The Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture Program

Our BSLA program has an explicit focus on sustainability, with a strong emphasis on design, practice, and research. A unifying theme of the program is the importance of protecting and enhancing the environment and public health, safety and welfare while simultaneously engaging the aesthetic challenge of reconciling form, content, style, and function.

The BSLA program is foremost a professional degree program. The education you will receive will provide you with the knowledge and skills necessary to work in private or public practice. The curriculum consists of a core of eleven studio courses complemented by lecture courses in subjects ranging from site engineering to the history of the built environment. A particular strength of the program is its dynamic, challenging and creatively stimulating studio courses which encourage the vigorous exchange of ideas between students and between instructor and students. Studio courses focus on the synthesis and integration of broad knowledge in the service of solving a specific design challenge. At the end of each studio you will have the opportunity to present your creative response to that design challenge to the faculty, outside reviewers and the student body at end-of-studio reviews.

The skills and knowledge you acquire in our studio and lecture courses will enable you to design beautiful and engaging landscapes that are environmentally sustainable. Specifically, the landscape architecture program will provide you with:

• An understanding of and appreciation for the design of sustainable landscapes, for pleasure and function, for people and the environment.
• A working knowledge of the theories, processes, and techniques applied to the analysis of design problems and the implementation of design solutions in the profession of landscape architecture.
• An understanding of ecology, natural resource use and conservation and land-use activities.
• An understanding of the cultural determinants of human behavior and the social, political, economic and legal institutions that influence design decision.
• The capacity to verbally and graphically communicate your ideas to clients, the public, government officials and specialists in allied fields including planners, architects, engineers, and social, natural and physical scientists.