When did landscape architecture become a profession?

Landscape architecture has been a profession for over 160 years. In 1857, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux began work on America's first urban-design plan, Central Park in New York City. Their vision earned them the competition to design the grounds for America's "new Rome," Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., which they largely completed by 1863.

The profession has existed for tens of thousands of years, but what makes a person now a professional is the specific set of business skills.
There are two sets that matter most in landscape architecture:
1. the rendering skills, which typically involve understanding and color theory as well as photoshop or arc software--very high-end programs--or a pen and paper, depending on the client's needs; all of these renderings should be ethical depictions that do not contain exaggerations that would put an engagement at risk
2. the design process basics--drawing up contour plans or checking out existing site conditions during things like revised quadrants with topographical maps before getting into CAD layout on computers to ensure best use according to law.

Landscape architecture, one of the oldest professions in the world. The profession is recorded back as early as Ancient China, when Ho Tcheng was given title and live to design a mountain named "Hua Shan". One other notable mention is that during 17th century France it was natural for an aristocrat to have his own personal garden (which would be designed by himself or, less often by Philippe de Cherville) and hence would call himself a landscape gardener - this paralleled the contemporary usage of 'garden' which signified then any enclosure of ground, a grant for grazing animals or cultivated land.

According to the Society of American Landscape Architects (SALA), the profession dates back to the 1920s. The first issue of Outdoor Design magazine was published in November 1924, and contained articles on schools for landscapers as well as listings for rentals of lawn mowers and sheep who are used for lawn maintenance. It's clear that while we've come a long way from animal exploitation, there is still lots more work to be done

Landscape architecture became a profession in 1857 when Andrew Jackson Downing (one of America's leading architects) and Charles Eliot ( a landscape engineer for the British Royal Navy) were commissioned to design New York's Central Park. These two groundbreaking projects set the standards worldwide. Landscape, as an independent form of design today, was first recognized as such both as a profession and academically at Harvard University in 1941, although it had been taught before that time.

The profession of "landscape architecture" has been around for centuries, as a practice that includes both horticulture and architecture. The first published evidence of what is now known as landscape architecture appeared in 15th-century China during the Ming dynasty. Another example which can be traced to the beginning of the modern era is illustrated by Georgi Petrovich Vonov into his 1857 work, "Architecture and Gardening" which contributed design principles from Le Andraie's garden designs.