Invisible Labor

At Reed Hilderbrand, we care immensely about the craft and endurance of our work. As a practice committed to an expanded definition of site that includes its history, ecology, and form, we are also committing to an expanded definition of craft that includes the craftsman. We acknowledge that, historically, the hands of those who build and maintain our work have been largely invisible. Despite our deep respect for our construction partners, we have not often enough credited, represented, or grappled with the needs of the people laboring in our landscapes—and this is something we are committed to examining.

Guest workers can spend up to 9 months of the year in the United States working on a single project.

In her widely read article in the Journal of Landscape Architecture titled “Invisible Labor: Precarity, Ethnic Division, and Transformative Representation in Landscape Architecture Work”, Michelle Franco describes a mismatch between the proclaimed social aims of landscape architecture and the labor realities of construction and maintenance. She notes that the construction industry relies on manual laborers whose work situation is often characterized by precarity. Manual laborers operate at a social and spatial distance from the professionals who intellectually craft the landscape, and are typically excluded from the visualization, knowledge production, and care of landscape architecture as a discipline (Franco, M. 2022).

Last year we embarked on a collaboration with Michelle Franco that examined design processes ranging from contracts, documentation, and communication processes. This effort culminated in part in the pamphlet linked above and a 2025 OSU Knowlton school exhibition featuring both RH and Terremoto work, but it all started with a simple step: getting to know the laborers better.

Much of what we have learned from contractors and their teams may not be new to anyone paying attention to the construction field but is nonetheless important to understand and highlight. We learned that, similar to other construction fields, many landscape contractors rely on a federal guest worker program through the H2B visa for their labor force. This visa has been crucial in supplying a labor-force for the construction industry, but the unpredictability of the lottery system creates challenges for both employees and employers. Should the guest workers not be selected in the lottery, employers risk the loss of knowledgeable workers, often scrambling to find a workforce at all. Meanwhile even when selected, employees face instability and limited leverage, knowing that speaking out might result in not being invited back. While these issues go beyond our disciplinary scopes, we are exploring ways to mitigate these challenges by engaging socially to reduce isolation and increase sharing knowledge to navigate an increase of expertise.

After having worked for X months on a residential construction project in the Northeast and building an strong relation with contractors and laborers. We were able to share and learn….. Add context prelude (length of relationship, why here): We also took a simple but fundamental step in forming a connection with one of the landscape crews -sharing a meal. What we learned in this space was much more personal. We learned the name of their hometown in Guatemala, that some had never left their home country before, and that Kʼicheʼ is their first language while Spanish is their second or third language. We also discovered that stonework is a familiar tradition in their hometown given its location near a dormant volcano that once deposited a lot of stone, and working with stone in the US creates an interchange of skills with the masons back home.

Breaking bread and sharing thoughts together.

Meaningfully, they were most excited and satisfied about the project components that were the most challenging, required the most skill, the most conceptualization, and the most intensive physical labor. The artistic act of puzzling together heavy slabs of fieldstone into an organic pattern became an opportunity to prove their craftmanship capacity and grow their skills and portfolio. Add note re: some drawings being diagrammatic so they have to interpret artistically.

The craft that we value for its beauty—the work that reveals the qualities of natural materials, has ‘hand’, and shows variability—is also a venue for agency for the laborers.

This experience has led to an important realization: labor-intensive work is not inherently problematic when safety precautions are taken. But laborers do face demoralizing interactions when their skills are underestimated or designers require that work be taken down or re-done, which often stems from issues in communication. With this in mind, we took a close look at our communication processes.

During construction, the typical communication flow passes from designer to project manager or foreman, in English, and then to the Spanish-speaking laborers via translation tools and miming or via an intermediary bilingual English-Spanish speaking foreman to the laborers. This flow often does not include direct designer-laborer conversations. We also rely on construction documentation drawings and specifications as our primary tools, but crew members often do not see drawings, and many would struggle to understand them because of the language and training barrier.

Translating design into built work requires navigating the challenging realities of construction flows and charts.

This gap in communication means that laborers often have not been introduced to the work in a way that allows them to fully understand the design intent, raise questions as they work, or grow their knowledge about landscape design. If we show precedents and renderings to our clients to communicate design intent, why not use the same or similar tools to communicate with laborers? If we take a moment to describe upfront the expectations for cut pavers at an edge, or triangular planting spacing for groundcover directly to the crew, would that not better set the project up for success?

Different tools to share with laborers and engage them in the conceptual process of the built work.

In response, we are piloting a set of easy-to-implement laborer engagement guidelines that are intended to make space for direct designer-laborer communication during construction administration. The first step is to approach the contractor about the desire for increased engagement with laborers. With that initial connection made, at key points during construction, such as prior to the commencement of grading, paving or planting, we propose to gather with the full team for a short time to share drawings, models, and to provide an opportunity for questions. These guidelines lay out step by step recommendations including sample language and an abbreviated English to Spanish glossary.

Download RH Guidelines

While not all the crews we work with are composed of recent immigrants, these principles are universal. The goal is to bridge communication gaps between designers and laborers, to build respect and agency for those who perform hands-on work, and to cultivate a more compassionate, holistic culture of craft. Terremoto Landscape, who works at the forefront of inclusive labor practices, calls “for a fundamental reimagining of how professional practice is structured” and asks landscape architects to both consider the needs of laborers and acknowledge the skills and wisdom that laborers bring (Terremoto. 2021). We at RH believe that it is critical to recognize the depth of craft involved in building and maintaining landscapes —whether it is paving, wall construction, or grading—and to ask laborers what they excel at, so their expertise can inform and enrich the design process.

The craft of landscape architecture is a collaborative endeavor that extends beyond the intellectual work of designers to the hands-on expertise of laborers. By fostering direct communication between designers and laborers, we can elevate the craft as a shared, dynamic process that honors the contributions of all involved. This shift requires us to reimagine our professional practice, starting with making space for more meaningful interactions, acknowledging the full range of skills, and ultimately building landscapes that reflect both intellectual and physical craftsmanship.

Bibliography

Franco, Michelle A. (2022). Invisible Labor: Precarity, Ethnic Division, and Transformative Representation in Landscape Architecture Work. Landscape Journal. 41 (1), 95-111. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/lj.41.1.95

USAFacts Team. (2025, January 29). Which industries employ the most immigrant workers?. USAFacts. Retreived on March 26, 2025. https://usafacts.org/articles/which-industries-employ-the-most-immigrant-workers/

Terremoto. (2021, April 14). Landscape Architecture Has a Labor Acknowledgement Problem. Metropolis. https://metropolismag.com/viewpoints/landscape-architecture-labor-terremoto/

Credits

Featured project work is constructed by Sea-dar Construction and Piscataqua Landscaping