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Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning

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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LECTURE TODAY!! Join us at 6pm in Burns Auditorium for a wonderful lecture by Gareth Doherty from Harvard GSD. This is our last lecture of the semester and you don’t want to miss it!

For the students- there will also be a brown bag lunch with Gareth from 12-1pm in the Pit.

#lectureseries #ncstatelaep
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Wednesday Nov 13th, the #laeplectureseries is excited to host @garethgerarddoherty from the @harvardgsd. Doherty will be presenting “Landscape Fieldwork: How Engaging the World Can Change Design” and will include some of his work in Afro-Brazil and Africa.

Please join us at 6pm in Burns Auditorium! See you there! Scan the QR code for more information.

#ncstate #collegeofdesign #ncstatelaep
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Don’t forget! This Wednesday LAEP is pleased to welcome Professor Pedro Camarena, #UniversidadNacionalAutónomadeMéxico (#UNAM.) This lecture will be offered in person & on zoom! Click the link in our bio to register for the zoom session.

Camarena will present a range of projects that impart the value of endemic landscapes and regional planning strategies in Mexico’s environs.

Pedro has collaborated with International firms and academic institutions, including Turenscape— Kongjian Yu; #CiudadUniversitaria #UnescoWorldHeritage site at UNAM; #UPenn; among others.

Camarena invites landscape architecture, urban design, allied professionals and students to understand the complexity of landscapes belonging to other territories as part of global perspectives and a more current, spatial design arena.
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Are you interested in joining the MLA program? On November 1st we will be hosting a virtual open house from 12-1:30! Scan the QR code to register.

#openhouse #ncstatelaep #ncsu
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Don’t forget! Tomorrow, Wednesday 10/16, is full of events. We would love to see you there!

11am-5:30pm: MLA Open House, meet in Allred Gallery

1pm-2pm: Brown Bag Lunch in the Pit w/ Emily McCoy

6pm-7:30pm: Lecture w/ Emily McCoy, “After the Storm: Diverse Perspectives on Climate Justice and Recovery in North Carolina in the Wake of Hurricane Helene”

#mlaopenhouse #ncstate #ncstatelaep #lectureseries #laeplectureseries
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Congratulations to our 2024 ASLA Student Award winners! Way to go NC State! #asla2024 @nationalasla ...

NC State representing at ASLA! #asla2024 #ncstatelaep @nationalasla ...

@tatianamveloso1 and Alma DuSolier of @hooddesignstudio, the incoming LAF Board Chair, at the Olmsted Scholars luncheon with the @lafoundation Board in DC. Congratulations Tatiana on being an #olmstedscholar Semi-finalist! ...

Our mission is to inspire and guide design students in their scholarship and application of landscape architecture through design solutions focused on social and environmental justice impacting communities across global territories.

We prepare the next generation of landscape architects to engage in 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.

  • Inter-Institutional Study

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.

See Student Work

See more examples of student work here: Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Student Work