Best products from r/LandscapeArchitecture

Great question, and great idea! Off the top of my head:


The Basics

Landscape Architect's Portable Handbook - This one does get a bit technical, but it's a good guide.


Sociology/Psychology

Social Life of Small Urban Spaces - Just a good book about how people experience spaces

Design with People in Mind - An older film, but a classic. Funny and with great observations about how people use spaces and interact with their environment


Design Theory

Architecture: Form, Space and Order - This is a great guidebook for architects and landscape architects alike


History of Landscape Architecture

Illustrated History of Landscape Design - A great intro to the history of landscape architecture.


Urban Planning/Design

Death and Life of Great American Cities - It's a classic and should be a required read for anyone in landscape architecture or architecture


This is the short list - I'll add to it as I think of more!

Welcome to the club! Great idea to work on your hand drawing. Sooo many people get good at computer graphics, but good hand graphics set you apart from the crowd and is something employers really look for.

You can go really over board with supplies, but i dont use a ton when i draw. Basic mechanical pencil, engineering scale, circle template, large and small triangles, t-square, fine liners (i use these), eraser (i like the gummy ones) and thats about it that i use regularly. You can buy a ton more if you plan on drafting everything by hand, but while its a great skill to have, general drafting is much easier in CAD. The marker standard where i live is chartpak AD markers. Might want to consider getting a set for a christmas present as they can be pricey.

I am learning a lot from doing the /r/ArtFundamentals lessons. Wish those existed a decade ago. Looking forward to hearing what supplies others recommend.

Definitely not a lost cause, and glad to hear you're interested in an MLA. I'd say ecology is one of the strongest backgrounds from which to enter the LA profession. Seems like a lot of firms are looking to hire people with that type of expertise, as the role of ecology in projects continues to rise.

Portfolio-wise, I'd agree with what /u/tricky_p and /u/PHXgp said so far (express enthusiasm, include anything that might be relevant), and add the following advice:

• Sketch outside, sketch public places, sketch people and plants, buy an LA graphics book and start playing around with the symbols and style of land arch graphics. Even if you don't end up pursuing an MLA, you'll still come out a better sketcher (and who doesn't want that?!).
  
  
• Learning how to graphically present your existing work can go a long way. If you have access to Adobe InDesign, watch a few web tutorials on how to use it. Or if you have to lay out in PowerPoint, just look for tutorials on basic graphic design principles. Even if your work doesn't look the best, you can dress it up in something pretty.
  
  
• For your site planning class this summer, I'd personally focus on producing a couple quality hand graphics rather than trying to go all out and learn 3-d modeling software. Focus on communication - how can you clearly articulate what you've designed / what's going on in your plan.
  
  Overall... I don't know, just be honest about your skill level and where you're coming from. And check out (www.landezine.com) if you haven't already. Best website around for getting inspired about LA.
  

The world heritage of gardens by Dusan Ogrin is a great one. Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/World-Heritage-Gardens-Dusan-Ogrin/dp/0500236666

It takes a historic perspective and goes through all of the important eras of garden design, describing how basic design principles such as contrast, harmony, rythm etc. were used to convey different messages. It won't provide you with any recepies for designing but it is still great to understand historical significance of landscape structures. Highly recommended to anyone dealing with landscape design.

Another one I would recommend, but which is more general is The cultured landscape. https://www.amazon.com/Cultured-Landscape-Designing-Environment-Century/dp/0419250409
This one is a bit more philosophical but great to understand where landscape architecture is moving in general.

Enjoy your reading.

https://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-History-Landscape-Design-Elizabeth/dp/0470289333

This book could be used for citation.

There is a section covering the Medieval period. I don't know what makes a monastic garden different from the kitchen/herb gardens of a castle/estate manor during that time, but they seemed to be mostly walled in and with practical use instead of for aesthetic purposes. This is in contrast to the Enlightenment's monumental palace gardens. And further on, geometry fell out of fashion with the rise of Romantic Naturalism in the 18th century.

I think the herb knot gardens in fashion during the Medieval period informed the Victorian annual bedding practices or even the hedge mazes that emerged. This is just personal speculation, however.

