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April is Landscape Architecture Month, which encompasses Earth Day on April 22nd and Frederick Law Olmstead’s birthday on April 26th. Olmstead is considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, as is Andrew Jackson Downing who designed the landscape architecture surrounding the Smithsonian here in Washsington, D.C.
I’m a Landscape Architect, and I designed/installed my very first outside architecure feature, a retaining wall, when I was a boy scout. The wall stands to this day! I entered Virginia Tech to study architecture, and later moved my concentration to landscape architecture so I could follow my passion for creating outdoor structures and spaces that inspire. I’m a proud member of Alpha Rho Chi (META chapter!), the only national co-ed professional social fraternity for architecture.
Landscape architecture is a comprehensive discipline of land analysis, planning, design, preservation, and rehabilitation. It’s also a multi-disciplinary field, incorporating aspects of: architecture, botany, fine arts, industrial design, geology and the earth sciences, environmental psychology, geography and ecology.
The scope of the profession includes: urban design; site planning; town or urban planning; environmental restoration; parks and recreation planning; visual resource management; green infrastructure planning and provision; and private estate and residential landscape master planning and design; all at varying scales of design, planning and management.
Our national organization is the ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) and they promote the landscape architecture profession and advance the practice through advocacy, education, communication, and fellowship.
The picture included in this post is designed by my good friend, Landscape Architect Randy Theume, of Randy Theume Design. The space is part of a vintage home in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco and a fantastic example of what’s possible in a residential design.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]