Landscape Architecture (LAND)
Hands-On Learning
Environmental Design Core
Anchored through a combination of lecture courses and studio instruction, our core curriculum builds upon studios where students solve design problems at interrelated scales of the built environment: buildings, landscapes and urban systems.
- Intro to environmental product of design, 8-week studio
- Intro to architecture, 8-week studio
- Core technology 1
- ENVD Colloquium
- Core lecture: Design Theory & Thinking
- Intro to landscape architecture, 8-week studio
- Intro to sustainable planning & urban design, 8-week studio
- Core technology 2
- Core lecture: History of the Built Environment
- Choice of core design studio, 8-week studio
- Choice of core design studio, 8-week studio
- Core technology 3
- Core lecture: Ecology & Design
- Core lecture: Planning & Implementation
Students pursue in-depth projects and gain specialized skills necessary for pre-professional work or graduate study through upper-division course work.
Intro to Landscape Architecture
The third of four introductory studios expose students to concepts and strategies inherent to the practice of landscape architecture. Students analyze and design ecological related systems within an urban context in this immersive studio environment.
Fundamentals of Landscape Architecture
Building on skills learned from the introductory studio, this course expands the skills and knowledge needed for the practice of landscape architecture. With a focus on resilient design and exploration through multiple scales, students design ecological systems in an urban context.
Foundations of Landscape Architecture
Introduces essential landscape architecture skills through a project-based studio, builds on design literacy, incorporates varied ecological processes, explores landscape as a medium for connecting the natural and cultural, develops analog and digital communication tools and focuses on the importance of place-making.
Intermediate Landscape Architecture
Building on skills established in Studio A, this studio advances the understanding of the practice of landscape architecture by incorporating projects through community engagement or other real-world applications. This studio builds on digital technologies and drawing and graphic communication skills.
Capstone in Landscape Architecture
Building on skills established in 2nd Studio, the studio refines the student's practice of landscape architecture through a design-build project or other applied, hands-on design project. The studio introduces critical concepts, strategies and advanced technical skills in order to address the pressing issues that can be addressed through landscape architecture.
ENVD Core
3 semesters of ENVD core
Interdisciplinary
six eight-week design studios
5-credit
technology course sequence
4
sixteen-week major design studios
Be visionary.
Experiential learning is a core component of design education with students engaging in design, build and fabrication activities.
Major Objectives
- Develop site-related formal design concepts supported by in-depth analysis of local and regional ecological and cultural systems.
- Use design thinking techniques to conduct a methodical and iterative design process.
- Function collaboratively as part of a team of designers who set goals, schedules, and delegate tasks to produce a unified vision.
- Communicate design concepts using a variety of visual representational techniques and media including: analog drafting, rendering, and modeling; digital drafting, rendering, 3d modeling; and digital fabrication methods such as 3d printing and laser cutting.
- Communicate complex concepts, verbally and in writing, to a variety of audiences.
- Identify major historical and theoretical movements in landscape architecture, and relate each to its cultural, environmental, intellectual, economic, and political contexts.
- Understand and analyze the interactions between people and natural systems with the goal of designing resilient ecological systems.
- Identify and design with plant species adapted to local, regional, and novel ecosystems using techniques appropriate for stormwater management and green infrastructure, habitat cultivation, and placemaking.
- Design with landform to support programmatic function and cultural experience using techniques appropriate for stormwater management and green infrastructure.
B.EnvD Objectives
Critical Thinking
Students will use creative, critical, and convergent thinking to address social and environmental issues through precedents, theory, research, and problem‐defining techniques in order to analyze the need for and impact of design solutions.
ʰDz‐SDZԲ
Through iterative design students will develop conceptual or material solutions to socio‐environmental issues by synthesizing critical feedback and collaborative findings with their peers and the communities that they engage.
Communication & Representation
Students will employ graphic, verbal, written, spatial, and other communication strategies in order to organize, demonstrate and argue for design concepts and proposals.
Stewardship & Sustainability
Students will apply tenets of social and environmental justice through design stewardship and sustainability to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of all project constituents.
Technical Skills & Methodologies
Students will develop the foundational technical skills and learn to apply the methodologies necessary to enter the academic and professional disciplines of environmental design.
Meet Current Students
Rachel Martino
Landscape architecture allows Rachel to combine a passion for design and beauty with a deep appreciation for ecology and sustainability.
Logan Shockey
The program has changed the way Logan views his relationship with the planet - he now feels like part of a larger system rather than one individual organism.
Maya Handelman
The impact the outdoors has had on her life and wanting to connect people with nature led Maya to pursue landscape architecture.
Emily VanGuilder
Emily found that the ENVD community is a unique combination of camaraderie and competition, but ultimately everyone is here to support each other.
2+
internships completed on average by
ENVD students before graduation
80%
of students were hired in design fields
within three months of graduation*
Most
environmental design
grads in the U.S.
Beyond Graduation
Careers in Landscape Architecture
Landscape Architecture majors might work in the following areas and institutions:
Small, medium, or large landscape architectural firms
Multidisciplinary firms that also provide urban planning and architectural design services
Engineering firms
Federal agencies, such as the Army Corps of Engineers or the National Parks Service
Local government agencies, such as city parks and planning departments
Nonprofit organizations
Botanical gardens
University campus planning departments
Academia
Meet our Alumni
Gardener
Denver Botanic Gardens, Chatfield Farms
Denver
Pathway to Licensure
B.EnvD Licensure Statement
The Bachelors in Environmental Design (B.EnvD) at the University of Colorado Boulder is a pioneering and integrative approach to education and research that will shape the future of design. The B.EnvD program orients students to the creation of healthy and sustainable communities with attention to social justice and economic vitality. Built upon strong traditions within the design fields, including architecture and landscape architecture, we are an inclusive and creative community committed to enriching our built, social and natural environments.
While completing the B.EnvD at Boulder will not by itself meet the education requirements for professional licensure in either architecture or landscape architecture in any state, it is possible that the degree and the specific courses taken might count toward licensing requirements in some states. If you are planning to eventually seek professional licensure as an architect or landscape architect, it is strongly recommended that you contact the appropriate licensing entity in the state in which you plan to practice in order to seek information and guidance regarding licensure requirements, including the educational component of those requirements. It is important to remember that licensing requirements are state specific, and differ greatly from one state to another.