Bachelor of Landscape Architecture Curriculum
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The Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA) is a five-year undergraduate degree. Students complete state-required core curriculum, a summer internship, a senior project, and an in-depth study of the theory and practice of landscape architecture. Courses offered cover the topics of studio design, construction, engineering, plant species, community impact, environmental issues, portfolio building, and others. A complete listing of courses with descriptions is available through the online bulletin — for a sample program of study, click "for more information" below.
The Profession of Landscape Architecture
Landscape architecture is primarily concerned with designing the built environment. The profession is interdisciplinary and practioners must be knowledgable on a number of subjects including design principles, plant materials, construction, graphic arts, computer applications, and ecology. In a sense, the profession represents an intersection of other fields, requiring mediation of the many aesthetic, physical, legal, ethical, functional, and ecological challenges of developing a site.
BLA Scholarships
The College of Environment & Design provides a number of scholarships through the generosity of individuals, clubs and the College's alumni association. These scholarships are granted on a basis of academic performance in the College, leadership, and need. The scholarships are awarded in April for the following academic year. Scholarship applications are done online. Students will be notified through e-mail and advisement when applications are open.
Click "for more information" below to view descriptions of all the scholarships available to BLA students. More information regarding scholarships is available in 609 Caldwell Hall. Availability of specific scholarships and amounts vary from year to year.
BLA Academic Standards Policy
Except when otherwise stated, all rules and regulations for the University of Georgia as listed in the current edition of the online bulletin are enforced. Several additions specific to the BLA program are listed here.
Policy on Senior Project Sponsorship
If you have a client or sponsor to whom you would like to present the results of your senior project (outside the required jury presentation to the College's faculty) and they express an interest in utilizing your results, or modifications thereof, a specific procedure must followed. Click "for more information" below for complete directions.
BLA Internships
The BLA internship course provides credit for professional office experience under the supervision of registered landscape architects or related practitioners (architects, engineers, planners). A minimum of twelve weeks full-time employment for eight credit hours is required.
BLA Information
View the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture PDF handbook here.
To find out more about the College of Environment & Design, go here.
To learn about study abroad opportunities, go here.
View the full listing of Landscape Architecture courses here.
View course syllabi here.
MEPD Description
The Master of Environmental Planning & Design is a professional graduate program with an emphasis on a studio-based integrative planning process grounded in environmental and ecological principles. The purpose is to improve life and ecosystem health in regions and urban centers, incorporating cultural, historic and design elements, while engaging community process to identify and plan for long range city and regional goals.
MEPD Program of Study
The MEPD program is a two-year graduate program. The first year is focused on acquiring basic knowledge and understanding of the history, theory and practice of planning, ecology, GIS, research skills and community engagement. The studio sequence in the first year provides a workshop setting where students apply the information they are learning to a community-based project.
In the second year, the students are involved in a third neighborhood-based planning studio, as well as in shaping their master thesis or final internship practicum. They can focus their concentration on the existing ecological or cultural resource planning offers, or work with their advisor to shape a program from courses within the CED or throughout the University of Georgia to tailor a program specific to their interests and career goals.
Requirements for the MEPD degree include satisfactory completion of all coursework and an approved master thesis or internship practicum with an applied research paper.
MEPD Admissions
The Master of Environmental Planning & Design program admits only 15-20 students each year. Applicants are required to have an undergraduate degree. Students from all undergraduate disciplines are encouraged to discuss their potential for success in the MEPD program with the program director. An interview is strongly recommended so that applicants may meet the director, the faculty, and other students. Accomodations at the Georgia Center are available at a discount for prospective grad students.
Historic Preservation Degrees
The Historic Preservation program prepares students for broad-based careers in the conservation and management of historic resources in both the built and natural environments. The two-year Master of Historic Preservation degree attracts students from diverse backgrounds and is structured to develop versatile, competent and highly motivated professionals who can perceive preservation opportunities in the broadest sense and who can develop strategies ensuring the protection and use of cultural resources as a part of the fabric of urban and rural environments. An accelerated MHP degree, a joint Juris Doctor and MHP, and a Historic Preservation certificate are also available.
