Landscape Architecture Major

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The undergraduate Landscape Architecture degree program received its initial professional accreditation from the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board (LAAB) in 1978. Our most recent accreditation review was successfully completed in May of 2018. We remain the only accredited undergraduate Landscape Architecture program in the University of California system.

Program Mission

We strive to prepare our students to be future leaders in landscape architecture. Our program offers students a well-rounded, general education, while, at the same time, providing the skills and technical expertise necessary for a professional career. The curriculum includes breadth in the humanities, social sciences and environmental sciences, to help students understand the complex relationships between human cultures, the built environment and natural systems. Our design philosophy, present throughout our coursework, is to increase the quality of life through the development and preservation of landscape design and planning processes that are meaningful, relevant and sustainable. Meaningful in that they reinforce sense of self, sense of place, and sense of community; relevant in that they provide solutions to environmental problems rather than contributing to them; sustainable in that they embody long-term, permanently beneficial relationship between human culture and the physical/natural environment.

Latest News

March 24, 2021

Professor and Associate Dean, Patsy Eubanks Owens, was inducted into the CELA Academy of Fellows. You can find the full press release here. Congratulations, Patsy!!

December 14, 2020

Professor Haven Kiers, a Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) Research Fellow, along with UCD student Elyse Mack and a top-performing landscape project, the Salesforce Transit Center, have been selected to participate in LAF’s 2021 Case Study Investigation (CSI) program. Faculty-student teams will work with designers to develop case study briefs for LAF's Performace Series. For more information, visit the LAF site here.

December 12, 2020

Professor and Associate Dean, Patsy Eubanks Owens, was recently quoted in an article on Bloomberg's website titled, "There’s No Room for Teens in the Pandemic City: With schools remote, sports canceled, and libraries closed, teenagers in many U.S. cities find themselves unwelcome in parks and public spaces." To read the full article, please see here.

September 21, 2020

This past June, Professor and Associate Dean, Patsy Eubanks Owens, had a new book released by Routledge. Titled, "The Routledge Handbook of Designing Public Spaces for Young People: Processes, Practices and Policies for Youth Inclusion", Owens, senior editor and contributing author, worked alongside Janet Loebach, Sarah Little and Adina Cox, all of who were editors and contributing authors.

For more information on the book and its release, please see here.

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September 8, 2020

Hilary Huang, a UC Davis Landscape Architecture graduate of 2020, received the Research Honor Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). To see her work, "Learn, Play, Thrive—Design Guidelines and Toolkit of Therapeutic Gardens for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder", which was advised by faculty member Yiwei Huang, please visit ASLA's website here.

August 21, 2020

A celebration of Professor Emeritus Mark Francis' life and work, with video notes from colleagues, friends, and loved ones.