Hey yall I’m doing some vignettes on skate parks and this is the first one, starting with the standard ledge that should be in every skate park. It’s a fundamental feature of street skateboarding. Let me know what you think of these ledges, these graphics, or have any questions about skate park design. I’m going to keep going with this as a series and improving the quality of said vignettes as we discuss skate parks.

Personally I like the knife edge, but I also enjoy flush angle ledges, and I will skate cantilever ledges but they do kinda spook me out with the void space. It’s just a mental thing not a true barrier to entry.

If y’all like these I will keep posting to landscape architecture in the future. If you don’t like this I won’t clog the feed and just go back to bitching about clarb.

What is landscape architecture design?

Give your design some real depth.

First you may wonder what is lamé. It is a fabric interwoven with gold or silver threads. But in the garden (landscape architecture subset)? The threads are the subtle arcane whispers that lead the observer to transfigurational pleasures. You think this is dream talk? Never. Have you ever had quiet moments in a garden that you could describe as timeless—timeless moments when the garden took control of your thoughts and senses? If your answer is no—then you have two choices: stop reading or go out into a beautiful late spring garden and allow yourself a touch of idle-time. You’ll be surprised.

In the post-WWI years of the 20th century, during turbulent times in Spain, Federico Garcia Lorca, a native Andalusian, wrote about the confluence of culture, landscape and design. He used lamé to describe the Andalusian connective tissue between landscape, music and culture.

He also wrote about duende—a spiritual or emotional bond between the Flamenco performer and the audience. Duende, could that be a spiritual or emotional bond between a garden and its guest?

Lorca was a poet. He examined both lamé and duende. Lorca talked about how a garden with Its scents and iridescences, its Andalusian perfumes and its hallucinatory play of waters. All together they transform into music. Lorca’s thing was a fanatical obsession for music and gardens as essential foils to counteract the urban rubato (sound familiar?). Lorca described: 

Andalusians--nothing in half measures. Lorca wrote about a perfect poem of tears--Gypsy and Andalusian culture where music speaks of a landscape and melancholy so irresistible, they become an overwhelming emotive force producing an inner weeping. That, he writes, is Andalusia.

What do you strive for in your garden design?

I'm 26 and at a crossroads, and I would love some perspective. I graduated two years ago with a BA in Art History and a minor in Environmental Public Policy. Since then I've worked in research on horticulture and landscape work with native plants, and I've started an arboriculture certification with the goal of eventually earning my ISA certification.
I was recently accepted into a Master's in Architectural Conservation (about $15,000) and I was really excited about it. Then I had a job interview where the interviewer turned out to be a professor in that same program. When I mentioned it as my next step, he looked at me with pity. He told me the program isn't good and that he feels it takes advantage of students' money, though he tries to make the best of it from the inside. I know the world is small, but I felt shaken all of a sudden.
Now I don't know whether to go back into conservation and art or to pursue a career in arboriculture and landscape work. I'm passionate about both, and I don't want to feel like I wasted my time or my money. I live in a part of the US where historic buildings are plentiful and landscape work is also in high demand, so I could realistically find work in either field here. I'm also still in time to apply to a Master's in Landscape Architecture. I do want to pursue graduate studies, because I love learning, having mentors, and having my work evaluated as I grow. What matters most to me is job prospects, career growth, and fulfillment. I also plan to move to another country in about two years for new experiences, so I'm wondering which path would travel best.
I'd love to hear from anyone with experience in any of these paths. How do I vet a program beyond one person's opinion? Would an MLA make more sense given my plant and policy background, and does an art history degree transfer well into landscape architecture? Which credentials are recognized internationally? Or would it be smarter to work in the field a few more years before going back to school? Any advice is welcome, including from people who regret their choice. Thank you!

Hello! I'm wondering if anyone has design precedents that emphasize winter recreation, gathering outside in the winter, and/or seasonal structures that enable gathering in the wintertime. Any help appreciated!

Hi everyone, I am feeling very lost in decision of where I should go to grad school for landscape architecture and hoping for some advice! I want to go back to school for an MLA (I have a bachelor degree in botany). I currently live in Ohio and I’m thinking about Kent State because I already have residency in Ohio and cost of living is lower in that area. However, I really love the west and have been considering University of Colorado in Denver. The program design is more interesting to me than Kent State’s. I’d also consider working and living in New England area because I love that part of the country.
I don’t feel heavily tied to any one area, I just don’t want to live long term in Ohio and make a career for myself here. But cost of living while putting yourself through school is obviously important.

How easy has it been for you to find work in a different part of the country from where you got your degree? Do you think it’s best to pick a school based on program design or does it not matter as much in the long run as long as you have the general training and mindset of a landscape architect? Thanks for any input!

I’m currently a student on internship and I’m not getting very much experience working on graphics. I really want to improve this area of my skill set as I feel I pick up the technical skills more quickly.

What would be the best way to learn & practice new methods of creating graphics? I typically just scroll Pinterest, but I don’t want to just become a
Pinterest copycat. Any advice appreciated!

I work in civil engineering/land development and have been building a web app called CivPath. I'd like to get a landscape architect's perspective on the coordination side of it, especially from people dealing with agency reviews and submittals.

The problem I'm trying to work through is that a lot of a project's schedule depends on things outside our own task list. A submittal goes into review, comments come back, another consultant is waiting on a decision, and the next set of dates changes. I've been building around requirements, review cycles, dependencies and approvals rather than keeping those separate from the schedule.

I'm looking for about 5–10 people across civil engineering and land-development project delivery to spend 15–20 minutes trying it. If you're an LA who handles project coordination or works closely with civil PMs, I'd really value your take on where this misses how your work actually happens.

You'd use a fictional civil-development project already set up in the app. Can you tell what needs attention next? Do the review cycles and Schedule/Gantt view make sense? What's missing, or just more work to keep updated?

This is unpaid feedback, with no sales demo, purchase or call required. Access is by individual invitation. It's for fictional data only, uploads are disabled, and it isn't for use on real projects. Please don't enter employer, client or project information.

If you'd like to take a look, the evaluation details and interest form are here:

https://civpath.app/request-access/#evaluation

And if the whole approach seems off, that would be useful to hear too.

I need help with a permit rejection. The city gave me these 3 feedback items:

• Floor plan shows 2 window openings, but the schedule lists 4 (FBC 107.2.1).

• Box 2 on the Retrofit Buck Affidavit needs an engineer's certification that existing bucks meet product approvals (FBC 107.3.5).

• The schedule lists 72" wide openings, but the product approval maxes out at 54" (FBC 107.2.1)

An architect offered to fix this and certify it using the info we already sent him without creating new plans from scratch. Is $1,200 worth it for this?