Master of Landscape Architecture
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Initiated in 1954, Georgia’s MLA program is one of the oldest graduate landscape architectural programs in the country, with the largest and most complete landscape architectural faculty anywhere. Among Georgia’s MLA alumni are winners of national design competitions, Presidents and Fellows of the American Society of Landscape Architects, heads of prestigious university departments, senior editors of national journals, leaders of the National Park Service and other public institutions, most of the designers of the 1996 Olympic venues, and leading practitioners all over the world. Each year about 16 new students are selectively admitted to the program.
MHP Curriculum
The two-year Master of Historic Preservation program consists of 54 to 61 semester hours of required instruction, including 22 hours of core courses, 14-21 hours of core options, 9 elective hours, and the thesis courses (worth 9 hours of course credit). With some exceptions, each course usually offers three semester hours of credit.
MLA Curriculum
The MLA curriculum consists of design studios, support courses, core landscape architecture classes and student-selected electives. Students are admitted into one- to three-year programs of study, depending on their educational and professional backgrounds. Students with a non-design undergraduate degree enter a three-year curriculum track, with possible exemptions based on their previous studies. Applicants with professional applied design degrees enter directly into the second year of study. Applicants with BLA or BSLA degrees and ten or more years of professional experience may enter in the third year, accelerating their studies with a one-year program focused on their specialization.
MLA Admissions
All MLA applicants apply under the “prospective candidate for a degree” admission category, and are required to submit the following:
- Academic transcripts
- GRE scores
- Three references
- Letter of intent
- Admission Interview (in most cases)
Click "for more information" below to view the complete admissions guide.
Project Spotlight: Newtown Community Development
Professor Alfie Vick's Nature & Sustainability studio spent fall semester of 2008 addressing real-world ecological and social issues surrounding the neighborhood of Newtown in the industrial center of Gainesville, Georgia. Student projects included a video inventory and analysis; alternative future uses for a junkyard adjacent to the neighborhood; a Rails2Trails proposal that connects Newtown to greater Gainesville; and a 25-year Vision Plan. The video was featured in a Landscape Architect & Specifier News magazine article.
Financial Aid
The University of Georgia and the College of Environment & Design offer various scholarships, fellowships, tuition waivers, and assistantships to help MHP students defray the cost of graduate school.
Historic Preservation in Georgia
As the site of the oldest state-chartered university in America (1785), the University’s North Campus, where the College of Environment and Design is located, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This district, along with much of the city of Athens, provides a doorstep laboratory for preservation majors at the University of Georgia — along with numerous sites, districts, and entire communities across the state. It is in the context of dealing with contemporary issues that these areas provide both professional training and practical experience to the student in both rural and urban environments
Preservation Successes in Athens
Athens, GA is a city that is known for its history and its historic buildings, and the students and faculty of the University of Georgia's Master of Historic Preservation program play a pivotal role in documenting and preserving this history. All of the MHP faculty are directly involved in local preservation efforts—from serving on the Board of the Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation (ACHF) to spearheading movements to preserve and restore historic buildings like the Franklin House and the T.R.R. Cobb House—and students have the opportunity to participate in public outreach through such service projects as creating Historic Structure Reports for the Building Materials Conservation class and GIS mapping and survey projects for current and potential historic neighborhoods.
Historic Preservation Information
View the full listing of Historic Preservation courses here.
View course syllabi here.
View the Historic Preservation PDF handbook here.
View technology requirements and discounted software here.
MLA Reading List
All students should read at least some of the following publications, or ones like them, before entering Georgia’s MLA program. They are preliminary to landscape architecture: they deal more with values and perceptions than with techniques. Some of them may be out of print and available only in libraries, not bookstores; that does not reduce their value as background to landscape architecture.
Landscape Architecture Information
View the full listing of Landscape Architecture courses here.
View course syllabi here.
Technology Requirements
Graduate students at the College of Environment and Design will be expected to complete a number of computing-intensive projects. It is in every student’s best interests to be able to work on these projects whether they are on campus or not. The following suggestions describe the minimum hardware and software required to easily complete design projects on a personal computer.
Differential Tuition
Students at the College of Environment & Design pay a differential tuition fee, which provides the class sizes, cutting-edge technology, and physical equipment necessary to keep our programs high in national rankings and prestige. For a full breakdown of the benefits and cost of differential tuition, click "for more information" below.
