Designer Profile: Barry Landry, ASLA

1.Name : Barry Landry, ASLA
2. Company Name: Root Design Company

3. email address : barry@rootdesigncompany.com

4. Website: http://www.rootdesigncompany.com/

5. Where do you live and work? Austin, Texas

6. Where did you go to school? Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge BLA 1982

7. What type of practice do you have? or do? Primarily private high-end residential estates plus a few unique and interesting commercial projects

8. What is your favorite aspect of residential landscape design? People and plants, and especially "plant people" :-)

9. What are the current issues affecting landscape architects in Texas? Drought and water conservation, fire prevention and design, biofiltering and "green" building

10. What types of marketing does your firm engage in? What works best and why? We rarely spend on direct advertisement, most work is through word-of-mouth among our established clientele, also producing editorials, articles and having feature stories of our work in publications such as exclusive magazines and gardening books helps. Having practiced in Austin for eighteen years, much new work comes from long-time clients, their families and friends. We have a handsome project sign that also does the trick in enticing potential new clients.

11. Your firm is known for pool and water design, what should landscape architects know about working with water? Landscape architects should consider water as a building material just like stone, brick, plants or tile. We as landscape architects already have to deal with living (and dying), growing and perishable materials with our use of plants in design. Water is another material that has an ever-changing, ephemeral quality that can be molded, captured, guided, lighted and played with for unlimited desired effects. Water is viewed as an important program element in developing a thorough Master Plan - from drainage mitigation to highly ornamental and recreational water features.

12. Tell us about your 25 year career?

My career history began in Naples, Florida, interning with one of the all-time masters of residential design, Jack Lieber, FASLA. Under Jack's mentorship, I realized the magnitude of really great residential landscape architecture. During the mid-eighties, landscape architects had not gained much respect as "fine gardeners" and an interest in residential design set one apart (not in a good way) from the big-gun trendy planners clique, so I felt as though I was a fish out of water with my lofty goals of residential design in mind. I decided that in order to continue my education beyond school, I was going to attempt to infiltrate big firms with this new "American Garden' attitude. I took a job with the New Orleans office of EDAW and enjoyed working on plans for the World's Fair in 1984, among other projects. I headed a team which won first place for the design of the New Orleans Botanic Gardens, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1985. This led to a position with the SWA group in Sausalito, California.

I lived and worked in the San Francisco area for three years, all-the-while experiencing the great work of Tommy Church, Garrett Eckbo, Robert Royston and Isabelle Green -- to name a few, first-hand.These influences strengthened my desire to make horticulture and planting design my forte and passion. While at the SWA group, I was able to quickly claim a niche in handling planting design and implementation. SWA had such cool projects all over the country that it kept me constantly learning new plants and design concepts. Often I would be granted an assignment that had already been detailed hardscape-wise for me to "fill in the blanks" with plants to soften the overall harsh effect of too much architecture and paving. This allowed me to do site analyses in situ, flying to wherever the site was to get a better idea of appropriateness of plants, etc. I managed to work on the Reagan Library, Arizona Center in Phoenix, a couple of Beverly Hills estates and a number of other high-profile projects throughout California and the west.

I left California two weeks after the earthquake in 1989 and moved to Austin to work with James David, landscape architect, in his design firm associated with the nursery, Gardens. James is an incredible, well-traveled plantsman who has impeccable taste and incredible design panache. I was fortunate to work on high-end residential projects with rare and unusual plants and colorful native stone as my palette. After riding the high-tech dot-com bubble for five years, I worked with Rosa Finsley, landscape architect on the World Birding Center facilities in south Texas, renovations to San Antonio's Market Square ad Main Plaza, estates in Austin and the exclusive neighborhoods of Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills and have since settled down to working with Root Design Company, a landscape architecture and swimming pool implementation firm, where I am Senior Landscape Architect. Current projects include adaptive re-use of a warehouse complex for the new offices of Alamo Architects and OCO Architects in the trendy South Flores District, ranch and estate gardens in the central Texas area and beyond.

What advice do you have for a recent graduate considering a career in residential landscape design?
My advice for new graduates would be to broaden your horizons and push the envelope every opportunity you have to ultimately carve a niche within this profession to have the ability to express your own personal passion. Learning by no means stops once you get the sheepskin...it is just the beginning...follow your bliss.

"The only limit to your garden is at the boundaries of your imagination" - Thomas Church, Landscape Architect