Amber Park has been a member of the Pickering Associates team since 2014. A 2008 graduate from West Virginia University in Landscaping Architecture, Amber has serviced our Civil Engineering Department as a designer. Amber bounced between various firms until coming to Pickering along with husband Dan Park who is also a Landscape Architect that services Pickering’s Surveying Department. Amber has been working to receive her Professional Landscape Architect License for the past 3 years. When speaking to Amber on her journey she commented, “Pickering Associates was actually the first place I have worked that offered to pay for my Professional Landscape Architect Licensing, through my Continuing Education Fund that they provide us.” She was able to work and take some time off for her new born child, in the time she started her test and now can say she is a officially licensed.
The process to receive her license has not been an easy one, Amber had to complete 4 different tests, on various areas such as Project Management, Site Inventory and Analysis, Design, and Construction Documentation Integrating. Some topics are only offered during certain times of the year. The tests really highlight the overall standards required, safety factors, grading and the documentation standards for Landscape Architecture. Though Amber has worked in Civil Engineering Design, which is a similar field to Landscape Architecture, it differs in the realm of Sanitation systems and wastewater development. A Professional License for a Landscape Architect requires that your college degree must specifically be Landscaping Architecture. Amber’s completed application and documentation were submitted to the state and the board then decreed if her license is valid and accepted.
Amber can now say she is a Professional Landscape Architect, which can mean a great deal for her career. “Though Landscape Architecture is not greatly different from Civil Engineering, it is a more specific field of design. It includes master planning design and development for college campuses, golf courses, stream restorations, the redevelopment of stream beds to ensure sediment doesn’t block water ways and under water pipe lines, as well as site planting designs such as a company’s outdoor ascetic plant design. Those are just a few of the services that I can now offer and seal the drawings for clients.” Amber described. Though currently Pickering Associates does not have an official Landscape Architecture Department, the company is very excited to offer such expertise to our clients and team as they continue to grow and develop the company. Pickering Associates is happy to congratulate Amber on this great success and is looking forward to her new skill levels to contribute to future projects and company development.