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.
Department Head
Meg Calkins, FASLA
Professor and Department Head of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning
T: (919) 515-8342 E: mecalkin@ncsu.edu
Program Information
The Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) is a STEM-designated degree and fully accredited program that prepares graduate students for the rigors of professional practice, research, leadership, and community engagement. Students combine critical design thinking with creativity, and passion to address diverse landscape architecture and environmental planning projects.
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.
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.
- 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
Program Information
The department offers three main academic curriculum tracks:
- First Professional Masters of Landscape Architecture (Track III)
- First Professional Masters of Landscape Architecture, Advanced Standing (Track II)
- Post-Professional Degree (Track I)
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, well-being, and quality of life.
View the 2020-21 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
Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental PlanningEmail: cfdelcam@ncsu.edu
Phone: (919) 513-4320
First Professional Masters of Landscape Architecture (Track III)
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.
First Professional Master's of Landscape Architecture, Advanced Standing (Track II)
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
Post-Professional Masters of Landscape Architecture (Track I)
MLA Post Professional Degree (TRACK I) is intended for graduate students with prior LAAB accredited degrees in landscape architecture.
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.
Disaster Resilient Policy, Engineering and Design Certificate: (NEW Fall 2020) The imperative motivating the Graduate Certificate in Disaster Resilient Policy, Engineering and Design is to educate the next generation of practitioners and scholars to apply knowledge gained in the classroom and in the field to reduce the rise in disaster losses and assist communities to adapt to a changing climate. The aims of the certificate reflect the NC State vision of “Think and Do”, to include using evidence-based information, assessing existing policy constraints and opportunities, and visually depicting examples of policy achieved through good planning, engineering and design.
City Design Certificate: The Graduate Certificate in City Design focuses on design at the scale of the city, and within neighborhoods and urban districts. Studios and seminars focus on the challenges, and opportunities facing communities and cities in the 21st century, with a particular emphasis upon principles of sustainability and urban ecology.
Public Interest Design Certificate: Public Interest Design (PID) is a participatory and issue-based design practice that places emphasis on the “triple bottom line” of sustainable design that includes environmental, economic, and social challenges across the world. PID seeks to broaden access to the benefits of sustainable design to all.
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.)