Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA)
The Bachelor of Landscape Architecture major is a four-year professional program nationally accredited by the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board (LAAB). As a STEM major, this program is designed for those who care deeply about our natural and built environment, and have interests in art, design, engineering, and a blend of the natural, physical, and social sciences. Completion of the program is the first step in becoming a licensed Landscape Architect that is able to work in public or private practice.
What is Landscape Architecture?
As defined by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA):
“Landscape architects create healthy, safe, and beautiful outdoor places for everyone. As members of a STEM profession, they bring science and design together to make our communities better places to live, work, and play. Becoming a landscape architect requires years of education and experience and passing a national exam. They are licensed—just like doctors and engineers—to keep people safe and secure.”
Landscape architecture is concerned with creating and preserving outdoor spaces in order to improve and maintain a healthy and good quality of life for people, while ensuring the survival of the complex, physical, cultural, and natural systems that make up our planet. If you are interested in designing sustainable residential communities or recreation areas, restoring prairies, re-connecting city-dwellers with nature, adapting cities to climate change, mapping and evaluating historic cultural features, or creating therapeutic gardens or resorts, this major may be for you!
Landscape and Urban Studies (BS/BA LUS)
A degree in Landscape and Urban Studies provides the knowledge and skills needed to address current and future challenges of sustainable land use and the conservation and management of healthy natural and cultural systems. The curriculum draws on courses from across the University to provide you with a multi-discipline foundation in the natural and physical sciences, social studies, and in the arts and humanities.