2025 RRSLA INTERNSHIP BLOG

POST TRIP THOUGHTS: - Hiking into the canyon is easily the hardest thing I've ever done.      + If you plan on going and want to go into the canyon, come prepared, or else it'll be hell - The stars at night were underwhelming - 24 hr drive is no joke - The outer rim was nice and didn't feel like an expedition - MREs aren't half bad - Sleeping in the tent at night was quite nice Overall 7/10

Say what you will about my company but hah, they got perks. Two weeks ago, they flew me out to charlotte, NC for our official internship week along with 22 other interns. It was an official introduction to who LandDesign is and how they function. They took us on a tour around the office (five stories tall omg) and then on a bus tour of charlotte to show us some of our main projects! I have never heard a soul speak ill of Charlotte or North Carolina, so I was super excited. But just to break the mold, let me tell you, Charlotte sucks. The whole place smells like piss and there is nothing to do. And, just a side piece of advice that you can use on the daily, do not let scary, short men trap you on the street while you're alone and pull you into conversation. Never EVER trust a short man at first impression.  But anyways, my trip was still so sick. I don't know how to explain this the right way, but we were there for three total days and I think I have walked out with lifelong fri...

Hello Friends.... (Jim Nantz voice) Fun that we meet here once again... Assignment Updates: WEEK TWENTY ·          Shannon invited me to attend an LSP (Louisiana State Police) meeting in Lafayette, but I couldn't attend due to a JD Clifton zoom meeting where we discussed some more details for the 30% CD submittal on Thursday. ·          We moved from Land F/X to Vectorworks for this project, so Amy and I are receiving periodic crash courses on the program from Conner who primarily works in this software. ·          We divided up tasks, Amy handled grading, Conner focused on hardscape, while I focused on landscaping. I transferred our preliminary planting plan that I made from Land F/X. I then was tasked with mapping the paths with “Stakes” which works with GPS to help that contractor precisely map the points on the site. Lastly, I roughly attempted a layout plan ...

 Blog #7 - Jalen Winburn Hello all, The past few weeks have been a little more exciting at the internship as I have been moving back into SketchUp and working on a modeling few different projects. It is really cool to see CAD linework transform into a 3d model of a site as you begin to see the different spaces come together. I have also spent some time doing construction documents for various projects. The fun part about this is getting the opportunity to choose site furnishings such as lights, chairs, tables, trash cans etc. I like having to reach out to sales reps and talk to them about the specifics on site furnishings and working through with them to develop details that will work with the site conditions. I also recently finished up my intern project which I think turned out really well. It was fun to do a project on my own, but it did sort of feel like a school project at times which wasn't the most exhilarating. Nevertheless, I had to present in front of the whole company wh...

  Hello! Happy Summer! It is finally jump in the lake after work weather. Things are still going smoothly in the office. We just got a new Summer intern so it is nice not being the new guy anymore. I just announced my final day and I am so sad to leave this paradise.  Classic intern work featuring cleaning out the old office (it was wretched, especially compared to the new one) and picking up cake for office birthdays. It was awesome to see my administrator within my firm introduce the legend Raymond Jungles the other night. Great presentation. I didn't realize he learned a lot about what he does working under Roberto Burle Marx. Makes sense with the brazilian Jungle style. Returning landscape design to its native form. This naturalist perspective is the reason I am enjoying designing residential gardens. I helped with a conceptualizing a new planting plan for one of our projects along Katy Trail that had a lot of vegetation removed. I identified many oaks, cypresses, elms map...