Interviewed by Cathy Sivak
  EnviroEducation.com Contributing Writer
  June 13, 2006

YOU & YOUR CAREER

Tell us about your career in the field of landscape architecture. What area do you specialize in? How is your career unfolding?

I took a winding path into landscape architecture. I started studying physics because I had a real attraction to science and how things work, with a trajectory toward electrical engineering. I had the opportunity to travel after college, and felt that the visual side of my life was unsatisfied. I had always been interested in photography, and had experience with working with commercial photographers, but after taking several classes in fine art photography, I decided to purse a masters in fine arts. When I finished the Internet was just starting up, and I got a job as a graphic designer for an Internet company and participated in the Internet craze for five years. Those years though took me away from my art practice though. After those five years, the Internet bubble burst, and I found myself out on the street with a million other graphic designers.

More than anything I wanted to find a job and a career that was more aligned with my art making practice, so I started doing some research. In graphic design I enjoyed being in a studio environment with a lot of creative individuals - it was something I was very attracted to. As a result of my research, I took an introduction to landscape architecture class, which was loaded with people like me, testing the waters. I was completely sold after one quarter, and I decided to go back to school to pursue landscape architecture. The field is very much about visual problem solving, drawing, and the creative process. In this role, I'm designing things that have a physical presence. These are places where I can go and stand and touch the elements of the design and simply be in the space… it is the antithesis of what I was creating for the Internet.

One of the reasons I'm working for ah'bé Landscape Architects is to have the opportunity to reshape the urban space. The principle, Calvin Abe, is focused on the urban environment; our projects are split between public projects such as parks and community college campus design and master planning, and private development of plazas, rooftop gardens, and urban housing.

The graphic design experience has been a big contributor. There are tremendous numbers of opportunities to put together presentation boards to express your ideas to clients; the clearer and more compelling those boards are, the more clearly the concept is expressed to the client. My more structural training in physics has helped with the nuts and bolts of construction.

The organizations have proved important on a local level more than on a national one at this point. Being an active chapter president gave me access to the professional organization's Southern California officers. Over the course of the monthly meetings, I became friendly with some of them. This type of networking is helpful when it comes time to find work. Being plugged into participating in the profession is good on not only the job front, but also in other future endeavors.

My project for both awards was a pretty significant departure from any other project I had done previously in school. It was a short (15 minute) film which addressed how landscape architecture professionals might consider the in-between or leftover or negative spaces of the city. I approached this project 50 percent as an artist and 50 percent as a landscape architect. The projects in school force you study your physical environment. I live in Los Angeles, so I started looking at the city much more closely; from the details of how streets are put together to how people might interact in a space, to what works and doesn't work in a plaza. My project was fully embraced by the faculty at Cal-Poly despite the fact that film was not typically done, and it was a wonderful experience for me. I got to really define a problem and develop creative ways of investigating it, plus I was able to tap into my film experience from CalArts.

The recognition has been great, starting with the school. Cal Poly was delighted that I had won the award and the project created a nice strong tie with the professors I worked with as well as the program in general. On a professional level, I've had a few people comment, “I saw your name in Landscape Architecture Magazine, congratulations for the award.” That recognition is quite a nice way to start a new career, having been endorsed by the national organization for having created something of note. This kind of recognition stands out on a resume.

In presenting this project to several different groups, they were excited that this was not the typical project with strong design and planning; here was this submission that wasn't like anything else. In jury award situations, judges are often interested in innovative and distinctly new thinking within the profession.

The projects that really influenced me go back to the art world:

• Sans Soleil, a film by Chris Marker about memory, place, and travel. I had to see it again and again during the course of making my own film.
• Double Negative, an early land art piece by Michael Heiser in the Nevada desert outside of Las Vegas.
• Schouwburgplein (Theater Square), a public plaza in Rotterdam, Netherlands designed by West 8.
• “Fake Estates,” a 1973-74 project by Gordon Matta Clark where he wrote, spoke, photographed and eventually bought unusable slivers of land in New York City, presenting them as sites for "anarchitectural" urban intervention.
• The entire body of work by the Situationists, between 1952 and 1972 who sought to turn “modern” notions of the city upside down.

During the course of a week my responsibilities range quite widely, which is part of the reason I'm so satisfied with my new career. I'm typically involved in several projects at different stages, so tasks include everything from an on-site analysis to working on the specifics of construction documents to working up preliminary costs, and it's almost inevitable I'll be doing some graphic presentations. Each week has some new deadline or more often, multiple deadlines.

