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Private Practitioners and Public Practice - Transportation Landscape Architecture in Practice

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Transportation Landscape Architecture, defined as the landscape architectural aspects of any highway, local roadway, transit, or trail projects, as practiced in the United States, typically involves a team of landscape architects working collaboratively to develop solutions to the environmental, aesthetic, and community aspects of the project. This critical, collaborative process of designing a transportation project should involve landscape architects from both local state Departments of Transportation (DOT) and frequently a team of private consultant landscape architects. It is imperative that the other design professions, primarily engineering (roadway, structural, drainage and utility engineers) include landscape architects as part of the planning and design teams to address the purpose and need of the project as it is crafted. It is the collaborative nature of the teams and the extent of the collaboration effort between state and private consultant landscape architects and other transportation professionals, that creates a successful project.