I know these kinda questions are asked plenty, but I’d really appreciate any input.

I’m curious to hear from any Canadians who have done their master's abroad. Were you able to find work in the country/city where you studied, or did you move back to Canada afterward? If you came back, was there any difficulty getting licensed? I know it’s possible, but just a longer process from what it sounds like.

I’m in the last year of my undergrad in LA, and I’ve lived and studied in my hometown my whole life, so I think there would be a lot of value in living and studying abroad. I’m planning to take one or two gap years to work and save before pursuing my master’s. I’m also working an internship throughout my final school year, and both my boss and coworkers have encouraged me to consider applying abroad.

My main hesitation is cost. LA obviously isn’t an especially high-paying field, and I would likely have to take out loans for my master’s. I’ve mostly been looking at AHO in Norway because the tuition is fairly comparable to what I would pay in Canada, although living costs would obviously be another consideration.

In Canada, I’m considering Toronto, Guelph, Calgary, and possibly Manitoba. If anyone has experience with those programs, I’d really appreciate hearing about them too!

In May I graduated from the MLA program at the University of Colorado Denver. I graduated top of my class, summa cum laude, and received an ASLA merit award while attending school.

I worked for the University Technical Assistance Program for two years while in school. My time there was spent creating schematic designs, community master plans, and presenting them to stakeholders, communities, community leaders, and govt officials in small and rural areas throughout Colorado. I also completed a contract design gig with the Denver Urban Gardens, a nonprofit in Denver.

After graduation, I was interning at a small Landscape Architecture firm here in Denver and, despite early conversations suggesting otherwise, they were unable to offer me a full time position after the internship ended due to lack of workflow.

Right as my internship was ending, I was interviewing for my dream job in the Denver Metro Area. Everything was going well, we set a week for me to come into the office, meet the team, and visit some job sites. I was ecstatic; however, they reached out to me today to tell me that they will no longer be filling that position. The job just disappeared.

Throughout this time I’ve been cold emailing firms, applying for every possible job that doesn’t focus on “sales goals” as much as actual design work, and utilizing my admittedly limited network to try and find work.

So now I’ve decided I have nothing to lose from posting here. I honestly have no idea what to do at this point. There really is no backup plan or anything really. The fact of the matter is I need a job, but I would prefer to not leave the industry in case it will make it harder to break back in if the job market improves.

Any advice or adjacent (and realistic) job ideas would be sincerely appreciated!

Thanks for reading all of this

Hi!

I’m in my last year as an undergrad and interested in getting my masters in city planning at u Manitoba.

Does anyone have any advice for me who’s gone down a similar path? Or anyone currently a practicing planner?

Thank you

Howdy y'all. I am a young professional looking to expand my horizons abroad. My background is in landscape architecture (undergrad) and a masters in urban design. I have been considering a big move for a while but was looking to see if anyone had done something similar and has advice to share.

Mostly interested in how our profession differs in the UK and how I can break through and make connections there while still located in the US (although all insights and tips appreciated!)

Thanks!

Hello. I'm a senior in environmental science and I've developed a love for green infrastructure and wanting to design green spaces in urban environments. I've considered doing a master's in civil engineering, which I would have to take many more math classes to be accepted into, which is fine. However, when looking up my interest, this field seems like a better fit.

I've done a little research and it seems many people say this is not a good field to enter. How do y'all feel about that? Is there another masters program that would be better? I just want to make sure I'm putting my time and money into something that will be worth it in the long run. I know environmental jobs aren't the hottest right now, but I'm ok with that.

So what are yalls opinions?! I'd love to hear the good, the bad, and anything in between!

Is it required to have recommendations from a licenced landscape architect if we are applying for licensure exam ?

Hey everyone! I’m currently going into my 4th year of Landscape Architecture, and honestly, I’ve realized that I find the major pretty boring and that it’s just not really my thing.

I’ve always been more interested in designing and creating things, so I recently started looking into UX/UI design. I’m curious about how realistic/easy it is to pivot from Landscape Architecture into UX/UI, especially after graduating.

For anyone working in UX/UI or who has made a similar career switch, what was the transition like? And what does UX/UI actually involve on a day-to-day basis?
Any advice or insight would be really appreciated!

I graduate with a BA in environmental studies in 6 months. I originally wanted to purse a masters in landscape architecture but it’s a 3 year program & pricey so I’m not sure but it’s fully online at BAC (accredited) besides required work hours in year 2 & 3. I recently found a Texas tech online degree in environmental design.

It would be a dream to have my own business in the future. But for now all I can do is finish school online due to my cutting situation. I have 3 small kids, 2 that aren’t school age with my car not working rn so working this year is not an option.

If I do this masters in environmental design I’m perfectly fine with working under a LA. In my state I’d have to work under one for 7 years to qualify to take the LA exam.

Or I could bite the bullet & purse a 3 yr online MLA which some professional in the LA field have advised against.

You are invited to participate in a research survey examining what makes a place feel genuine, distinctive, and identifiable, why these qualities matter to people, and how they shape human experiences. The study compares people’s experiences of themed environments to everyday places to better understand what is lost as contemporary places come to look and feel more alike.

The survey takes roughly 10-15 minutes to complete, and you may be eligible to participate if you are 18 years of age or older. Participation is voluntary. For the best experience, we recommend completing this survey on a desktop or laptop rather than a mobile device. 

Please use the link below to take the survey:

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Recently worked on the visualisation for this landscape project.

The focus was on understanding the overall design intent and translating it into visuals that communicate the atmosphere, materiality and spatial experience—not just producing a photorealistic render.

Would love to hear what landscape architects and designers here think.

