Subject: Landscape Designers

From: [email-masked] (Greg MacKinnon)
Date: 13 Dec 1994 03:07:23 GMT

How do all the LA feel about the adoption of "Practice" laws which would 
limit many of the activities commonly performed by landscape designers.

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From: [email-masked] (CowboyRik)
Date: 17 Dec 1994 17:05:40 -0500

Subject: Landscape Designers
From: [email-masked] (Greg MacKinnon)
Date: 13 Dec 1994 03:07:23 GMT
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

-How do all the LA feel about the adoption of "Practice" laws which would 
-limit many of the activities commonly performed by landscape designers.

Its the word 'landscape' that causes the problem.  Landscape seems to
automatically mean 'landscaping' and landscaping creates a vision of
shovel pushing.  Most people don't understand that many to most landscape
architects are not engaged in landscape (plantscape) design.  Practice
laws should not be worded to interfere with the kind of work landscape
designers do or should do.  It is where landscape designers start acting
like engineers and architects and health, safety and welfare is a concern
that practice laws should be imposed.  All too often I see landscape
designers (who are really good designers) call themselves landscape
architects because it sounds sexy (more marketable maybe) but can not
perform the services that the informed market would expect from one
trading under that title.  I concede that the informed market should also
recognize the shortcomings of a plantscape designer but that should not be
left to chance.  In the past (far past) gardeners did perform as designers
and engineers (Fredrick Law Olmstead was a garden designer) but back then
not as much was expected of lawyers either.  Pioneers have greater
latitude to perform.  It wasn't long ago that one could become a lawyer by
reading a few books and then even become President (now there is a
position that needs a 'practice' law).  It is when expected standards are
needed to be insured that practice laws are necessary.