to use products and materials that will have as few impacts on the environment as possible.

Landscape architects take steps to forecast what the long-term impacts of a project will be. Through the design and planning of places, they encourage the adoption of healthy, environmentally sound, and responsible attitudes by people who inhabit or use them. These professionals also generate design, planning, management strategies, and policy from the basis of the cultural context and the ecosystem to which each landscape belongs. They strive to maintain, conserve, or reestablish the diversity of biological systems and are committed to the use of native and compatible materials and plants.

Furthermore, landscape architects strive to develop and use building products and materials that exemplify the principles of sustainable development. They ensure that construction is of the highest quality, that site protection is integral to the project, and that low-impact construction technology is used during all phases of the process. Where waste exists, landscape architects reuse, recycle, and transform.

Lastly, landscape architects never stop learning. They seek constant improvement in knowledge, abilities, and skills to more effectively achieve sustainable development. And as they learn, landscape architects actively engage in creating awareness of sustainable development among clients, government, academia, students, and the public at large.