Princeville, N.C., has seen tough times. In recent years, hurricanes have ravaged the town, and many residents left the area. But some don’t want to give up on their home, which was the nation’s first town incorporated by African-Americans. Standing with them are NC State landscape architecture professors and students who are helping the community chart a path to its future.
Andy Fox and Kofi Boone Featured in Alumni Magazine for Work in Princeville
Princeville, N.C., has seen tough times. In recent years, hurricanes have ravaged the town, and many residents left the area. But some don’t want to give up on their home, which was the nation’s first town incorporated by African-Americans. Standing with them are NC State landscape architecture professors and students who are helping the community chart a path to its future.
 With 20 years of research and implementation under their belts, NLI founders, Nilda Cosco, Ph.D. and Robin Moore, MCP, Hon. ASLA, are using WolfWare Outreach to teach educators and designers to promote, create and manage new types of nature-based learning environments.
Natural Learning Initiative Takes Education Outdoors with WolfWare Outreach
With 20 years of research and implementation under their belts, NLI founders, Nilda Cosco, Ph.D. and Robin Moore, MCP, Hon. ASLA, are using WolfWare Outreach to teach educators and designers to promote, create and manage new types of nature-based learning environments.

Landscape architects combine critical design thinking, planning and design, and knowledge of physical and social sciences, to engage situations of landscape involving health, safety, and wellbeing.

program or department head

Department Head

Meg Calkins, FASLA

Professor and Department Head of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning

T: (919) 515-8342  E: mecalkin@ncsu.edu

MLA PROGRAM_GUIDE

Download MLA Program Guide

The department of landscape architecture and environmental planning’s fully accredited program has a rich legacy built on preparing graduate students for the rigors of professional practice, research, leadership, and community engagement. Students combine critical design thinking talents with intelligence, creativity, and passion to frame, engage, experiment, and challenge the questions, problems, and opportunities involving diverse landscape situations.

Our mission is to teach, learn, research, and apply state of the art practices that create innovative and resilient landscapes focused on human and ecosystem health, safety, well-being, social equity, and quality of life.  As supporters of the New Landscape Declaration, we emphasize evidence-based inquiry and design thinking that positions students and graduates to engage with and propel the landscape architecture profession into the future as it evolves in response to environmental and societal imperatives.

We prepare the next generation of landscape architects to engage challenges and opportunities focused on:

  • Landscape dynamics and resilient design;
  • Community planning and design;
  • Design for children and families;
  • Research and evidence-based design strategies; and
  • Emerging digital design tools for representation, simulation, and evaluation.

First Professional LAAB Degree (TRACK III) is intended for graduate students with undergraduate degrees in fields other than landscape architecture, architecture, or related design fields.

View Track III Curriculum

First Professional LAAB Degree, Advanced Standing (TRACK II) is intended for:
• graduate students with degrees in landscape architecture, architecture, or related design programs that are not LAAB accredited, or
• graduate students obtaining concurrent degrees in architecture, urban design or urban planning

View Track II Curriculum

MLA Post Professional Degree (TRACK I) is intended for graduate students with prior LAAB accredited degrees in landscape architecture.

View Track I Curriculum

undergraduate image

Undergraduate degree no longer offered in LAR

However, it is possible for NC State University undergraduate students to take certain landscape architecture and environmental planning courses as electives, within the context of an Undergraduate Minor in Landscape Architecture from within their current majors. This would give the student advanced standing in the NC State University First Professional Master of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Program should they decide to apply and be accepted.

For advising and approval, please contact the Head of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, Meg Calkins, FASLA, mecalkin@ncsu.edu.

Students participating in the Landscape Architecture minor are pursuing a wide variety of majors, including:
  • Design Studies and Architecture from within the NC State College of Design
  • Landscape Horticulture from within the NC State Department of Horticultural Sciences
  • Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management and Forest and Environmental Resources from within the NC State College of Natural Resources
  • Civil Engineering from within the NC State College of Engineering

Our students, faculty, and local design community seek to understand the impact of human actions on the land and to respond with community-based design strategies. We are dedicated to teaching, researching, and practicing design processes that acknowledge the interdependence of built landscapes and ecological, social, and economic systems.

