The Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA) degree is accredited by the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board (LAAB). The BLA degree meets the academic requirements for licensure in all fifty states. LAAB standards require that first-professional degree curricula must include the core knowledge skills and applications of landscape architecture: landscape architectural history, philosophy, theory, values, ethics, practice, planning, design, implementation, and management. The program is a site-based design discipline that also deals with regional and larger-scale environmental/social issues. The curriculum, centered on a studio-based design curriculum, integrates ecological and social factors into the design and planning process. Students take a series of lecture and studio design courses, beginning with an introduction to landscape design principles in the first year and culminating in an advanced research and studio design project in the graduating year. Courses include Site Analysis and Ecological Principles, Site Design Studio, Urban Design Studio, and Professional Practice, among others. Digital design studios allow the integration of computer-aided design, GIS, and other analytical and communication tools with fundamental design and drawing skills.
Landscape architects are trained to analyze degraded environmental conditions such as brownfields, strip mines and abandoned urban industrial sites, and restore them to high functioning terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. They are licensed to legally design and stamp construction documents used by contractors to build their ecological restoration plans. The plans are reviewed by permitting and inspection agencies to ensure they are built to municipal code. Landscape architects go beyond safe and efficient engineering to integrate restored environments into communities with trail systems, interpretive signs, viewing stations, and visitor centers. To manage the design process, landscape architects lead teams of consultants such as environmental scientists, technicians, and civil engineers.