There is a clear connection between the geometric and regular layout of (because of the wall boundaries) of these older gardens and the impressive layouts of the gardens of Notre for Versailles, though. They were artificial on purpose and followed the philosophy of hierarchical order with Man above everything, but under God. Bushes and trees weren't left to themselves if they could be turned into topiaries, pleached, pollarded, etc. They were in regimented rows and expressed wealth from the amount of hired help required to maintain them.

Use this Bamboo, and I love it. It's pretty cheap, but does most everything I want it to.

Check with your school's IT office or such, most schools will have drawing tablets for you to check out. My school has ~10 Wacoms for rent.

Photoshop and Illustrator will be your main two. I've found learning InDesign to be a great help though on some projects. Learn SketchUp too!

This list is great - thanks!

I'm curious if you have more positive associations with the portable handbook as opposed to a more detailed, longer text along the lines of Landscape Architecture by Barry Starke.

I'm realizing there may be a different among "the basics" depending on the emphasis on technical operations, versus more aesthetic, pictorial emphasis.

That is the only one I didn't pass on the first try. Was this the first section of the LARE that you took? It takes some getting use to the way they ask questions. I have a copy of the old Section A practice book, link here (https://www.amazon.com/LARE-Review-Section-Practice-Problems/dp/159126085X) that was a big help. I believe section one is the same as former section A. If you PM me I'd be happy to send it to you. Good luck and don't give up!

Check your local university websites. Most universities have good resources like these.

http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ldplants/

http://hortsense.cahnrs.wsu.edu/Home/HortsenseHome.aspx

Also Dirr manuals are great for plant information. They can be a little technical but are great resources.

https://www.amazon.com/Landscape-Identification-Ornamental-Characteristics-Propogation/dp/1588748685

Basically anything Copic for pens and color markers, Micron has great pens too. There's the ubiquitous Pentel sign pen, as well as Sharpies in a variety of point sizes. Staedtler makes great circle templates and pencil sets and you might want to consider some books such as the venerable Landscape Graphics and Drawing and Designing with Confidence. Oh, and tracing paper, lots of it.

This book has great essays from a number of very famous and influential designers: http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Landscape-Architecture-Reader-Studies/dp/0812218213

Also this is a Q&A that gives a better look into an individual process: http://www.amazon.com/Landscape-Cabinet-Curiosities-Search-Position/dp/3037783044

If Professor Reid was there, he was in the MLA program. I was an undergrad, so I did not see him. The professors I can remember were:

Don Austin (the A in EDAW). (design and construction)

Tom Woodfin. There was a geologist who assisted him, and I can't remember his name to save my life. I think his first name was Art. (design and theory)

Ed Hoag (graphics teacher)

Harlow Landphair (mostly construction. He seemed uninterested in drawing and traced off a light table for perspectives)

Michael Murphy https://www.amazon.com/Landscape-Architecture-Theory-Evolving-Thought/dp/1577663578 (design and professional practice)

Nancy Volkman (who has since passed away) (landscape history and interim department head)

John Rodiek (ran the MLA program) (design)

Chang-Shan Huang (who was just getting started in 96) (graphics and design)

and John Motloch who left for Ball State. (design theory and using 50 words to say something that you could state in 5.)

There were others, to be sure, like Rodney Hill and Robert Schiffauer, but those were the core professors that we saw all the time in Hotel Langford.

I've read that book that you mentioned, but it was years after I graduated. It would have been really useful back then.

Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs http://www.neebo.com/Textbook/dirrs-hardy-trees-and-shrubsb9780881924046/ISBN-9780881924046?kpid=0-88192-404-0&gclid=CPWWmbu9yMICFQ4S7AoddVAA0A

Dirr's Manual of Woody Landscape Plants
http://www.amazon.com/Manual-Woody-Landscape-Plants-Characteristics/dp/1588748685

Both are awesome.

I also bought this book, which I feel is helpful too. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1609719824/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

LARE Secrets. the provided DVD was just them trying to sell more products IIRC, and not "secret" study materials. It did have some advice/pointers on studying (in general) and that was helpful too.

It looks like this picture has made its rounds again. I saw it in /r/interestingasfuck and /r/marijuanaenthusiasts -- and the first thing I always think when it comes up is that it reminds me of a plan graphic tree.

It always reminds me of the Grant Reid Landscape Graphics book.

My reference at the time

Francis D.K. Ching's books are another reference, though more architecturally inclined.