Increased Public Works Demand More Landscape Architects, Pond Declares

This is the eighth of a series of articles on the graduate schools dealing with the profession represented by the School and the School itself.

Landscape Architecture may be defined as the arrangement of land and the objects upon it for human use and enjoyment, where the good appearance of the result is of importance. For many years the landscape architect has been concerned largely with the planning and development of the private place, but of recent years the rapid increase in recreation has brought the demand for men trained in the profession to a point where it now exceeds the available supply. While the principal work of the landscape office in former years, the private place, has decreased, the amount of work on public projects of various sorts, mostly of a public recreational character, has increased to a surprising extent. This public work at present includes the various types of developments for the public use by the National Park Service, the United States Forest Service, the Resettlement Administration, and various State organizations, all of which are engaged in the planning of land areas for human use and enjoyment. The location of roads so as to interfere as little as possible with the natural scenery, the planning of public camping and sports areas, the development of parks of all sorts and sizes, beach and waterfront recreational areas, the subdividing of land into house lots so as to give more attractive types of surroundings than in the past, the planning of roads and highways, all of these problems are now before the landscape architect for solution in increasing volume.

Training in Fine Arts

To meet this demand a man entering the profession of Landscape Architecture must have training in the fine arts, since his field is largely one of visualizing the results and of creating pleasant surroundings that will be in keeping both with the architecture and with the natural conditions of the locality. He should be competent in design and above all, have the imagination to see the finished results of his schemes far ahead of the actual accomplishment. Dealing, as he does, with not only architectural compositions, but also the problems of land grading, engineering, water-supply, and drainage, as well as questions involved by the use of vegetation in mass and detail, his training necessarily covers a wide field of study.

None Unemployed

The true value of any profession lies in its service to the public and in the resulting demand by the public for its employment. In this connection it is interesting to note that during the recent depression all graduates of the Harvard School of Landscape Architecture have been occupied' at various types of work related to their profession, and that none, even the men graduating last June, have failed to secure positions in this particular field. No one can forecast the length of time that this demand for trained men will continue, but there is every indication that the majority of the public recreational projects will be maintained and that their development will proceed even on restricted lines. The field of the private estate work has been reduced by the economic situation to a very low point during the past few years, but the desire to have better and more attractive surroundings is so inherent a trait in this country that it would seem to be within reason to expect this phase of the landscape professional work to return to somewhere near its former amount within a few years