The Master of Landscape Architecture is a 90 credit hour curriculum. The program plan (or advising sheet) can be found here: Master of Landscape Architecture advising sheet
The academic curriculum consists of:
- Sequential and integrated design studios
- Core lecture and seminar courses
- Research and elective opportunities, including professional internships and thesis
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. 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 CU Denver schools and colleges. The MLA curriculum
provides opportunities to facilitate the offering and testing of new
courses in response to timely interests of faculty and students.
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.
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
The Department of Landscape Architecture faculty
is committed to developing and implementing efficient and effective
processes of assessment and evaluation to advance student
learning, teaching effectiveness and program quality. The program’s
five broad objectives and student learning outcomes provide the faculty
and students with a shared understanding of the goals
directing the curriculum. Students are expected to be proficient or
above in each of these areas by the time they graduate from the program.
Design: Students
will be able to formulate questions and arguments about landscape and
landscape’s role as a significant cultural medium; determine processes
and practices that lead to conceptual, analytical and formative actions
that transform existing situations into preferred alternatives based on
ethical, communicative and content knowledge criteria.
Ethics: Students will
be able to critically evaluate local and global ramifications of social
issues, diverse cultures, economic systems, ecological systems and
professional practice as guiding principles for design thinking and
implementation.
- Communication and Representation: Students will be able to speak, write, create and employ appropriate representational media to effectively convey ideas on subject matter contained in the professional curriculum to a variety of audiences.
- Content Knowledge:
Students will be able to develop a critical understanding and
application of the histories, theories, ethics and practices of
landscape architecture, and its role in reflecting and shaping culture
and environments.
- Research:
Students will be able to understand and apply appropriate research
methods for design and scholarship in landscape architecture.
THESIS
The graduate thesis in landscape architecture provides an opportunity
for students to conduct independent research and design investigations
that demonstrate their capacity for rigorous original thinking.
The thesis is not required for graduation and not all students are
approved to write a thesis. Choosing to pursue a thesis project
constitutes a significant commitment to the endeavor; the topic must be
chosen with care and thoughtfully and critically developed. Topics can
explore material that has been previously unstudied, reinterpret
existing material in a new light, or engage research and design
practices in ways that strengthen and define a final design project. For
all theses, the research and products must meet the highest standards
of academic excellence and contribute significantly to the discipline
and/or profession. The thesis can be a traditional written and
research-based thesis or a design thesis.
Pursuing a thesis requires students to enroll in a three-course
sequence for a maximum total of 12 semester hours. Students are required
to formulate their research proposals two full semesters prior to their
enrollment for the 6-semester-hour thesis, typically taken in lieu of
the final studio. To proceed through the sequence, students must have
completed and passed the research tools and methods class (LDAR 6940)
and have secured departmental approval of the thesis proposal.
The completion of the thesis is dependent on acceptance of the
student’s work by the faculty member acting as the thesis chair and by
the committee. For work to be accepted it must meet the standards
established by the University of Colorado Denver for graduate thesis
projects. For more information on the thesis process and examples of theses click here (forthcoming).