336 LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



architect. If the landscape architect is a better critic than he is an 

 artist, this may be his best way of working ; but otherw'ise it would 

 save much time and put more of the individuality of the landscape 

 architect himself into his work, if he were to take time personally to 

 master the general aspects of the job and himself to prepare sketches 

 to be worked up by his office force.* 



Since an assistant often works on several jobs in the same day, 

 and since it is necessary to know how much expense for assistants' 

 time is properly chargeable to each job, it is a common custom in land- 

 scape architects' offices to pay the assistants by the hour and to have 

 them hand in daily or weekly a time-card showing how many hours 

 they have worked on the various jobs with which they have been con- 

 cerned. There will be a certain amount of time not chargeable to the 

 client, and this is charged to the office and becomes a part of the un- 

 differentiated expense like heat and rent. 

 Office Reference The landscape architect files reference material for two reasons : 

 Material because he cannot remember it all himself, and because, if he could, 



he could not spare time to explain it to his office force. The collections, 

 then, are a sort of general office memory, and the ideal collections should 

 work like a man's memory, giving the required information quickly 

 and completely, no matter from what point of view it is sought. Any 

 approach to this ideal will mean careful arrangement of the material 

 according to some definite system, which should be as simple, and 

 therefore as generally usable by the office force, as the mass of the data 

 will allow. 



The material to be arranged is of two kinds : that pertaining to 

 particular clients and that for general reference. Under the first head 

 are plans, planting lists, contracts and specifications, estimate books, 

 reports of visits, photographs, and so on. Under the second are pho- 

 tographs of general interest, trade catalogues including nursery cata- 

 logues, perhaps samples of materials, — brick, tile, garden pottery, and 

 so on, — ^ pamphlets, portfolios of plates, books, magazines, and maps. 

 The amount of material kept in the landscape architect's office will 

 depend to some extent on the value and availability of other collec- 

 tions in public libraries or similar places of reference, but most of the 



* cf. p. 340-341- 



