News
2007 ASLA Student Awards:
Julia Watson, Megumi Aihara, Takuma Ono, and Eric Gordon received a General Design Honor Award for their work on Pte Oyate Academy. Their faculty Advisor was Scheri Fultineer. For more information see the ASLA Website.
Welcome to the Department of Landscape Architecture
With the continuing expansion of our cities and suburban areas, landscape architects increasingly serve not only as designers, but also as advocates of landscape rescue and conservation. They are called upon to create landscapes that respond to the broad range of human habitation in diverse cultural and ecological contexts. The profession of landscape architecture is rich in scope, ranging from the design of urban landscapes such as New York City's Central Park, to the reclamation of brownfields, to the ecological planning of large tracts of land such as the regional watershed management of the western United States.
Landscape architecture instruction at the GSD fosters students' inventiveness and creativity and cultivates the skills required for informed decision making. Students are encouraged to draw from historical precedents, art, design theory, civil engineering, and site analysis. Instruction also emphasizes the process of land planning and ecological analysis and the study of social, economic, legal, environmental, and policy issues affecting the design process.
The design studio provides the core of learning and inquiry; instruction and research emphasize critical analysis and a breadth of understanding in design, visual studies, theory, history, professional practice, and scientific research. The students' experience is also enriched by interactions with other GSD departments and with the Harvard University Art Museums, the Arnold Arboretum, the Harvard Forest, and Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C. Cross-cultural and multidisciplinary perspectives on design problems and practices are offered by visiting faculty from other nations and other professional backgrounds.
Niall Kirkwood, Department Chair