The department offers three main academic curriculum tracks:

  • First Professional Masters of Landscape Architecture
  • Post-Professional 48-credit-hour Masters of Landscape Architecture
  • Post-Professional 30-credit-hour Masters of Landscape Architecture

The department also offers the following certificates and programs:

  • Inter-Institutional Study
  • Graduate Minors and Certificate Programs

The first half of the academic program prepares students for the current practice and discipline of landscape architecture. It equips them with the core knowledge base, tools, processes, and skills in design, site works, history and theory, planning, research and the culture of professional practice.

The second half of the academic program propels students into the profession and discipline of the future that they will help evolve and lead. It positions students to pursue substantive inquiry into their own, those of the faculty, and those of the larger extended community. Students master bodies of knowledge, pursue evidence-based research, and hone verbal, written, and graphic communication skills.

Throughout their program of study, students combine critical design thinking talents with their intelligence, creativity, and passions to frame, engage and challenge the questions, problems, and situations of landscape that involve health, safety, wellbeing, and quality of life.

View the 2019 MLA Program Handbook

RA/TA opportunities + Scholarship opportunities

Questions? Contact our willing and knowledgeable: LAR student leaders  |  LAR faculty


Director of Graduate Programs

Carla Radoslovich Delcambre, ASLA, PLA

Carla Radoslovich Delcambre, ASLA, PLA

Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning
Email: cfdelcam@ncsu.edu
Phone: (919) 513-4320

First Professional Masters of Landscape Architecture - for students without an undergraduate degree in landscape architecture

The Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning offers an accredited first professional degree program in landscape architecture at the master’s (MLA) level. The curriculum is designed to meet both the requirements of the NCSU Graduate School and the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board (LAAB), a national organization chartered by the US Department of Education and recognized by the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA). Advanced standing in the program may be given on a case-by-case basis depending on prior coursework in landscape architecture and other design disciplines (architecture, urban design).

Post-Professional 48-credit-hour Masters of Landscape Architecture

This is a non-accredited 48-credit-hour program for students who already hold an accredited Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA) degree.

 

This program is intended for those wanting to pursue advanced course work and research reflective of program faculty and student interest and expertise with the main purpose to advance knowledge and capability of the discipline and practice of landscape architecture. The program of study requires specific course work in design and research and completion of graduate level elective courses offered by the department, college, or university. Advanced standing in the program may be given on a case-by-case basis depending upon prior academic course work in landscape architecture and other design disciplines. Advising and scholarly mentoring are graciously provided by the faculty, the Director of the Graduate Program and the Department Head.

Post-Professional 30-credit-hour Masters of Landscape Architecture

This is a non-accredited 30-credit-hour program for students who already hold an accredited Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA) degree and are Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB) registered. Advanced standing in the program may be given on a case-by-case basis depending upon prior academic course work in landscape architecture and other design disciplines.

Graduate Minors and Certificate Programs

Graduate minors are available to all students and consist of nine credit hours of courses, in another graduate degree granting discipline, listed as 400-level or above. A member of that degree’s faculty may serve as a third member of the student’s final project committee. Certificates offered in GIS, Public Policy and Horticultural Science may be of particular interest. Please visit the Graduate School website for more information.

 

Certificates and Concentrations are opportunities to add a specialization to a graduate degree in landscape architecture and reflect faculty depth in a particular area of inquiry.

 

Graduate Certificate in City Design

The City Design Certificate is offered jointly by the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning and the School of Architecture.

 

More information

Inter-Institutional Study

Students at NC State University may also register for courses at local universities (UNC–Chapel Hill, UNC-Greensboro, and Duke University) paying NC State University credit fees.  Our students have an exceptional range of courses and programs open to them through these inter-institutional study opportunities.

 

A cooperative agreement between the NCSU Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning and the UNC-Chapel Hill’s Department of City and Regional Planning exists that enables students to matriculate in both programs and earn CONCURRENT degrees from both institutions.  Certain elective requirements from each program are reduced to facilitate matriculation.  Students must comply with each institution’s specific policies and rules governing matriculation.  Please seek advisement to discuss your interests and matriculation plans with the department heads at both institutions.

 

Students may also take courses at the other Raleigh colleges that are members of the Cooperating Raleigh Colleges organization. (Currently Meredith College is the only one of these colleges to offer graduate-level courses.)