Landscape architects combine critical design thinking, planning and design, and knowledge of physical and social sciences, to engage situations of landscape involving health, safety, and wellbeing.
The Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) is a STEM-designated degree and fully accredited program that prepares graduate students for the rigors of professional practice, research, leadership, and community engagement. Students combine critical design thinking with creativity, and passion to address diverse landscape architecture and environmental planning projects.
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Join us this Wednesday, April 3rd, for a wonderful lecture with Thomas Woltz, senior principal of Nelson Byrd Woltz.
The lecture will take place in Burns Auditorium at 4:30-6pm. Along with this, there will be a brown bag lunch from 12-1pm. UPDATE: HAPPY HOUR WILL NOT BE HELD THIS WEEK.
CEU’s will be available. Go to https://calendar.ncsu.edu/event/laep_lecture_thomas_woltz for more information....
Congratulations to Claire Henkel @fancy___nancy___ and @ncsucoastaldynamics on receiving the CELA Academy of Fellows Best Poster Award! Thank you for your hard work!
Join us next Wednesday, March 27th for Barbara Deutsch’s lecture “Designing for People and Planet: a Great Time to be a Landscape Architect” @lafoundation
The lecture will take place in Burns Auditorium from 4:30-6pm. For licensed professionals, this lecture is a great opportunity for CEU’s.
Go to https://calendar.ncsu.edu/event/laep_lecture_barbara_deutsch for more information.
Tomorrow, Wednesday March 20th, SASLA and the LAEP department is sponsoring a brown bag lunch and evening lecture with Kyle Verseman and Jayne Worth from Landscape Forms.
Please welcome them at the brown bag lunch in the pit from 12-1. The lecture will take place from 4:30 to 5:30 in Burns Auditorium.
NC State’s Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning is proud to announce our Spring 2024 Lecture Series:
VISIONS: A Range of Magnitudes
The lectures take place in Burns Auditorium at 4:30 pm. Make sure to save the dates!
February 21, 2024: Kona Gray, FASLA, PLA Principal, EDSA; ASLA President Elect
March 27, 2024: Barbara Deutsch, FASLA CEO, Landscape Architecture Foundation
April 3, 2024: Thomas Woltz, FASLA, CLARB Sr. Principal and Owner, Nelson Byrd Woltz
April 17, 2024: Dr. Saúl Alcántara Onofre Professor, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana
This semester, joining via Zoom will not be an option, so please come support our lectures and events in person. Recordings will be posted to https://design.ncsu.edu/landscape-architecture/news/lectures-events/...
Not to be missed! hashtag#IFLAAmericas Regional Conference in hashtag#BuenoaAires this May!
Join hashtag#landscapearchitecture colleagues, practitioners, and faculty from across the Americas: North, Central, and South!
Greater knowledge = > probability we’ll tackle the hashtag#wicked challenges of our time. The hashtag#IFLAAR Conference provides a chance to actively explore hashtag#diverse hashtag#landscapes and hashtag#ourclimateculture!...
Congrats to our 2023 graduates! It has it been a pleasure to have you in our program, and we look forward to seeing all the wonderful things you do! #ncstatedesign...
As supporters of the New Landscape Declaration, we emphasize evidence-based inquiry and design thinking that positions students and graduates to engage with and propel the landscape architecture profession into the future as it evolves in response to environmental and societal imperatives.
Our mission is to teach, learn, research, and apply state-of-the-art practices that create innovative and resilient landscapes focused on human and ecosystem health, safety, well-being, social equity, and quality of life.
We prepare the next generation of landscape architects to engage challenges and opportunities focused on:
Landscape dynamics and resilient design;
Community planning and design;
Design for children and families;
Research and evidence-based design strategies;
Emerging digital design tools for representation, simulation, and evaluation.
Graduate Landscape Architecture
The Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) is a STEM-designated degree and LAAB accredited program that prepares graduate students for the rigors of professional practice, research, leadership, and community engagement. Our students, faculty, and local design community seek to understand the impact of human actions on the land and to respond with community-based design strategies. We are dedicated to teaching, researching, and practicing design processes that acknowledge the interdependence of built landscapes and ecological, social, and economic systems.