This may change over time, but certainly in this early period of my career, I feel like I constantly come up against a task that I've never done before. My office is very supportive, but also respectful of everybody's ability to figure things out on our own. Having to figure out something new usually starts with a twinge of panic, and then I come to grips with what I need to do, how to chip away at whatever the task is. New challenges include things like determining the landscape ordinance requirements for a particular parcel under the new city of LA requirements and restrictions. It's great to move from a point of a little bit of fear to a place of much more competence. Eventually, you become an expert in many areas.

They are exceptionally important, both within in the office and external to the office. Office collaborations are a great experience, and can also be incredibly trying. Over time everyone in the profession learns to develop ways of working with his or her own ego. You develop the ability to give and take with the people you work with on a daily basis; you learn a lot of interpersonal skills and develop leadership qualities to know when to step forward and when to step back.

Collaborations external to the office are incredibly important too - you build relationships in a different way; often you're on the phone exchanging documents with an irrigation consultant or discussing project requirements with the civil engineer. The key to good collaboration is having everyone feel they are in a trustworthy working relationship – one that is not adversarial. Deadlines change, there's always a give and take, and it's important to remember everyone is trying to work toward the same goal.

I utilize AutoCAD extensively, and other more graphic-oriented tools like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. My personal “gadget” is a little reference notebook I've built up. It is a series of reference documents that I use all of the time that include useful information on calculating how many plants per square foot, ADA requirements, how to calculate certain ratio conversions, and that sort of thing.

My biggest success thus far was the award for the student project; the ripples for the completion of that and the recognition have really continued to have an impact.

I'm most interested in continuing to explore and mine the territory where landscape architecture and my art practice meet; I don't know what form this is going to take in the future. I don't know if it means I will be recognized as a designer with great artistic input, or an artist who does remarkable landscape projects. I feel open to how that unfolds. I do continue to make my artwork in parallel with my day job; right now I'm in the middle of series of drawings that are influenced by landscape design.

Absolutely, I think that anybody who approaches landscape architecture as just a side job will remain stuck in a side job for their entire career. It's really the passionate individuals who rise to the top, who put forward the energy into realizing their vision. Somebody who is quite invested in the desire to make better environments is the one who really succeeds.

EDUCATION INFORMATION & ADVICE

Tell us about your landscape architecture education. How did you choose your school?

I looked at schools in Southern California because my wife and I wanted to stay in the area; I chose Cal Poly because I was interested in attending a nationally accredited school that would give me the opportunity to be licensed in other states in the future. I chose to go into the undergrad program rather than the masters program, which was a little out of sequence for me, having already earned a graduate degree (MFA). Cal Poly's graduate program is focused on larger scale land planning and research, but I was interested in starting with smaller, site-scale design. The projects in the BSLA program ranged from residential yards to watershed research projects. The program was very committed to exposing us to range of scales - to help us understand the kind of detailed planning needed for a residence as well as how to approach creating an urban forest program. It was a great opportunity for learning about the breadth of the profession.

I think that it probably would have been useful for me to have had some more ecology training or classes prior to landscape architecture school. Before starting the program I didn't really understand the significance of the role ecology and biology play in landscape architecture. While the program didn't teach it directly, I learned a great deal about ecology through the projects we tackled. To understand how natural systems work and interact is very valuable in the profession.

One of the great things in the Cal Poly program is that we did a great deal of site analysis; it is essential to thoroughly investigate a site before beginning any design work. I've heard similar feedback from others in the field, who noted that Cal Poly students are strong in site analysis in terms of being thorough and looking closely at the details.

I think everybody with an interest should take the opportunity to talk to a landscape architect before they get into school. I did this, and found it very valuable. I recommend finding a landscape architect and see if you can have lunch or steal a few minutes at their office. See what they do, see what they find exciting, and see if you connect with anything they have to say. It's not a profession everybody understands, and it takes a while to grasp the breadth of it. Landscape architects are responsible for everything from residential gardens to parks and plazas to freeway design. The head of the U.S. Forest Service is a Cal Poly landscape architecture graduate. Landscape architects are involved in a wide array of projects, but people typically don't know that.

The same rules apply for landscape architecture as for any other program you might pick in any profession; it's useful to know what you are interested in, and also the type of person you are. If you are a student who is interested in the nuts and bolts of the profession, that might impact your choice of school. For instance, the Cal Poly undergraduate program is focused on the mechanics of the discipline – construction techniques, drawings – and there is less emphasis on theoretical models. If you are very interested in the theoretical aspects of the profession, the University of Southern California has a lot more emphasis on theory and more opportunities for experimental projects in the profession.

