ARCHITECT vs. DESIGN-BUILD vs. DESIGNER
There is a large difference between an Architect & a Designer. Anyone that tells you differently is not being honest or is flat out lying.
This post is going to take some time. But hang in there I will get it correct, why? Because I am a custom Builder, a Designer, a Design-Builder and yes, a Licensed Architect! A Landscape Architect to be exact….
In Brief and In General for California:
A Licensed Landscape Architect:
In my opinion. An Architect has to work very hard to earn the License. Before you even have the guts to apply for the License, you must have successfully completed years of study, typically at the university level (4 years’ worth, or more) and received your bachelor’s degree (some jurisdictions may require a Masters or other Post Graduate degrees). You then must work under the direct supervision of a Licensed Landscape Architect, Architect or Licensed Landscape Design-Build firm, depending on your State requirements this could be 4 to 7 years, 6 being typical for California. After that you may have scratched the surface and you may be able to get to the gate keepers, the licensing board(s). They may kick you back out and ask you for MORE education and MORE experience. Thats not even the hard part. The testing is long, very expensive and is conducted by two Boards: The L.A.R.E. and the L.A.T.C. (national & state). You will need to pass a battery of exams, at the National level 4-5 (it changes every 3 to 4 years) and they set the testing periods, so if you fail you can’t come back the next day and try again. You must wait 3-4 months before you can try again. The national exam encompasses all 50 states and Canada. The exams are not easy. So, if you are not broke or have not given up and you finally pass all of the national exams, then, only then MAY you qualify for the State level exam, the C.S.E. So, you will need to re-apply to the California board, they must accept you and you must pay their fee(s). If you pass the state exam and have not given up or gone bankrupt yet… then you will be subject to the DOJ/FBI background check. After all that work, this can put a stop to your licensing! Back to the tests, they are highly technical, expensive and very long 3 to 4 hours (back in the day, in speaking with other Landscape Architects, they told me that the tests were longer, a full day!). There is no “Study Guide” that is published by either board that tells you what will be tested. So, your studies are vast and wide. The boards are very candid about this, and all exams are hard to study for and the number of books you are “suggested” as reading material is mind numbing (code books, and dry technical books, see my reading list below Photo)
A Designer:
My 3-year-old daughter woke up one day and said, “Dad, today I am a Designer, like you!”. I said, “Ok, you are.” And that is it. To be a designer, or a landscape designer, you don’t need anything. You just wake up and you can be one today and not be one tomorrow. Similar to an artist. I was an artist in Kindergarten, I am an artist today and I may be an artist tomorrow.
To my knowledge there is not one Jurisdiction, be it an agency from a town, city, county, state or federal level, that will take a drawing from a “designer” as a formal submittal. With out a professional license, they don’t take you seriously and neither do Insurance agencies (this comes into play with Errors and Omissions, General Liability and WC coverage). A designer has Zero responsibility or authority, specifically to a Licensed Contractor, Engineer or Landscape Architect.
A Design-Builder (License Contractor):
Similar to a Landscape Architect, but education, experience and test levels are not as difficult when compared to an Architects license(s). In California, you have to qualify for the testing through the CSLB. So, you will need to prove your education, prove that you are legally here and allowed to work in this nation, you will then need to prove that you have the necessary experience, after working under a Licensed Contractor, an Architect or an Engineer. You can test for 100 or so trades, the landscape trade is the C-27 and the General Contractor trade is the B and the General Engineering Trade is the A. Then you can approach the gate keepers at the CSLB, apply pay the fees, pass an DOJ background check, and pass two tests (the Law & the Trade).
All State level jurisdictions, and below. allow for a Licensed Landscape Contractor to produce and submit Architectural plans, Construction drawing/details and Permit packages, in other words, all Trades can submit drawings, that is, IN YOUR TRADE ONLY… for permits. But there is a catch. The contractor is accepting all responsibility for the drawings (similar to an Architect) and that contractor MUST build it. In other words, a licensed landscape contractor cannot submit plans for permit and then distribute them for bidding to other contractors for Estimates and walk away from the project. Nor can they design something, hand it over to the client, get paid and leave the client to get estimates from other Licensed Contractors. You designed it, You build it, you take full responsibility for it!!! A licensed contractor can NOT call themselves a “Landscape Architect”, an “Architect” or an “Engineer”, they cannot advertise or use the words “Landscape Architect, Architectural, Architect” or similar, in order that a client may assume that they are a Licensed Architect. Again, California Law is very clear about these Titles. I have a Landscape Architect license and a Landscape Contractor license so, yes that allows me to be with in the Law, and I earned the Title of a Landscape Architect, Landscape Contractor (unlicensed people cannot be called Contractors), and a General Contractor (B), I earned all 3 of these Titles and licenses.
An Architect, Landscape Architect on the other hand, perform professional services including construction documents, drawings, reports, consultations, planning and so on. When plans are complete and submitted for permits, then they take responsibility for their design (errors and omissions), that is exactly why Architects and Engineers get a Stamp, and California law requires that they use it on each sheet!!! That stamp/seal serves to tell the world that “I am a Professional” and “I take responsibility”. An Architect can NOT act like a Contractor. They cannot build or act in the capacity of a licensed builder, not in California. And state Law is very clear about this. An Architect or Landscape Architect can act in the capacity of a Contractor only when they have obtained a Contractors Licensed in a specific trade, yet they (like Contractors) can only act in the capacity that they are licensed in such as Plumbing. A plumber cannot act like a Landscape Contractor. An Electrician cannot act in the capacity of a Drywaller, and so on.
I am not a Doctor so I do not walk around the earth saying that I am. That would be immoral, unethical and downright evil.
Below is a chart that may help you visualize this post a bit better:
STATE OF CALIFORNIA - PERMITTED PRACTICES IN CALIFORNIA - FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT THE CALIFORNIA CODE AND CONSUMER REGULATIONS WEBSITE. THEY HAVE AN EXTENSIVE LIST…