Hey yall just trying to see if any MLA Penn graduates have made of themselves in the Philly region. I really like this area, and am happy with the departmental funding I have received, but am looking to stay in the area and try to get the highest ROI. I understand that weitzman (formerly PennDesign) is a highly respected program, but a lot of my research has fallen a bit short on the post grad level of things. If anyone has any insights I’d love to hear!!

So as the title suggests, I’m not that happy. I’m in my 2nd year of college and got into a 5 year master program for landscape architecture. I was originally accepted at the end of my 1st year but then I got an email saying I was denied entry. Now I’m doing gen Ed’s to try and raise my GPA to get back in. The hard part is that I fell in love with it and I really want to do this for my career. I’m not the best at drawing/drafting but I just am passionate about it. Now I’m sitting in classes that aren’t program exclusive but all the LA majors are in it as well while I’m not. It just sucks. I’m waiting until the end of the year to see if they’ll let me back in, but I honestly am kind of wanting to find a different college with the same structure now, especially if they don’t let me back in.

I kind of just needed to vent that. Any feedback or advice would be appreciated. Thanks for reading my rant.

I hate the degree rn in fouth year , should I drop out?
Or will the degree get me a place good,
I really hated it, i hate design with plants and everything about it,
I don’t know why I stayed till last year
Whats your advice?

Landscape and park design for a plotted development near Bangalore, including the overall landscape planning, recreational spaces, planting design, and visualisation.

A walkthrough video will also be prepared to help the client and developer understand the proposed landscape design, spatial experience, and overall look and feel of the development before execution.

Hi guys!
You might remember me from before, when i was wondering if my Mac would make it… it just does not. My school has the new bring your own device policy sooooo… I’m trying to decide on a new laptop. I’ve been hearing either the Lenovo LOQ or Lenovo legion 5 would be quite nice and good for LA. What is your experience? Or do you recommend something different? lol I don’t know anything about laptops. I’m excited to start studying landscape architecture next week! Thanks!

Hello! I’m 40 years old looking to change careers. Completely change. I’m a professional vocalist and floral designer. My BFA is in Musical Theatre with an emphasis in Direction. I’ve designed on stage, designed interiors and design with florals by I’m interested in pivoting those skills into landscape architecture or urban design. I’m passionate about green spaces and climate change resilience. There’s a few master programs near me that would accept my background but I’d like more information on which sector -LA or UD/UP- would be better for me. I’d like a steady income and good work life balance. I like changing up my scenario and also enjoy the option to work remotely and in office. Advice? Thanks in advance!

I’m a practicing landscape architect, and I’ve always felt there was a gap between making informal sunlight observations during a site visit and completing a more detailed analysis with tools such as Ladybug.

I created Deconstruct Sun to help fill that gap. It captures a composite panorama of the surrounding skyline, lets you trace trees and buildings, estimates direct-sun hours throughout the year, and creates a PDF report. My goal was to standardize how I document sunlight during site analysis and make planting design decisions easier to explain to clients.

It isn’t intended to replace detailed solar modeling, but to provide a faster field-based record that can be saved and shared.

I’d be interested in feedback from other landscape architects, particularly on how useful you find the workflow and report for professional practice.

Full disclosure: I developed the app. It has a free limited version, with a one-time $11.99 Pro upgrade.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/deconstruct-sun/id6794658469

I'm spent the first 9ish years of my career since undergrad working in Graphic Design. To be completely honest, it was not what I studied in school (I studied fine art after transferring out of Environmental Design), Graphic Design was just something I could do with skills that I had in Adobe after graduating, got my first job doing it, and one day I just felt like I blinked and this was my career. I don't love the industry, the craft or type of work I do. So I've been considering a change for a bit now.

I do constantly however think about the things I learned in Environmental design in college, and have a very strong passion for everything regarding development and planning of new projects. I had originally joined that program because I loved Planning.

In my spare time, I love to draw Master Plans and concept plans for residential developments for Eco-villages, and mixed-use, walkable developments and communities in the suburbs. I also love adaptive re-use projects and urban renewal, and overall just love and obsess over walkable, smaller community focused developments, neighborhoods and districts.

I'm in a place now were I'm pretty committed to going back to school to pursue a masters, or some other program that can help me transition into this realm and industry. But overall, I'm not sure exactly what specific program is best for me to pursue based on my interests and thats what I'm hoping to get some advise on.

One thing I'm particularly passionate about is Master Planning and placemaking. From what I understand however, master planning and placemaking isn't really a "job" per-say and is more of a interdisciplinary practice that involves multiple teams? Like the developers, Urban Planners and Designers, Landscape Architects, Civil Engineers and Architects, all contribute to the master plan rather than 1 person or specific team that is behind it.

Is that correct? Or is there an individual who is actual behind designing or designating where certain buildings, open spaces, roads, ect will live on a master plan of a new development? Please forgive any ignorance here.

I've also looked into going down the developer path, getting a masters in real estate development vs urban design or planning, but from what I understand, the real estate/developer side focuses more on the economics and financial side of things vs the more creative side. From what I undertand about Urban Design vs Urban planning, designers contribute more to the actual physical shape and cohesiveness of streets, buildings, ect. while planners focus more on zoning, permitting, ect. I'm not sure either discipline is what I had in mind, or if Landscape Architecture is closer or if I'm just completely misinformed all together.

Either way, I know I want to put in the work and do what it takes to get into this kind of work, I'm just not sure what is the best path for me based on my interests and existing skills coming from a more creative, graphic design background.

Any advise offered would be greatly appreciated. Cheers

Please use this thread to discuss whats going on at your school or place of work this week. Run into an interesting problem with a site design and need to hash it out with other LAs? This is the spot. Any content is welcome as long as it Landscape Architecture related. School, work, personal garden? Its all good, lets talk.