The department offers three main academic curriculum tracks:
The first half of the academic program prepares students for the current practice and discipline of landscape architecture. It equips them with the core knowledge base, tools, processes, and skills in design, site works, history and theory, planning, research and the culture of professional practice.
The second half of the academic program propels students into the profession and discipline of the future that they will help evolve and lead. It positions students to pursue substantive inquiry into their own, those of the faculty, and those of the larger extended community. Students master bodies of knowledge, pursue evidence-based research, and hone verbal, written, and graphic communication skills.
Throughout their program of study, students combine critical design thinking talents with their intelligence, creativity, and passions to frame, engage and challenge the questions, problems, and situations of landscape that involve health, safety, wellbeing, and quality of life.
The department also offers the following certificates and programs:
Graduate Minors and Certificate Programs
Graduate minors are available to all students and consist of nine credit hours of courses, in another graduate degree granting discipline, listed as 400-level or above. A member of that degree’s faculty may serve as a third member of the student’s final project committee. Certificates offered in GIS, Public Policy and Horticultural Science may be of particular interest. Please visit the Graduate Minors and Certificate Page for more information.
Students at NC State University may also register for courses at local universities (UNC–Chapel Hill, UNC-Greensboro, and Duke University) paying NC State University credit fees. Our students have an exceptional range of courses and programs open to them through these inter-institutional study opportunities. Students may also take courses at the other Raleigh colleges that are members of the Cooperating Raleigh Colleges organization. Please visit the Inter-Institutional Study Page for more information.
While we no longer offer a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture, it is possible for NC State University undergraduate students to take certain landscape architecture courses as electives. Please visit the Undergraduate Minor in Landscape Architecture Page for more information.
To first-year architecture student Ashtyn Thomas, design represents possibility and opportunity.
Inspired by her father who works in construction, she chose to pursue architecture in 11th grade. Now, she’s building her community at NC State with the help of the Native American Student Association (@ncsu_nasa) and the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (@ncstatemsa).
“My Lumbee identity impacts every aspect of who I am,” states Thomas. “Not just when I speak about it to others, but it also impacts my abilities as a designer.”
Right now, she’s designing a structure meant for the North Carolina Museum of Art that embraces native culture using the four directions – a significant symbol in many native cultures. “I want to use my culture to show that we’re still here, we’re prominent in the world, and we’re thriving.”
Thomas is also exploring how casino design can have a positive effect on indigenous communities, using the Catawba tribe’s casino as a case study for her aspirations. “I’ve seen how casinos can directly impact native communities, especially ones in very remote locations,” she says. “For the Catawba, they can provide housing, they can provide funding for schools and healthcare. They’re much better off.”
Thomas also stated she would love to design a casino for her tribe since the Lumbee don’t have one yet.
In 2023, Thomas was crowned Miss Lumbee – an honor that asks nominees to develop a platform for cultural advocacy. Ashtyn developed R.I.S.E., which stands for Resilient and Intelligent Young Women Supporting Empowerment. The initiative is designed to help advance the pursuit of STEM careers by young Indigenous women.
At the College of Design, she plans to continue her advocacy to create spaces that provide economic stability, cultural enrichment and resilience for indigenous communities throughout North Carolina....
“I would not be who I am and where I am today, if not for the culture fostered by the College of Design."
When Demarcus Williams (’03) thought about the ways in which he could support NC State University’s College of Design following graduation, he thought back to his own experience.
When he enrolled, he was one of seven Black students in a class of 120 that year. He was the only Black student to graduate in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design.
The experience came with some challenges, but the college was there as an extended, supportive family for him.
For Williams, giving back is about helping current and future students have the same experience or one that’s even better. He’s kept up with the college since graduation, returning as a guest speaker and for alumni events. Williams also currently serves on the board of directors for NC State’s Alumni Association.
He’s seen the college work to enroll and support students from all races, ethnicities and life experiences.
Read the full story of how Williams is designing an inclusive college experience through philanthropy in our bio....