Program Overview

Degree Requirements

Concentration Courses

Admissions

Fall 2007 Classes

Handbook (.pdf)

Concentrations:

Horticulture Studies

Landscape Studies

Urban Studies

Built Environment
Studies

Should you choose the Concentration in Landscape Studies, you will be entering a professional field concerned with the conservation of the non-urban landscape, through the wise allocation of natural resourses in anticipation of, or to accommodate, pressures arising in a changing society.

Landscape planners seek ways to conserve or revitalise the contextural landscapes of existing communities. They may assist in directing expansion into appropriate areas of the countryside. Others will draw up policies to protect wilderness values in the face of commercial development or mineral exploitation. Some will be concerned with the protection of agriculture, preserving land for food production and, at the same time, conserve farming as a way of life - a cultural heritage.

The landscape planner is constantly confronted with problems arising from growth and decay. For example, increased vehicle ownership and traffic congestion may be associated with a decline in the delivery of public transportation services, so, should the planner recommend building more and wider roads or revitalizing public transportation? What safeguards will the regional planner look to in encouraging tourism, knowing that unregulated tourism will often destroy the environment that attracted the tourists in the first place?

Landscape planners are not always limited to a reactive role in society. Many are visionaries, taking the stance in advocating measures that will improve the quality of life and reorganize inefficent way or inadequate ways of managing things. Some, recognizing that we live in a sedentary society and should be exercising more for the sake of our minds and bodies, seek recreational opportunities by planning for traffic free trails and greenway systems, links to our natural and cultural heritage.

Landscape planners perform a delicate balancing act between anticipating the needs of humankind and calmly accommodating their day-to-day needs in an orderly manner. They seek to act within a framework of sociological and ecological principles; at the local level to conserve community values and globally to protect earth's fragile resourses. To enter this field requires study in:

1. Natural world: a broad knowledge of the working of natural systems, a) of groundwater, b) air quality, c) of ecological principles and the impact of human societies on their flora and fauna.

2. Social world: an understanding of the broad field of sociology, a) human reponses, historical and contemporary, in shaping cultural attitudes and environments, b) understanding of economics, c) knowledge of the political economy, d) of governance.

3. Economics: familiarity with micro-economic theory, a) fiscal systems and private finance and the economics of development, b) knowledge of legal tools of local and state government, c) of zoning and subdivision controls, d) of conservation law and enforcement.

4. Aesthetics and Design: a sense of landscape aesthetics and physical design values, a) understanding the aesthetic consequences of policy decisions, because beauty and a sense of order uplift the emotions of even the ignorant or the indifferent, and lie as a basis of human happiness.

Opportunities exist for work in public agencies or private firms engaged in policy planning at a regional scale and who are committed to improving the quality of life within a framework of conservation of our finite natural resources.

Suggested Curriculum - Junior Year

Senior Year

General Notes:

1. All courses must be taken for credit and * courses in the sequence noted above.
2. All courses noted* are required and cannot be waived or substituted. The exceptions being, a) the identical course has been taken, within the last 4 years,with the same instructor, with a minimum grade of C; b) the course is no longer offered. All courses in this category must be passed with a minimum grade of C.
3. Substitution of other courses is permitted, provided they are selected from the Supplementary List.
4. Electives may be used for Internships (sign up under Independant Study Number) in the spring semester of your Junior year and in both semesters of your Senior year, provided, a) you have an overall cumulative average of 3.0; b) your internship has the approval of your Advisor and ED director, c) you sign the necessary Independant Study Contract.