Everybody who has ever practiced landscape architecture has had the same conversation when meeting a new person. It starts like any other first conversation, questions about family, where you are from, and of course what you do. For us, when we are asked that question, we are filled with anxiety and we have to make a decision about how to proceed. Sometimes it is easier to lie, saying you are an accountant would be met with a knowing nod. Problem averted. Instead, we tend to level with our new best friend and tell them that we are landscape architects. When we say those words, we do so knowing that we just pulled the pin from a grenade and tossed it into the discussion. 

The trouble is that most people we meet do not know what it is that we do, or worse, think they know when they actually don't. Of course, the issue is primarily the title we use to define our profession, "landscape architecture". The first word, "landscape" is commonly used by the public to reference the shrubs and trees in a residential yard. By simply adjusting the definition of this word from plant material to horizontal, gets us closer to understanding what it is that we do. Don't get me wrong, plant material is a big part of what we do but there is so much more to the story. 

So, what is landscape architecture? There are some very inclusively worded definitions floating around that seem to run on and on. For me, landscape architecture is the creative design of the horizontal using scientific principles (psychology, sociology, ecology, structural calculations, etc.) in search of functional solutions. This definition includes a broad scope of project typologies from the design of something as simple as a bench in a park to developing watershed management strategies at the scale of a city, county, or state. Using the landscape architectural process allows us to think about virtually anything and offer unique sustainable solutions. One of the largest misconceptions of our work is that it is fundamentally asesthetic. We do want our work to be beautiful, but we are a licensed profession that is responsible to protect public life, saftety and welfare. I feel like this is another blog topic so I will link to it here when I get around to writing it.

Hopefully next time you meet someone new and they tell you, reluctantly, that they are a landscape architect, you will be able to answer, "have you worked on anything I have experienced?" They will surely be shocked and just maybe be able to give you some recommendations on a tree for your yard.

The trouble with the public realm, the outdoor environments we all use and depend on for mobility, recreation, and utiltiy, is that it has been designed primarily as afterthoughts, as mundane artifacts of a function. Consider the street you drove on today with it's small sliver of a bike lane, small sliver of a sidewalk, and small sliver of planting space. In all likelihood, this space was not interesting enough to waste a second considering it up unitil the moment you read this paragraph. We create so many spaces like this, that purely function and meet city requirements, spaces nobody really cares about.  

This lack of concern for our commons extends beyond street design. Even park spaces sprinkled across our cities are designed as current day examples of form following function. What is the primary function of park space in most of suburban Phoenix? If you thought these spaces were for play, or relaxation, you should be right... but you are not. Most parks in The Valley serve as retention basins first. This function drives the form and the location of open space. Designers have discoverd that these single function basins could be integratged with other uses, like grass play fields, to create multi-functional landscapes. Still, these spaces are primary function is to hold water, therefore, play and relaxation take a supporting role. 

I think about the location for family photos as a test of a place's connection to a person's soul. When we choose a place to take a family photo in the outdoors, we are very aware that the location is just as much a part of the photo as the family. Almost as if the setting is another family member. What does the setting say to people who view your families photo? How often do you see photos with a natural desert backdrop here in Arizona? We know that we are sending our photo our into the World and want to tell the rest of the humanity that we love the unspoiled beauty of our rugged state. I've seen family photos on golf courses, on beaches, in foreign cities... all of these settings communicate to your friends something about what you appreciate. How often have you seen a family photo taken in the neighborhood retention basin?

To Design Greater, we must think about how to make the type of landscapes people will connect with. Places that become in some small way, a part of the people who use them. To do this, we think about amplification, asking what a community or property owner desires to communicate, and helping them to say it at the right volume. No two landscapes are the same, therefore, no two landscapes should be designed using the copy and paste commands. To Design Greater, we must use creative design techniques to discover divergent concepts before we can narrow down to the proper solution. Thinking this way allows for unique solutions, solutions that better represent the unique qualities of our clients.  

We deserve common areas and landscapes in our cities that people connect to, love, and maybe, just maybe, take a family photo in.