Landscape Designers VS Landscape Architects’ Salary

Landscape architecture and design are two of the many branches that make up landscaping. A landscape architect is a professional in landscaping who normally obtains a bachelor’s degree in the field. Experts in horticulture, known as landscape designers, combine their knowledge with technical know-how and design skills to produce well-planned, useful, and beautiful outdoor settings. Landscape designers use garden plants, trees, grasses, and hardscape components to create stunning and useful outdoor areas. Before entering either of the two landscaping professions, you must be informed of the pay range, whether you are a potential student hoping to pursue a lucrative career or an employed professional horticulturist.

In the United States, the yearly average salary for a landscape designer is $59,736, or $28.72 per hour. The lower end of that continuum, or the bottom 10 percent, earns about $42,000 annually, while the top 10 percent earns $83,000. As with most things, the location may be quite important. Alaska, Vermont, Massachusetts, California, and New York are the highest-paying states for landscape designers. While the average pay for a landscape architect in the United States is $95,000 as of June 28, 2022, the top 25% of earners earn $90,000 or more, while the bottom 25% earn $54,000 or less. Salary ranges can vary significantly depending on various crucial aspects, including schooling, credentials, supplementary talents, and the length of time you’ve been working in a given field.

Landscape architects and designers play comparable duties when creating pools, patios, gardens, or other outside projects. However, prospective landscape professionals should consider a few significant distinctions between a landscape architect and a designer. There are further differences between landscape architects and designers besides the difference in pay. Understanding these distinctions will help you choose which job path best suits your landscaping ambitions if you want to enter the profession. In the following sections, I define and explain what a landscape architect and designer are as well as some of the significant differences between the two professions in terms of education, work environment, skills, and training.

Who is a landscape architect?

A landscape architect is a professional in landscaping who normally holds a bachelor’s degree in the field. Typically, architects study at a university that has earned the American Society of Landscape Artists accreditation (ASLA). These specialists often research commercial and industrial architectural concepts to design public areas like parks, cemeteries, commercial buildings, or waterfront development projects. Architects must also successfully pass state tests to obtain a state license.

Landscape Architects’ additional assignments include:

• making and changing landscape ideas to suit the needs of the customer
• directing gardening projects from start to finish
• Creating project budgets and timelines
• cooperating with surveyors, engineers, architects of communities, biologists, and foresters
• examining the natural landscape’s qualities and figuring out how to incorporate them into their architectural designs
• updating important project stakeholders on the progress

Who is a landscape designer?

A specialist who works on smaller domestic projects like house patios, gardens, or other outdoor areas is a landscape designer. Despite the possibility of an undergraduate degree, most landscape designers are self-taught or acquire knowledge through practical experience. Landscapers frequently get the skills necessary to become landscape designers through practice rather than formal study.

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Differences between landscape architects and landscape designers

Although the jobs of landscape architects and designers are similar, there are some significant variations between the two professional paths to consider. These consist of:

Skills

Although architects and landscape designers share many talents, they may apply them differently depending on their job. Many of these abilities include:

Terrain management skills

Both landscape architects and designers are aware of their working environment’s topography and how it may impact the creation of buildings, walkways, monuments, or other landscape projects. However, architects may pursue additional studies in terrain management and frequently possess greater expertise with challenging terrains, waterways, and biomes like marshlands or woodlands.

Architectural design skills

With their extensive design abilities, landscape architects may frequently create more intricate structures with requirements that complement, eliminate, or add to the natural terrain. The ability to work with basic topography, apply design principles, and construct simple outside residential structures like gardens is a skill that most landscape designers have.

Botany skills

Both architects and designers are proficient in botany. However, architectural designers may be more knowledgeable about how specific plant species interact with the soil and change specific terrains. However, a landscape designer may possess specialist knowledge of the aesthetic effects of particular plants and be able to recommend various species to suit clients’ needs.

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Drafting skills

Both designers and landscape architects have drafting abilities, although architects’ abilities are typically more sophisticated. A designer may create their designs using simple software or pen and paper depending on the needs of their clients and projects. In contrast, landscape architects may employ sophisticated blueprints and 3D models.

