July 22, 2019 by CallisonRTKL

Landscape Architects Save the World

Noel Aveton, a landscape architect “superuser,” shares the progress CLARB has made in strengthening the profession’s licensing process.

Shown above, (left to right) Jenny Owen – former Executive Mississippi State Board of Architecture/Landscape Architecture; Ujijji Davis – recently-licensed landscape architect; Shannon Himes – Ohio Architects/Landscape Architects Board Executive; Noel Aveton – Landscape Architect, Vice President and Regional PUD Sector Leader at CallisonRTKL

Over the last several months, a far-flung group of peer professionals, including landscape architects and state board executives, have been advising the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB) on ways to streamline the licensing process. Just as NCARB does for architects, CLARB helps landscape architects get licensed faster and easier and with less friction. This is a good thing. Of course I may be slightly biased, but I believe today’s world needs more landscape architects. And we need them licensed, registered and working to a consistent (and high) set of professional standards.

As part of our review, my advisory group and I surveyed the membership and discovered several revealing issues. First, the licensing process had become gummed up with a little too much administration—it just took a lot of time to get licensed. That seemed self-evident and relatively easy to fix. But we also discovered that there were many inconsistencies in standards from state to state. Because I’m registered in 23 states, I was labelled a “superuser,” a distinction that does not, sadly, come with a cape or secret decoder ring. But it does mean that I witness first-hand the complexities of the process and the frustration it can cause a practitioner active across a multi-state region.

All of this was very revealing, of course, and, in many ways, applicable beyond the LA world, which is why I wanted to share it with you.

What’s driving the issue?

First, the urgency. All over the world we’re seeing the impact of climate change on our environment, and landscape architects need to step up their game and engage. Whether it’s rising sea levels, creeping median temperatures or the shifting hardiness zones, we need a consistent, unified and comprehensive response that accommodates a panoply of stakeholders. This will be difficult to do if our professional standards differ appreciably from state to state.

There’s little doubt that the impact climate change will have on our cities and economy will be crippling, but consider the threat it poses to some of the country’s most revered historic sites and fragile eco-systems. According to a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, sea level rise threatens sites ranging from Faneuil Hall, where the Sons of Liberty planned the Boston Tea Party, to the launchpads of Cape Canaveral to my hometown of New Orleans, which is literally sinking one centimeter per year. The National Park Service says a quarter of its properties are on or near the coast, and most of them contain historic structures — many of them Civil War forts—which are all vulnerable to sea level rise. Inconsistent standards, absent professionalism and a lack of oversight places at risk not just our current cities and communities but the historic fabric of who we are as a nation.

Wherever the threat occurs (and that is pretty much everywhere), the underlying problem is much the same: Tactics used in the past—building sea walls, raising buildings on stilts, or even moving them to higher ground—have proven to be of limited utility. We need to be smarter, more aligned with other design professions and more diligent in our standards—and this all takes higher and more consistent protocols, best practices and professional unity.

While landscape architects are the front line, we need to come together in a meaningful eco-system of stakeholders to better understand—and, indeed, drive—potential solutions, impacts and directions. Landscape architects and planners, architects and engineers, even makers of policies and citizens must all align to nurture and deepen a shared commitment to a consistent practice of foresight for their common benefit and for the benefit of all human beings, communities and society.

This doesn’t happen organically, or through some form of harmonic convergence over the Internet; it takes the diligence and tenacity of organized groups, and this is the true value of CLARB’s efforts. Indeed, we cannot design ourselves out of this. Rather, we must all cooperate and collaborate at the highest levels of professional practice and citizenship to solve it.

Whither the Disruptors

It’s difficult to discuss the future of any profession these days without the word “disruptor” entering the conversation, and landscape architecture is no exception. Obviously there is the onslaught of technology; and VR and AI have just as much application to landscape design as they do to architecture. It’s both comforting and exhilarating to see the advances they have already driven.

Of course it’s easy to reduce these to tools or toys that just give us a new way of doing things, but we have to take them further, deeper. How best to prepare ourselves for the next series of fundamental changes? What is the next, next thing? And how do we—as professionals, practitioners…and, yes, as a company—pave the road forward?

No easy answers, of course, but what does seem clear is that this is obviously more than an adoption issue—it’s an educational, training and skills discussion that will speak directly to where the profession is heading and what types of skills we will need in the future. And that may be the biggest disruption—are we growing the professionals we need to navigate the turbulence of a new future?

So, as a profession, we must not only prepare for but drive new educational models, greater diversity, and a more robust and ambitious talent pipeline. We need new ideas, new skills and new perspectives…which means we need to set a consistent standard across the board to ensure that those skills have marked traction, relevance and application.

As a profession, landscape architecture has come a long way in just the last few years, but there is still a long way to go…and CLARB is helping us get there. It’s been an honor to be part of the effort, and a pleasure to share the progress.

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CallisonRTKL

For more than five decades, Callison and RTKL have created some of the world’s most memorable and successful environments for developers, retailers, investors, institutions and public entities. In 2015, our two practices came together under the Arcadis umbrella, expanding our sphere of influence and the depth and breadth of our resources. Our team is comprised of nearly 2,000 creative, innovative professionals throughout the world who are committed to advancing our client’s businesses and enhancing quality of life.