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Landscape architecture is a combination of art and science focusing on today’s most important issues: the health of our environment and the well being of people. Landscape architects use skills and knowledge in design and environmental technology to create places of meaning, ecological performance and beauty. Landscape architects are social activists in the sense that they shape the very spaces and systems that define our everyday lives. From beloved parks and gardens to creating green infrastructures for energy, food and water resources, landscape architecture is an exciting and diverse profession.

What distinguishes the Landscape Architecture program at Northeastern?

Urban Focus

As our world rapidly urbanized and industrializes, experts in urban landscape are increasingly in demand – and the Landscape Architecture program as well as Northeastern University as a whole is focused specifically on urban issues.

Faculty

The School of Architecture has an outstanding faculty that brings research and real-world expertise to the classroom.

Interdisciplinary learning: Landscape Architecture majors at Northeastern have exciting opportunities to collaborate with students and learn from faculty in allied fields such as architecture, urban studies, ecology, civil and environmental engineering.

Co-op

At Northeastern, students are immersed in an academic environment that combines classroom learning with hands-on, experiential learning opportunities through the renowned co-op program.

Boston

Boston is home to a number of internationally recognized works and practitioners of Landscape Architecture.  Northeastern students enjoy a rich educational environment, which includes interaction with these people and projects through lectures, field trips, case studies and co-ops.

What are the job prospects in Landscape Architecture?

The Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts the profession of Landscape Architecture to grow at up to 20% over the next five years.  In 2010 US News & World Report named it “a top 50 profession” in terms of job prospects and quality of life.

Landscape architects are designers and scientists.  They are active in firms ranging from small, signature practices to global corporations; in public agencies such as urban design departments, state and national parks; in law, policy and environmental management programs as well as many other fields.  Landscape architects, for example, are developing planting and re-grading strategies for industrial sites that can remediate soil and prepare the land for future sustainable development.  Landscape architects are collaborating with urban planners to propose new, productive roles –such as urban agriculture - for vacant lots in response to “shrinking cities” initiatives.  Landscape architects are active in the design of open spaces that incorporate the latest thinking in sustainability for all communities, from nature and wild life systems to human populations.

A bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture allows students to pursue any environmental-related field.

For more information on the profession of landscape architecture, see the American Society of Landscape Architects at www.asla.org.

Northeastern University offers a BLA in Urban Landscape. This new major reflects a growing public interest in making our cities more sustainable, and in bringing the insights of landscape architects to join those of urban designers and architects. This hybrid field has deep roots in design, ecology, planning and aesthetics, and in the past 15 years has come to play an ever more important role in the design of new places, as well as the retrofitting of our older, post-industrial landscapes. An inherently interdisciplinary program, Urban Landscape will involve collaborations with other academic units on campus

As part of their studies, students are enrolled in two six-month co-ops during which they have paid employment. This allows students to gain real world experience in landscape architecture that aids them in both their academic development and in professional advancement. Co-op experience can often be applied to one’s IDP credits.