WHAT IS LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE?

Landscape architecture encompasses the analysis, planning, design, management, and stewardship of the natural and built environments. Types of projects include: residential; parks and recreation; monuments; urban design; streetscapes and public spaces; transportation corridors and facilities; gardens and arboreta; security design; hospitality and resorts; institutional; academic campuses; therapeutic gardens; historic preservation and restoration; reclamation; conservation; corporate and commercial; landscape art and earth sculpture; interior landscapes; and more. Landscape architects have advanced education and professional training and are licensed in 47 states.   - American Society of Landscape Architecture

In our professional degree program, students learn to be effective designers through hands-on engagement in design process. Design process involves creative expression but also a broad understanding of the context of design: ecosystems, cultural frameworks, functional systems, and social dynamics. Students in our program learn how to change the world by re-imagining and re-shaping the landscape to enhance its artistic and functional dimensions, its ecological health, its cultural significance, and its social relevance.
 

The scale of landscape architecture projects varies from broad, regional landscape analysis and planning to detailed, individual site-scale designs. The curriculum at Iowa State prepares students for this challenge as they develop their abilities to design and communicate ideas through a sequence of foundational courses and studios.