Certainly the Harvard program has a lot of prestige, which has its benefits as the Harvard network could carry you far. The University of Pennsylvania is a strong program and the University of Southern California is heading in an interesting direction.

That does have an impact, but I think your ability to communicate who you are and your interests, combined with your portfolio, is as least as significant as what school you went to. Landscape architecture offices are interested in where you went to school, but they also want to see what you are like, whether your personality will fit with the general office climate.

It depends on the program; the graduate program at Cal Poly has limited number of slots, whereas with the undergraduates, somehow their applicant numbers are in line with what they can provide.

Give yourself time to decide what you want to accomplish in a graduate program. I think that it is very useful to practice in an office for a little bit of time after an undergrad degree before pursuing a graduate degree. I think it's a big mistake to go into a graduate program hoping you will figure out what you want to do. You should know what you want to accomplish ahead of time, or you will make it very difficult on yourself.

A graduate degree is useful in certain aspects of the profession. From what I can tell, many graduate programs are typically training ground for ecologically based research projects – aspects of the profession that deal with habitat restoration or larger scale planning, and watershed management. Having said that, our office has several designers with graduate degrees and we don't do large scale land planning. Also, teaching prospects are better with a terminal degree.

My personal advice is to encourage everyone interested in the profession to use school as a platform to not only learn the skills, but also to take a lot risks and to explore what landscape is in the broadest and most abstract, theoretical terms possible. In working life there is ample opportunity to abide by the rules. School is the great opportunity to take chances, without the risk of being fired, and to look to other landscape architects for inspiration as well as far beyond the profession itself for inspiration, like textile design, physics or fine arts.

Because there is pressure to provide students with an education that will help them get a job, often innovation is not fostered in school. I think it is a mistake to limit the student's ability to think creatively and broadly; the schools should be encouraging students to develop new methods and approaches. This can only help the individual and the profession.

CAREER INFORMATION & ADVICE

On a basic level, what skills are required to be a landscape architect?

You have to be able to really focus on a lot of details simultaneously. This might be different if you are in a planning arena, but certainly at the design level, you have to be able to get the overall brush strokes, but also to understand how things are going to work at every level, making sure the detailing is done competently, and with and artistically. The level of detail focus is intense, and it caught me a little off guard.

The more a student can get exposed to 3-D software modeling, the greater the benefit. I also think that video is quite useful; working with video teaches you to think about landscape and time.

Not a new challenge, but an acute one, especially in Los Angeles, is the pressure to increase the density of the population within the city. It's an interesting change. Everyone is familiar with suburban sprawl, but in LA and a lot of other big cities, we're seeing the population recycling back, with an increasing number of high rise towers in the downtown core. It's a great opportunity for landscape architects to participate in making better urban environments, from the spaces that connect everything between the buildings, to all the areas in which people move within the city.

The one I always get is that it must be great to be outside all of the time. In actuality, we spend a great deal of time in the office often at the computer. There is time in the field as well, but the bulk of it is spent inside.

Most of my work utilizes AutoCAD, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and the layout program InDesign, which is great for creating multi-page presentation, like a bound master plan document.

The field of landscape architecture is very fortunate; there continues to be more and more work, and not enough people. The market is very good for us. The profession is always looking for qualified individuals.

In my class, probably 30 to 40 percent of the members of my class were involved in internships in their last year in school, and almost all of them turned those internships into full time jobs. It's a good way to get your foot in the door, and a great introduction to the working world of projects and office practices.

My impression is that starting salaries range from $35,000 to $45,000 a year, which of course varies depending on your location. On the high end, I'd say $100,000 and up for those who are extremely well established in the field. But in my opinion you can't start this profession thinking you're going to make a lot of money. It's not a profession for wealth. It's a profession for people who are passionate about what they do.

The shaping of the urban and natural environment ripples throughout any culture, so landscape architects' work impacts the quality of peoples lives on obvious and not so obvious levels. For example, decisions about how to build or design a small community park can significantly impact the quality of life for individuals in that community, and that's a tangible contribution. Less tangible is that landscape architects have made powerful, positive decisions on how to manage an entire watershed, which means a community may have a higher quality of water and a cleaner environment.

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you would like to follow up with Allen Compton about the field of landscape architecture, click here.

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