College of Environment and Design

Cultural Diversity Requirement

  1. First and foremost, the baccalaureate for Landscape Architecture (B.L.A.) is a five-year required course of study making it much more likely that the student will have considerable exposure to cultural diversity, as it is a "professional" degree in a licensed profession. It is the only undergraduate degree offered by the School.

  2. The following courses are required and each have cultural segments which when added to other required courses result in good exposure to cultural diversity:
    1. LAND 3530 Planning, Design, and Analysis (3 hrs.) Approaches to planning, design, and analysis techniques in landscape architecture. The relationship between applied theories and methods and the environmental, social, and cultural context of projects.
    2. LAND 3540 Dwelling and Community (2 hrs.) Concepts and theories of residential and neighborhood form.

  3. The following required courses contain a much more comprehensive exposure to cultural diversity:
    1. LAND 1500 Design and the Environment (3 hrs.) Meets full Environmental Ethics Requirement and deals with integrating ecological, social, and cultural values.
    2. LAND 2510 History of the Built Environment I (3 hrs.) Ancient through Renaissance periods, design of the built environment relative to socio-cultural, technological, aesthetic, and environmental factors.
    3. LAND 2520 History of the Built Environment II (3 hrs.) 1600 A.D. to the present.
    4. EDES 4650/6650 City Planning (3 hrs.) Research paper on a selected topic and presentation to class.

  4. There are a large number of other courses which have considerable "cultural" content or which, depending on the project selected could have (and often do). All students complete the program with a comprehensive design project, which must take all primary factors into consideration (environmental, social, cultural, economic, etc.)  LAND 4900.

  5. All students are required to do an internship during the summer between their 4th and 5th years. These internships are in professional design practices or in public agencies. LAND 4700 Landscape Architecture Internship (8 hrs. minimum of two months).

  6. All students are exposed to field trips and studies which are built into eight required four-hour design studios which are taken during each semester of the four final years in the program (LAND 2010, LAND 2020, LAND 3030, LAND 3040, LAND 4050/6050, LAND 4060, LAND 4070/6070, and LAND 4080/6080 or LAND 4150/6150).

  7. The School also has elective summer field studies or studies abroad in Cortona (Italy), an East Coast Field Trip (2 weeks) and a West Coast Field Trip (2 weeks).  LAND 4800/6800.
Because virtually all of the above are requirements for graduation from the program, our compliance monitor will be our Director of Resident (Undergraduate) Instruction.