My Way
Six landscape architects tell us about the ins, outs, ups, and downs of life as a sole practitioner.

Edited by Linda McIntyre

What’s it like to strike out on your own as a sole practitioner?

After a bad, or even just humdrum, day at the office, many have dreamed of taking the entrepreneurial plunge and establishing their own one-person practice. You can focus on projects that mean the most to you, keep a flexible schedule, take more time off, do things your way.

Or can you?

To see what it’s really like working in what John Anderson, ASLA, calls “the ultimate small firm,” Landscape Architecture talked to a group of sole practitioners. Here’s what they told us.

“Lean and Mean” Is My Calling Card
John C. Anderson, ASLA
Anderson Design Inc. • Lawrenceville, Georgia
www.andersondesignatlanta.com

• Six years in solo practice; formerly worked in established landscape architecture firms in Atlanta

I worked for a number of established landscape architecture firms in Atlanta, but I always knew that eventually I would want to do my own thing.

My work breaks down as follows: 50 percent higher education/campus planning, 10 percent parks and recreation, 20 percent streetscapes, 10 percent office/commercial development, and 10 percent planned communities.

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