FAQ
Do I need a licensed landscape architect in the Hamptons, or can a designer do it?
Usually not. New York licenses the title "landscape architect" under Education Law Article 148, but the same law explicitly makes "landscape designer," "landscape gardener," "contractor" and "arborist" legal, unlicensed titles, and most residential planting design is done by people holding one of those. Where it actually matters is paperwork: Southampton Town's site-plan form names a landscape architect as an acceptable preparer; East Hampton Town's current instructions never do, and require no professional seal on a landscaping plan at all. Which town you are building in decides whether the license buys you anything on the permit itself.
Last updated · Reviewed by Bridgehampton Gardens
The law, plainly
New York State's Education Law, Title 8, Article 148 (§§7320–7328) protects the title "landscape architect," not the practice of landscape design itself. Getting the license takes a combined education-and-experience score of at least 12 units — a four-year accredited degree is worth 8 of those — plus passing the LARE exam administered by CLARB. What a licensed landscape architect is actually authorized to do, under §7321, is consultation and design work for land preservation, planting, grading and drainage; the law explicitly carves out structural design, which stays with architects and engineers.
Crucially, §7326 of the same law makes "landscape designer," "landscape gardener," "horticulturist," "nurseryman," "arborist" and "contractor" all legal, unlicensed titles and roles. Nothing in New York law requires anyone to hold the RLA license to design, plant or build a garden — it only stops them from calling themselves a "landscape architect" while doing it.
Where the license actually changes something: sealing a site plan
The practical difference shows up on paperwork, and it varies by town. East Hampton Town's current site-plan application instructions (revised April 2025) name a licensed architect or engineer for floor and elevation plans and a licensed land surveyor for the site plan and survey itself — a landscape architect is never named as an acceptable sealer of anything in the document, and the landscaping plan itself needs no professional seal at all, only a plant legend showing what stays and what's proposed.
Southampton Town's current application form (revised January 2025) reads differently: it names, verbatim, "Licensed Architect, Landscape Architect, Civil Engineer or Land Surveyor" as acceptable preparers of a site plan that may include landscape and grading plans. In Southampton, in other words, a landscape architect's seal is an explicitly recognized path; in East Hampton Town, it simply is not part of the process.
What this costs you in practice
Unlicensed, legal planting-design work runs $400–3,000 — meaningfully cheaper than a full landscape-architecture engagement, and the right fit for planting plans, small gardens and projects that do not involve structures, slope work or a jurisdiction's site-plan process. A licensed landscape architect's involvement tends to get called for by scope, not preference: a project with structures, real grading, drainage engineering or permitting is where the fuller (and more expensive) credential earns its cost.
The short version
Ask what your town's own paperwork requires before assuming either way. We ask, and tell you, before sending anyone.
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