academic programs

The University of Oregon curriculum in landscape architecture leads to degrees of Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA) and Masters of Landscape Architecture (MLA). Undergraduate students may enter the program as freshmen or may transfer to the program from another college-level program. Most transfer students enter the program at the second year level. Advance transfer students must have completed landscape architecture coursework and are placed into an appropriate level in the program. Graduate students who enter the program with a Bachelor's degree which is not an accredited degree in landscape architecture enter the First Professional Master's Degree program, a three years plus one term program of study. Because graduate students are not required by the university to take general education classes, we offer a very intense first year program geared toward accelerating the graduate students in their professional education by the end of that introductory year. By that point the First Professional Masters students have established a fundamental introductory understanding of design, media, plant materials, site analysis and landscape technologies and move on to more advanced coursework and graduate studies in the second and third years.

The BLA and First Professional Masters programs both consist of the following interrelated areas:

Planning and Design: These tutorial studio classes form the heart of our curriculum. The "studios" focus on the development and communication of solutions to site and other environmental design problems, especially through specific physical design proposals. This area also addresses the physical-spatial implications of planning and management policies and programs.

Subjects: Five subject areas are essential foundations to integrative work in the planning and design program, including: landscape architectural technology; plants; landscape analysis and planning; history, literature and theory of landscape architecture; and landscape architectural media. Course work in these areas includes both required and elective classes that encourage students to tailor an individualized program.

Graduate Students who enter the program with an accredited Bachelor's of Landscape Architecture complete the two year Post Professional Masters Degree.