The Landscape Architecture program offers first professional and advanced professional graduate degree courses leading to the Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) degree.
The first-professional degree program, requiring a six-semester sequence of course work totaling 90 semester hours, is fully accredited by the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board (LAAB) and recognized by the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA).
View the general MLA curriculum here.
Advanced Standing
If you complete the Bachelor of Environmental Design (BENVD) on the University of Colorado Boulder campus, or complete an undergraduate design degree at another institution, you are given advanced standing in the three-year program and must complete at least 65 semester hours of credit.
If you have already earned a professional degree in landscape architecture or related discipline, you will qualify for the advanced professional degree program and may only need to take 48 semester hours. Advanced standing status is evaluated on a case-by-case basis and will be determined in accordance with prior academic accomplishments (as demonstrated in the application portfolio and transcript).
Prerequisites
You are expected to have achieved a basic level of computer literacy prior to enrolling in your first semester of classes. A graphics workshop is recommended if you do not have a background in drawing or computer graphics. The workshop is scheduled each year before the beginning of the fall semester.
Program Delivery
The academic curriculum consists of:
- Sequential and integrated design studios
- Core lecture and seminar courses
- Research and elective opportunities, including a professional internship
Core themes, theories, precedents, technologies, and skills of the profession are developed in the lecture and seminar courses. You will develop design capabilities in studio courses.
Curriculum integration is achieved through deliberate internal coordination within the program, and through collaboration with other programs within the College as well as with other UCD schools and colleges. The MLA curriculum provides opportunities to facilitate the offering and testing of new courses which respond to timely interests of faculty and students.
The Department of Landscape Architecture views inquiry, both individual and collective, as the means to invent, energize, inform, and evaluate design ideas, processes and results. The curriculum emphasizes and values design and the design process coupled with knowledge and capability in the theories, technologies, sciences, arts, materials and methods associated with the practice of Landscape Architecture.
Professional practitioners representing consulting firms and governmental agencies of regional, national, and international distinction share in, and contribute to the life of, the Department. They teach courses, participate in reviews, host internships and office visits, give presentations, exhibit their works, and mentor and interact at personal levels with students and faculty.
The Program's strengths lie in its broad view of Landscape Architecture, its support for the interests of the faculty, the discourse among faculty and students, and its associations with allied programs, the professional community and the community at-large. Successful graduates pursue diverse practices and occupations in public and private arenas, and make positive differences in the quality of our environment.
Dual Degrees
Dual degrees are now offered:
Master of Landscape Architecture
- With the Master of Architecture (MLA – MArch)
- With the Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MLA - MURP)
Contact the Graduate Program Office to secure detailed descriptions of each. In every instance the total credit requirement of the Dual Degree is considerably less than would be needed if each degree were independently pursued.
Master of Urban Design Degree
Students completing the Master of Landscape Architecture degree can get advanced standing in the College's Master of Urban Design program. The Master of Urban Design (MUD) is an intensive, one-year, interdisciplinary post-professional degree program intended for talented persons already holding a professional degree in architecture, landscape architecture or urban and regional planning (e.g. BArch, BLA, MArch, MLA, MURP/MUP).
The Master of Urban Design (MUD) program provides up to 12 credits of advanced standing toward the degree for students completing their MLA in the College. For more information on the MUD degree, click here.
For information on applying to the Landscape Architecture program, learn about the three steps of the application process.