Working in Landscape Architecture in NYC

Hi Architect-US Community!

I arrived in NYC a month ago and started my trainee position as an architect at SiteWorks. So far, it has been great.

As an architect, I never thought my work would lead me to landscape design. I always pictured architecture as building enclosed spaces related to residential environments rather than focusing on the exterior and site conditions. Nonetheless, I’ve always been drawn to outdoor design—how it organizes buildings and how the landscape or exterior conditions can improve our mood, reshape the entire place, and, of course, enhance the architecture.

Working at SiteWorks, a landscape design and construction company here in NYC, has been an eye-opener and an everyday learning experience about this discipline. In just one month, I’ve learned that landscape design covers much more than just choosing plants and trees. It’s actually more complex since it involves site condition design, topography studies, regulations on building codes, and park codes. There’s also significant work in protecting existing landscape conditions, which sometimes include hardscape, buildings, and existing plantings that need their own treatment to remain, as well as all new designs.

Besides all this, I’m learning a lot about project organization, how things get done on-site, and even how planting nurseries work and how designers pick the trees for each project. It’s pretty exciting!

Next up, I’m excited to start using BIM during the schematic design phases. It’s something I’ve been looking forward to, even though landscape design hasn’t really embraced BIM as much as other disciplines like architecture. Having said that, I’m excited to start implementing all of what I’m learning inside Revit.

Another thing from this first month is that the office is located in Midtown Manhattan, which adds another layer to the experience. Being in the heart of New York City brings its own challenges and opportunities. In future posts, I’ll dive more into how it is to work in the city and how this can enhance, motivate, or change the way you work.

So far, this experience is changing my idea of what landscape design really means and what the future of this discipline among other design disciplines would be.

I’d love to hear from other architects working as landscape designers and how your experiences have been so far!

Thank you for reading—stay tuned for more! 🙂