WHAT IS LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

This question is asked more than one might think. Many people, aside from Landscape Architects and those in allied professions, don't thoroughly understand the breadth and depth of what we do, despite a growing demand for skills and services to solve the complex, large-scale problems we face today in our environment.

Landscape Architects are- . . . architects of the landscape-- the landscape encompassing everything on (and in some cases underneath) the surface of the land (or water). We synthesize knowledge from the natural and social sciences, and from the arts, to design how our environment looks, functions, and feels. We design for people, for plants and animals, and to support natural processes and to conserve natural resources. We design at all scales, from residential to community, to regional and even national areas in size. Landscape Architecture is the Art of Placement in the largest sense.

Landscape Architecture has sometimes been called "the invisible profession" because we design places-- the places between buildings, the places we move about in every day, the places that make us comfortable, safe, and healthy, that provide us stimulation or peace of mind, and that affect our quality of life.

In our Department, we focus on a particular area of Landscape Architecture we call Urban Ecological Design. Reference the sites below for other descriptions of Landscape Architecture and learn more about the kind of work we do and the growing opportunities in the profession:

American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)

Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF)