Walk into any public hearing on a data center these days and you'll notice something before the staff report even finishes: half the room has already made up its mind. Nobody's talking about the site. They're talking about how they feel about it.

So the real question was never should development occur. It's how should development occur. That distinction is the whole ballgame, and it's the foundation of everything that follows.

If you're studying landscape architecture right now, you're entering a profession that may change more during your career than it has during mine — and I started when a set of construction documents required a small army of people to produce.

I was on my second cup of coffee, scrolling through social media the way I do most mornings before the phone starts ringing, and I ran into the same thing I run into almost every day now. Ad after ad for landscape design services. Some of them were just pretty renderings and planting plans — nothing wrong with that. But plenty of them were selling the whole package: pools, retaining walls, drainage, grading, lighting, hardscape plans, construction details, the works. A few w

I have nothing against landscape software (or AI for that matter). I use it. I appreciate it. I have watched it evolve from basic drafting tools into impressive programs that can produce beautiful plans, three dimensional models, and polished renderings that look like photographs. In many ways, this technology has made it easier to communicate ideas and help clients visualize possibilities.