Hazard identification skills

Both architects and designers often possess the capacity to recognize the plant, terrain, or design dangers. A designer might notice, for instance, that certain plants dry out more quickly in the summer and pose a fire risk. In contrast, an architect would notice that particular designs are more vulnerable to flooding in wetland areas.

Job scales

Landscape designers work on a smaller scale, often on residential or private projects, as opposed to landscape architects, who work on various projects for individual clients, large corporations, or the government. Both landscape architects and designers must meet with clients to discuss the space’s goals and budget before creating a strategy to realize those goals. These experts might also produce plans or pictures of the finished product using industry software.

Responsibilities

The landscape architect’s responsibility is to plan and create outdoor environments. Although they are qualified to design public parks, public gardens, resorts, campuses, cemeteries, malls, and other public spaces, they can also be in charge of personal projects like backyard design.

Other responsibilities of a landscape architect include:

• meeting with clients and other project team members, like engineers
• investigating the job location and taking into account any environmental restrictions or requirements
• examining construction permit requirements
• Planning with CADD technology
• being present at the employment location for a while

A landscape designer’s main duty is to develop a beautiful, aesthetically acceptable outdoor living area. A landscape designer can anticipate a few things as they help you construct the ideal outdoor living environment.

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A landscape designer’s additional duties include: 

• Scheduling meetings with clients to make plans.
• Using CADD technology to create designs or using craft materials to create 3D models
• examining the designs and accuracy-checking the work
• customer budget and plant choices discussed
• planning with the client the overall aesthetics and landscape design
• Taking into account concerns like sustainability and the use of soil and water

Education

A landscape architect and a landscape designer must have different levels of schooling. Although many still pursue educational training such as associate or bachelor’s degree programs in horticulture, landscape designers are not required to have any official schooling. These experts often have years of expertise, have honed their creativity, and have mastered the art of landscaping to produce home designs. Additionally, some landscape designers have college degrees in a variety of subjects. For instance, a landscaping company manager might hold a degree in business management.

A landscape architect normally holds a bachelor’s degree or higher in architecture, landscape architecture, or a related field and is certified by the state after passing exams. These tests give architects additional credentials to boost their credibility and career chances and enable them to practice architecture legally in the state where they are employed.

Training concepts

To understand how to put structures, use the terrain, and take other crucial landscaping aspects into account, architects and landscape designers frequently acquire various training topics. During their education, architects study the following important ideas:

• Drainage and power-saving measures
• impact on the environment
• contemporary structural design
• Permitting
• Building supplies
• composing reports
• drawing out plans
• wetlands, public lands, or protected regions as examples of biomes
• management of water

Here are some primary training concepts that landscape designers might learn during their training:

• maintaining the yard
• Plant varieties and visual appeal
• Local laws Basic structural design
• Analysis of the soil Basic water management
• Simple drainage
• hazard mitigation
• The use of color, texture, and proportion in gardens and other outdoor spaces

Work environment

Landscape designers and architects frequently operate in comparable settings. After completing their plans, landscape designers frequently engage in a project’s building phase and spend more time outside. However, some designers only work for clients and only do so in an office environment. Landscape architects spend time inside and outside researching the terrain and developing their architectural layouts. An architect might, however, spend more time indoors in an office environment, utilizing software to design blueprints and keeping track of clients, laws, and research initiatives.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What Software Do Landscape Designers Use?

Landscape designers employ several software applications to plan and design full yards, patios, outdoor living areas, corporate parks, and more. Spreadsheets made in Microsoft Excel are frequently used for planning, costing, and material lists. Utilizing specialized design software like AutoCAD and SketchUp, designers can produce 3D representations of their final designs and landscape concepts to help clients see the ultimate project, which can be helpful both during the sales and building phases.

How can Landscape Architects increase their salary?

There are several ways to raise your compensation as a landscape architect. Employer switch: Consider a career change to a different company that will pay more for your skills. Education Level: This position may be able to earn more money and be promoted if they obtain advanced degrees. Experience in management: If you are a landscape architect who supervises less experienced landscape architects, this experience may boost your chance of earning more.

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