Ask Carole Boleman what she does for a living and she'll give you a short answer -- she's a landscape architect. Ask Boleman to define her job, however, and you'd better have some time on your hands.
"There is no easy answer about what a landscape architect does," explains Boleman. "It's the most misunderstood profession in the world. Most people think it's a fancy word for mowing lawns for a living."
Boleman says even the people who have worked in this industry all their lives have difficulty explaining what it is landscape architects do. So why is landscape architecture so tough to define?
"On one hand, we are artists creating designs for land usage that look attractive. On the other hand, we're engineers planning the usage of space. But we are also ecologists, since we temper the effect all this will have on the natural environment."
If this sounds like it requires a huge range of knowledge, that's because it does. Landscape architects have to be well-rounded people. "Somewhere between nature, art and science lies landscape architecture," says landscape architect Vince De Georgio.
Landscape architecture is a challenging profession that offers a lot of variety. As a result, a professional must be skilled in a number of areas. Design, ecology, engineering, drafting and geography are the basics of this profession.
"You really have to be a broad thinker to do this job," says De Georgio. "You have to be able to use both sides of your brain."
Just because they have trouble defining their job doesn't mean they have trouble carrying it out. Boleman is a very busy residential landscape architect who has won several awards for her work. Her success comes as no surprise; it's the product of years of study and experience. In fact, you could say Boleman has been making her mark in landscape architecture since she was five years old.
"My father was a builder and he always worked with landscape architects. I used to go to the site with my father and follow [the landscape architects] around, watching them supervise as the construction was going on. There are a number of houses all over Indiana with my kid-sized, five-year-old footprints in their concrete walkways."
Thanks to her early interest, Boleman began to prepare for a career in landscape architecture while she was still in high school. "I took some biology courses in school, and I found myself really drawn to the sections on plant life. I started taking art and drafting courses as soon as I could, and got myself a summer job working for a landscape architecture firm."
By the time she applied to the landscape architecture program at Purdue University, says Boleman, "I was really aware of what I was getting myself into." After graduating from university and putting in a few years as an intern with a local landscape architecture firm, Boleman opened up her own residential landscape architecture company.
As a residential landscape architect, Boleman plans and designs subdivisions and individual homes or estates. She begins her work before any changes are made to the land and plans where the building, driveways, walkways, decorative work and plant life will be.
Being able to look at a vacant piece of land and plan how it will appear once landscaping is complete takes a great deal of creativity and knowledge. "You have to have the artistic eye to envision the possibilities for the finished product," says Boleman, "but it's more than that.
"You have to analyze the climate of the site, which way the sunlight falls, the soil, and the natural vegetation. You need to discern how changes will affect the natural environment, and design your plans so the building will have as little impact on the ecological balance as possible."
Landscape architects often deal with delicately balanced ecological systems, such as land with a lot of vegetation or a stream running through it. Finding environmentally friendly solutions to building can be tough, but Boleman believes this is one of the pleasures of her job.
"It's an amazing thing to be able to observe this natural balance and to be able to work with it. It's like being a mediator between humans and Mother Nature."
Sometimes this mediation role becomes a literal one for Boleman. Landscape architects work closely with their clients and their client's building contractor to come up with a design and final product the client can enjoy and afford. While this relationship is usually a good one, Boleman says conflicts can arise if client and contractor want to go ahead with a project that is environmentally unsound.
"Once I was working on an estate site on a heavily forested acreage. The client wanted to place the house far back on the land, and we had to plan a driveway to go all the way through to the house. I came to the site one morning and found the contractor preparing to bulldoze all the trees down to make the driveway."
Bulldozing the area for the driveway would have entailed knocking down hundreds of trees, and Boleman was very concerned about how this would affect the ecological balance of the acreage.
"I explained my concerns to the contractor and the client, and both of them were concerned that the drive couldn't be done any other way, but they agreed to let me take care of the driveway. My staff and I hand-tagged and hand-cut the trees and created a lovely winding drive through the woods with minimal effect to the forest.
"It was very rewarding to be able to show that the job could be done without a lot of damage."
Boleman says this was just one of a number of rewarding moments in her career as a landscape architect. She's looking forward to many more.
"I get excited about coming into work in the morning. Each day offers new challenges and new rewards."