Landscape architects – everyone's seen their work in Bermuda, but few people know what it is they do.

To solve that problem, landscape architects all over the world have organised April as Landscape Architecture Awareness Month.

To learn more about landscape architects, The Royal Gazette recently caught up with David Cox, one of five Bermudian members of the Bermuda Association of Landscape Architects (BALA).

"There are lots of components to landscape architecture," said Mr. Cox. "It is a bit of an unrecognised profession. A lot of people don't understand exactly what it involves."

Landscape Architecture encompasses the analysis, planning, design and management of the natural and built environment.

Typical projects might include academic campuses, conservation projects, resorts and residential areas, among other things.

April is the designated month for landscape architecture awareness because tomorrow marks the birthday of the man considered to be the father of the profession, Frederick Law Olmstead. He died in 1903 having designed Central Park in New York City, among other places.

To celebrate his birthday, members of BALA will do a native and endemic planting in the woodland at the Bermuda Botanical Gardens from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

The public are invited to help plant and learn more about Bermuda's native and endemic plants.

Mr. Cox has been in the profession for about 15 years. He received a scholarship from the Bermuda Garden Club and studied landscape architecture at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

After university he worked at a large firm in London, England for about five years, before returning to Bermuda. "When I started getting into it, I had an interest in horticulture," he said. "When I learned about landscape architecture, I was intrigued by the mixture of horticulture, design and business."

But he said that horticulture is often just a relatively small part of what he does, depending on the situation.

"I have worked on a real variety of projects in Bermuda," he said. "I worked on a couple of school projects, and commercial development. I did some work for the Corporation of Hamilton. I did a lot of urban renewal. I do quite a lot of residential work."

He said he is most proud of work he did on a mammoth project in the United Kingdom.

"It involved the Manchester City Centre," he said. "That was a very successful project."

In Bermuda, he recently helped with a housing development in Southampton called 'Whale Watch'. He worked alongside the architectural firm Berg Design.

"I was involved in the layout of the infrastructure, planting and pathways and traffic circulation."

But he said in Bermuda he most enjoys conservation management plans. He is currently working on one of these projects in Tucker's Town.

"Aubrey McClendon, who owns the Castle Point Property, has been environmentally improving his own property in Tucker's Town," said Mr. Cox. "He has taken out the invasive plants and replaced them with native and endemic plants. We prepared a conservation management plan.

"We got it approved by the planning department. We oversaw the contractors implementing it. It is a phased approach. The biggest phase is completed."

Mr. Cox said landscape architects have a responsibility to future generations.

"They also have a responsibility to the environment, not just to nature, but also the socio-cultural environment and also the economic environment," he said.

"There is a real lack of understanding of how important public spaces are in particular," he said. "And how they improve the quality of life for people. They also have the potential to help market Bermuda as a whole."

He said Bermuda needed more projects like the little park being built by the Corporation of Hamilton on the corner of the City Hall car park.

"That type of project is lacking in the city of Hamilton," he said. "By creating more places like that, we can create a better urban environment that attracts more tourists."

He said urban renewal projects like this little park, if done in the correct way, have been proven to reduce crime.

"The Victorian green park approach was to build a park and then put a wrought iron fence around it, locking it at night," said Mr. Cox. "We now know that this can actually fester crime and make it more of a problem.

"There have been new approaches to this, that can reduce crime and have long term benefits for the public, socially and culturally."

For those who want to learn more about landscape architecture as a profession, there will be a visual display and information in the Botanical Gardens Visitors Centre this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Also that day, there will be a walk through the Botanical Gardens at 5.30 pm to identify and discuss how to use native and endemic plants in designed landscapes. Meet in front of Botanical Gardens Visitors' Centre.

For more information contact Sarah Vallis Pietila at vallispietila@logic.bm.