- Post Professional MLA requirements
Printable PPMLA Requirement Worksheet
- POST PROFESSIONAL MASTERS DEGREE CURRICULUM
Students with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture
Students entering the program with an accredited B.L.A. are expected to spend two years in residence in the department. The first year is normally spent in required coursework and the second in working on the Master's Project.
The two-year graduate program leading to the Post Professional Master of landscape architecture (M.L.A.) degree is intended for students prepared to do original work in the field. This preparation may be acquired by entering the M.L.A. program with a professionally accredited bachelor's degree in landscape architecture.
One additional year of course work is typically required for the M.L.A., which can be received at that time or as soon thereafter as the master's project is satisfactorily completed. Students with professional landscape architecture degrees who pursue only the M.L.A. are typically in residence for two years to satisfy all course work requirements.
A central aspect of the Post Professional M.L.A. program is the student's concentration on studies and original work in one of four areas of landscape architecture: landscape design, landscape history, landscape planning and landscape ecology. These areas are broad enough to include many particular research problems for master's projects and professional practice. While these concentration areas are naturally related, each involves a different set of skills and understanding developed through departmental courses and focused elective course work outside the department. The three concentration areas are those in which faculty members, due to their academic training and professional and research experience, are best equipped for collaboration with graduate students.
Landscape Design and Design Theory. The transformation and enhancement of outdoor environments to more beautiful, expressive, and supportive places involves developing creative artistry, applying an understanding of places and their evolutionary possibilities, and thinking clearly with sensitivity to peoples' needs and values. This concentration is intensive in design criticism and in theories of design process, ideas, and content.
Landscape History. This critical dimension of landscape architecture seeks to understand every landscape as a unique place in time and content. It combines an understanding of how landscapes have evolved as cultural and vernacular environments in many regions as well as how they have evolved as deliberate expressions of social norms and cultural aesthetics through history and among cultures. These understandings are applied to theories of design and planning as well as to the preservation of culturally rich landscapes.
Landscape Planning. Analyzing large landscapes and directing their future management and land use patterns toward social and environmental ends requires an understanding of land tenure, use traditions, and institutions and knowledge of the science and values inherent in the natural resources and human activities of regions. For this analysis, computer geographic information systems are used to synthesize information and generate landscape plans. Examples include river management, wetlands preservation, urban growth management, scenic resource management, public forest plans, and regional ecological enhancement.
Landscape Ecology. Information coming.
The Post Professional M.L.A. program is intended to prepare the student for advanced understanding, competence, and responsibility in promoting harmonious human-land relationships throughprivate or public practice or teaching at the university level. Many graduate students in all three concentration areas have the opportunity to learn and practice teaching skills as paid teaching assistants and graduate teaching fellows in the department, and some subsequently receive faculty positions throughout the world. The program seeks to take advantage of regional and university resources through landscape projects, internships, and visiting professionals while providing a beneficial base of support and ideas within the department. The department recognizes the importance of building a community for graduate education characterized by serious and rigorous inquiry, self-direction, and opportunities to work closely with teachers and peers in an active design and planning enterprise.
Curriculum
The M.L.A. degree requires 54 credits in four areas: planning and design courses, subject courses, the concentration area, and completion of the master's project.
Planning and Design. 12 credits
(NOTE: Studio courses taken pass/no pass under the planning and design requirement count as graded courses toward the University of Oregon's A,B,C,D 45 credit minimum requirement.)
Land Planning and Design (LA 594), Special Problems (LA 606).
Subjects.11 credits
Seminar (LA 507 or 607), Landscape Research Methods (LA 520), Research (LA 601); at least one of the following courses: Land and Landscape (LA 543), Landscape Perception (LA 584), Contemporary American Landscape (LA 585), Advanced Landscape Design Theory (LA 693), other approved Landscape Architecture course.
Area of Concentration. 24 credits in one area.
Courses used to satisfy any of the above requirements may not be used again to satisfy this requirement.
Landscape Design Theory. Land and Landscape (LA 543), Landscape Perception (LA 584), Advanced Landscape Design Theory (LA 693); three additional department-approved courses at the University of Oregon
Landscape History. Landscape Preservation (LA 580), National Parks (LA 582),Contemporary American Landscape (LA 585); three additional department-approvedcourses at the University of Oregon
Landscape Planning. Landscape Planning (LA 511), Ecological Landscape Planning (LA 512), Computers in Landscape Architecture (LA 515); three additional department-approved courses at theUniversity of Oregon that focus on either social or natural systems
Landscape Ecology.
Master's Project. 10 credits minimum
Master's Project Development (LA 695), Master's Project (LA 699)
Before enrolling in LA 699 the student must develop and obtain department approval for a project proposal and a committee of three or more members, including at least two from the landscape architecture faculty.
Near the completion of the master's project, the student must present the results of the project to faculty members and students and gain final approval of the project's documentation from the faculty committee.
The Masters Project (LA 699) is not necessarily a thesis. It is a project of high academic standard that demonstrates a student's ability to undertake a research problem in Landscape Architecture and to solve it in a systematic manner. Although the topic may be selected from a wide range of theoretical to practical design issues, the research should make an original contribution to the field of Landscape Architecture. All projects must include a written component that sets out the problem, goals and objectives, methodology, findings and conclusions of the project. See "The Master's Project" brochure available from the department office.
