Education toward a Sustainable World
“Only beauty can save the world” Fyodor Dostoevsky
The complex environmental, economic and socio-cultural problems of the 21st century play out on the land. They demand integrative, collaborative, and beautiful design solutions. The University of Minnesota’s Landscape Architecture programs offers instruction that encompasses the range of geographic, systemic and temporal scales at which landscape operates. We aim to reframe landscape architecture in activist processes, creating innovative solutions to the pressing issues of our time.
The Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota is situated within the College of Design—a college that also contains architecture, interior design, graphic design, housing studies, and related disciplines and interdisciplinary centers, making it one of the most comprehensive design colleges in the country. Our College has one of the largest student-practitioner mentoring programs of any U.S. design school, which underscores the strong ties between the College and local practitioners—many of whom teach as adjuncts in the departments. Our students are passionate about design and activism; many are part of student-led groups, such as Design and Global Climate Change, and active in the student chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
The Department of Landscape Architecture offers five degree programs and one certificate:
- The Bachelor of Environmental Design [BED].
- The accelerated BED [combined BED/MLA] allows qualified students early entry to the Master Landscape Architecture program.
- The Master of Landscape Architecture program [MLA] degree is an accredited professional degree.
- The Master of Landscape Architecture/Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree [MLA/MURP] is a joint degree program with the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.
- The Master of Science in Landscape Architecture [MSLA] is a non-accredited degree offered to students interested in landscape architecture as a scholarly discipline.
- A Certificate in Metropolitan Design is administered through the College of Design’s Metropolitan Design Center.