Landscape Architecture

Landscape Architecture
Degree Opportunities
Program Description
The Landscape Architecture Program is fully accredited by the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board and is the only four-year accredited program in a four-state region. This program also offers the only collaborative interdisciplinary approach with the allied disciplines of architecture, interior design and planning.
Landscape architecture combines art and environmental sciences. Landscape architects design exterior spaces and places. Those less familiar with landscape architecture tend to think of the profession in relatively basic terms, involving plantings around a building or in a park, for example. The reality is quite different; the profession is much broader, richer, and far-reaching. Landscape architects design at many scales, ranging from a tiny roof deck terrace to thousands of acres of National Forest lands; from the private realm of corporate office courtyard to the public realm of a neighborhood park or community plan; from the specialized creation of a healing garden at a hospital to a customized rehabilitation of a native wetlands. The numerous project types, practice types, along with the professional possibilities available to someone with a background in landscape architecture is almost unlimited.
The four-year undergraduate program consists of a common first year of courses shared by students in architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture. This year is followed by two years where students develop discipline-based knowledge and skills focused on site and building, community planning and design, and urban environments. The final year allows for collaborative work with students in architecture, interior design, and planning in research-based studios. Students participate in exploring a broad range of design problems in the studios where they develop design solutions that are presented to practicing professionals and for some projects, actual clients or partners. Students participate in a myriad of opportunities to support learning in the profession including professional electives, seminars, minors, lecture series, and study abroad. Learning about the profession continues in the required internship program where students work in professional design firms for academic credit. The Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree requires 120-semester credit hours of coursework.
Accreditation: LAAB
The Bachelor of Landscape Architecture program is committed to the transformative power of design. The faculty and students come together in a creative environment combining studio-based teaching and learning, innovative research and creative activity, and community focused service and engagement to enable faculty and graduates to address the synthesis of environmental systems and human need with innovative, collaborative, and interdisciplinary action.
Mission Statement
College
We create a resilient, healthy, and beautiful world, within a diverse and inclusive culture of rigorous inquiry and innovation, united by the transformative power of planning and design.
Program
In the pursuit of creating resilient, sustainable, and joyful places, we seek to advance and challenge the field of Landscape Architecture through collaborative, multidisciplinary teaching, research and design activity, considering ecology, heritage, diversity and equity as essential considerations in the creation of sustainable landscapes
Culture
College
Our intellectual environment thrives because of our: diverse perspectives, dynamic close-knit community, and pursuit of meaningful impact
Program
Our multidisciplinary faculty are committed to the role of Landscape Architecture as a vital participant in advancing solutions to the pressing issues of our time open discussion, expectation of excellence, and mutual support for each other.
Values
College
Demand excellence, be courageous, practice empathy, look beyond, inspire impact.
Program
Value the interrelated relationship between cultural and natural systems in the built environment, Believe the future is made in the present, embrace leadership through empathy, and build connections between both local and global perspectives.
Featured Work
Chongqing, China Project
The municipality of Chongqing, China, is the most significant urban growth center in Western China. This trend is projected to continue for decades to come. As a mountain landscape, the city possesses a difficult topography making settlement strategies challenging. The city is also located at the confluence of the Jialing and Yangtze Rivers making the management of water another important challenge to development in the city. The city has designated a 56.79 hectare brownfield site as the home to a dense mixed use development as an example of both urban sustainability strategies and low impact development for other future projects. This site, located next to the Jialing River, has a significant postindustrial landscape along the river and a tributary to the Jialing snaking its way through the site.
Programmatically, the city is interested in considering new and innovative use integration. Their desire is for the design to take a holistic approach to sustainable urbanism including the integration of economic development, sustainable infrastructure systems and the difference in the use of inventory for the new built environment. Given the site, at a minimum, some reuse of the postindustrial landscape should be considered in the design. Also the storm water path should be considered for recreational activities in addition to improving water quality entering the Jialing River. Further innovations in circulation management, the integration of nature and inclusion of urban agriculture into this dense urban landscape will be important measures of success. Collectively these goals are broadly understood to be important parts of the new resilient city, as it continues to grow, regenerate and pursue a more sustainable path.

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