FAQs

A Landscape Architect is a licensed professional who has completed a degree accredited by the Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board (LAAB), such as a BLA, BSLA, MLA, or MSLA, from an accredited program.

After graduation, they must complete a minimum two-year internship and pass the Landscape Architectural Registration Examination (LARE), administered by the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB). Once licensed, they can practice as a Landscape Architect in forty-seven states, with Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maine being exceptions.

In Wisconsin, certain practitioners who were active before the certification law may practice under a ‘grandfather’ certificate, but they cannot obtain reciprocity in other states without meeting additional requirements. All licensed Landscape Architects must stamp construction drawings with an official state seal and carry a pocket certificate for verification.

A Landscape Architect is responsible for public health, safety, and welfare. The intent of all the education, internship, and testing is to provide you, the consumer, with the expectation that the services you receive are of a certain quality and that your best interests will be preserved. The strength of their education, internship, and testing help assure you of certain skills.

You also have the added security of knowing that one who does not provide the services expected is liable through the State Board of Technical Registration.

If the practitioner is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects you also have the Code of Ethics and Code of Environmental Ethics to measure their success. You may contact the ASLA with concerns over the ethical behavior of any professional member.

You should make your meetings with the professional as informative as possible. It is best to have all the stake holders present when the initial conversations occur regarding your project. This will prevent multiple, potentially conflicting inputs into the equation of your site solution.

If you have an existing topographic survey, make sure to show this to the professional. Consider acquiring a topographic plan if one does not exist. This will typically involve a survey by a competent land surveyor. The information that this plan will convey to the Landscape Architect will more than pay for its cost.

Next, if you have any specific or general ideas about your project, let the Landscape Architect understand your ideas.

Share your construction budget and any plans for phased implementation with your Landscape Architect. Be prepared to discuss your preferences, from plant types and bloom colors to materials like concrete, brick pavers, or stone.

Also, let them know your preferred architectural style—while not always feasible to replicate, this helps guide the design direction. Your input will ensure a more tailored and effective design process.

Design-bid is the type of professional practice that does conceptual drawings followed, upon approval, by construction drawings. The product is a complete set of drawings that describe a project that may be built by either professionals or elements built by owners, etc.

Details describe the conceptual elements in concrete terms. The construction details, with accompanying performance specifications, allow you to obtain apples-to-apples bids from competent contractors. The details can also be used by some owners to construct elements of the project themselves.

The detail should contain dimensions along with the physical depiction of the product, accompanied by descriptions of type, color, quality, and finish of the elements that comprise the finished object.

Construction drawings (CDs) are not a mandatory requirement for every project. However, the CDs are critical if the project is going to be bid on by contractors.

The construction drawing set will describe the grading and drainage (elevations and flow), horizontal control (x and y geometry), construction details, specifications for construction, planting plans, planting and soils specifications, and, if needed, the irrigation plan and lighting plan. Together these comprise the construction drawing set.

The complete set should be given to each bidder in the pool of potential builders, so that they might provide true apples-to-apples bids. We also keep a set of those drawings to check against upon project completion.

This ‘punch list’ makes note of every discrepancy between the plan and the constructed project. The benefit of retaining the services of KDG, LLC for this final check prior to payout of contractors is to make sure you have received what was desired, what was designed, and what was bid in the project.

Many firms produce conceptual landscape plans. These might be very loose and sketchy, or quite calculated and finished. I encourage you, the client, to consider the value of finished conceptual plans. The concept should be as close as possible to the finished product that you expect from the Landscape Architect.

KDG only produces the latter type of conceptual plans. The intent is to provide you with the closest depiction of the accurate plan that is possible at this level. For example, the grades should be accurate within minor degrees and the number of steps shown should be very close, if not equal, to the number needed and shown on the Construction Drawings.

The scale of your project should not influence your decision about the level of service you obtain. KDG, LLC has great pride in serving clients with projects that include all scales.

The attention to detail you receive will be equivalent regardless of the size of your project. The attention to small elements will make a small project appear to have been created as an integrated whole property.

The impact of parking, access, and egress, and stormwater impact and management all must be integrated with care, regardless of site scale.This level of detail makes small sites perceptually bigger. This gives them the level of care that allows them to be important places.

Assembling a team of skilled professionals early is essential for a successful project, ensuring efficiency, quality, and cost savings. KDG, LLC helps you build the right team for any project, having collaborated on teams of all sizes, from small groups to multi-disciplinary teams of over fifteen professionals. Our collaborative approach leads to a more refined, functional outcome, optimizing both time and resources.

KDG, LLC partners with architects to plan site layouts, access roads, parking, and utility routing, while protecting valuable site elements. We design strategies for construction access, temporary roads, and equipment staging, and work with utility engineers to ensure efficient, non-invasive utility placement.

Additionally, we coordinate with geotechnical engineers to protect sensitive areas and manage groundwater, and collaborate with regulatory agencies to minimize environmental impacts and align with community goals.

KDG, LLC is listed by Walworth County as a preferred provider of plans for riparian sites.