Master of Science in Landscape Architecture - Community-Focused Design

Our approach to community design and community design research is based on developing, evaluating, and documenting design processes that are inclusive, participatory, and responsive to the combination of natural and cultural resources, social and economic issues, and agents of change unique to each community. We are interested in uncovering the processes that increase participation and shared decision-making, and on building a shared design vocabulary reflecting community values related to their relationship to the built and natural environment. This approach is informed by the idea of place-making as an outcome of criticalreflective practice that investigates issues of social justice and environmental sustainability.Students interested in the Community-Focused Design Program pursue research with a focus on food security, and public and environmental health. This specialization prepares you for careers that: build participatory design into professional practice and community organizing, lead nonprofit organizations in participatory community design at the neighborhood, city, watershed, or bioregional scales; or engage research to evaluate the social and environmental results of participatory design and planning processes.The Community-Focused Design concentration is particularly appropriate for students holding accredited degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Planning or Urban Design who want to develop a specialization in community design.

A bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited U.S. institution or a comparable degree from an international institution is required. International applicants must have a degree comparable to a regionally accredited U.S. bachelor’s degree. You must have completed your undergraduate degree, or similar, before starting graduate school. A minimum undergraduate grade point average (GPA) of 3.00 on the equivalent of the last 60 credit hours (approximately two years of work) or a master’s degree with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 is required. The Graduate School will take into consideration different grade scales from institutions that do not have 4.00 scales (e.g., institutions outside the United States of America).