"Sprawl has turned the world inside out. Landscape architects may be the ones to civilize it."
-- Suzannah Lessard, Architectural Record 08.00

After graduation, landscape architect students have virtually limitless choices of employment. Many landscape architects go to work in the private sector, in firms large and small. Private practice is diverse, and landscape architects could find themselves designing a high-end resort complex overseas, a campus master plan or a small community playground. At a larger firm, landscape architects might have a specific role to play on a project team. At a smaller firm, a landscape architect might wear multiple hats to see a project through to the end.

Others landscape architects prefer public work, whether in federal agencies such as the National Park Service or the U.S. Forest Service or at the municipal level. Federal agencies afford landscape architects the opportunity to protect nationally significant resources while providing for recreational uses. Municipal landscape architects work closely with their communities to provide safe and enjoyable gardens, parks, and public spaces of all kinds.

Many landscape architects choose to work in the academic community as professors and researchers. In addition to teaching in classrooms and studios, academic practitioners often take students into the field for hands-on learning. Academic research also broadens the profession, producing new information on horticulture, technology, sociology, and many other fields related to landscape architecture.

Still other landscape architects carve out niches in nonprofit or nontraditional organizations. These practitioners usually combine their passion for landscape with other concerns, whether it be computers or conservation or something else entirely. Here are just a few examples of the practitioners who make landscape architecture the diverse profession that it is.