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Sustainability has become a hallmark for many building industry firms in the Pacific Northwest. And some Portland-based landscape architecture firms have learned in the past few years that it is a competitive advantage outside of the region.

When the recent recession struck, no building industry sector was spared from fallout. But nationally, landscape architects were hit the hardest. Since 2007, they have lost more jobs than any other profession in the building industry, according to a study released recently by the American Institute of Architects.

Many Oregon landscape architecture firms, however, say they’ve been able to buck the national trend because they have expertise in sustainable design, specifically in regard to stormwater management and green roofs.

鈥淭here are extraordinary regional differences in terms of unemployment rates in landscape architecture,鈥� said Jeff Schnabel, president of the . 鈥淭he landscape architects in this region have national and international recognition for skills and abilities in terms of doing innovative work that other regions might not.鈥�

The skills and abilities of local firms are attractive to developers in other regions seeking to build projects with minimal carbon footprints, Schnabel said.

Often, developers settle on generic roof and water systems, sometimes simply using holes filled with gravel to contain runoff water. But local firms can individually tailor systems to environments, said Doug Macy, president of , which does a third of its work out of state.

Walker Macy prevailed over a number of San Francisco Bay Area firms for a marine science campus project at the University of California-Santa Cruz. Macy said the firm won the bid because it was the only candidate that would provide an on-staff mechanical engineer to handle the project’s complex seawater system.

鈥淲e’re a little bit ahead of the curve; when hiring someone from the Northwest, the perception is that these folks have more of a track record,鈥� he said. 鈥淟ocal architects export their ability to be cost effective and innovative as possible.鈥�

Because of their experience, Northwest firms have established long-standing partnerships with companies that develop projects in other regions. Walker Macy, for example, performs projects for Vulcan Real Estate, a multimillion-dollar company that primarily develops properties in Washington and Arizona.

On a smaller scale, , a two-person firm owned by Jason King, has a partnership with a roofing company in California. The firm, which recently designed a green wall for a medical center in Oakland, Calif., and has another project set to start soon in Los Angeles, is able to maintain this partnership because of its innovative work, King said.

鈥淲hen you’re looking at an economic downtown in Portland or Oregon, it isn’t going to affect (landscape architects) as much because they go other places to do that work,鈥� he said. 鈥淏eing able to go down to California and to offer a lot of the lessons we’ve learned in Oregon is definitely a market niche that helps to get, keep and expand business.鈥�

Landscape architects outside of Oregon have suffered greater cutbacks because of their dependency on housing projects, according to Nancy Somerville, executive vice president of national ASLA. Somerville acknowledged that Oregon firms, which 鈥渉ave been in the lead for awhile,鈥� are staying afloat in part because of sustainable design expertise.

However getting work in other cities is not always easy, said Melinda Graham, principal at . Clients often believe landscape architecture is region specific, she said.

鈥淭he design profession in the Pacific Northwest has specific sets and knowledge basis that are exportable, but clients often relate landscape architecture to plants, so they say, 鈥榃hat does an Oregon firm know about the desert of Arizona?’ 鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou have to be able to educate your client to let them know that we are a design profession and can adjust to specific regions.鈥�

The ability to educate clients and the public is another reason why Northwest firms are coveted by developers in other regions, Macy said.

鈥淚t’s our ability to communicate on how we deal with stormwater and other strategies (that is appealing),鈥� he said. 鈥�(We explain that) these problems become an element of the design landscape that you deal with, but you can deal with them in a creative way.鈥