Recently I received a letter from a reader who took offense to a statement I made about landscape designers taking away business from landscape architects.

His point was there were many great designers who are just as able as landscape architects to produce a great landscape. That may be true, however, in practice it is missing a few vital elements: training, education and liability.

The true value of a landscape architect is not the art created by the design. It is the blending of art and technical expertise that creates demand for the services of a landscape architect.

Having a great artistic eye is helpful for the LA, but design a beautiful landscape that results in a sump in the middle of the project and art becomes a liability. Picasso was a great artist, but build a picassoesque landscape without consideration of storm water runoff or traffic flow or invasive species and you have liability.

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With this in mind my statements comparing licensed/registered landscape architects to other design professionals was not a rap against artistic ability. Instead, it was a call to the ASLA to continue to impress in the minds of the consuming public that landscape architecture is not just landscape artistry, but more landscape mastery.

Can an artist design a beautiful landscape? Sure. Can an architect design a beautiful landscape? Sure. Can an engineer design a beautiful landscape? Well . . .?!? (Sorry engineers . . . That was a joke and you are allowed to laugh for up to seven seconds, within tolerances . . .)

Ok, back to the point . . . An artist can design a beautiful landscape, but can he engineer it? An architect can design a beautiful landscape but does he know the nuances? A landscape designer can design a beautiful landscape, but can he be expected to assume the liability? A landscape architect is expected to design a beautiful landscape, understand the engineering, know the nuances and accept the liability.

The problem I was eluding to is that in times when dollars are being pinched it is easy to overlook one or more of those elements. Now is the time for the profession to make that point more than ever. Now is the time to keep the mostly qualified from taking the work from the fully qualified. Oh, I know . . . Not every landscape architect is as good as some other designers, but every landscape architect is expected to assume the liability . . .

God Bless . . .