The Art of Measuring

Image: http://www.landscapedesignlab.com/article01b.htm

Measuring. It takes some patience and skill. In grad school, I learned how to measure properties for base maps like it was a science--it had to be exact, error-free, and clear. After all, someone had to read all the jumbled numbers and writing later in order to create the map. But, since I can't ask my professor the nit-picky questions anymore, I found that a great reference is the book Residential Landscape Architecture: Design Process for the Private Residence (Booth and Hess, 2008). The art of measuring and base map preparation is detailed in 47-page chapter. Needless to say, I went by the book my first time, and it took me 4 hours to measure my first the property alone.

Skip forward 3 months, and I'm a design intern now. I accompanied my boss to measure a site today, and it was fast and furious. It was also 40 degrees and raining. It only took an hour for us to scribble down some numbers on soggy graph paper, was not at all precise, and I had a heck of a time translating the info onto the base map when I got back to the office.

Lesson learned: I'm gonna do it my way next time--or at least an abbreviated version of the previous 4-hour long process.