On Wednesday night a crew from the Arcadia office attended the first of what will be three events, titled ‘Conversations with Fellows’. This talk involved a panel style discussion with 3 AILA practitioners with over 100 years of experience between them.
After a brief background introduction of the three panelists, Garth Paterson (Paterson Design Strategies), Noel Corkery (Corkery Consulting), and Adrian Pilton (JPW) by past AILA National President and the evenings moderator, Leonard Lynch, the discussion turned to how each of these distinguished landscape architects
Having all entered the profession with diverse backgrounds and skills it was fascinating to hear how each of them had risen to the zenith of their profession, through many twist and turns in markets and careers, tracing the globe from the US to Asia and back to Australia.
There was a discussion around specialization within the profession which ended in agreement that it was really about ‘finding yourself’ or your place in the profession.
The conservation then turned to influences and aside from hearing Ian McHarg or James Weirick deliver inspirational words through the rain or a haze of cigarette smoke the panelists all referenced important books that had shaped their careers in one way or another. These included Christian Norberg-Schulz’s Towards a Phenomenolgy of Architecture, Kevin Lynch’s books, especially The Image of the City, John Ormsbee Simonds classic text, Landscape Architecture and last but not least, Ian McHarg’s seminal work, Design with Nature.
The perfect size of a landscape office was explored with answers ranging from 2 – 200. Noel added that modules of 5 was the key with a change of management required as this milestone was hit… a mold the Arcadia office currently sits outside of.
In the end the benefit of a long career in a profession they are all clearly passionate about is being able to pursue clients – not jobs. A good client is the key to a good job, which in turn is key to creating a good place.
Post written by Michael Barnettt