Master of Landscape Architecture
LAAB-Accredited, STEM Degree
Landscape Architects plan, design, manage, and nurture built and natural environments. With their unique skill set, landscape architects work to improve human and environmental health in all communities. Virginia Tech’s accredited Master of Landscape Architecture degree combines design and design-thinking, creative invention and problem-solving, natural and human sciences, and community collaboration. Students may also pursue simultaneous masters degrees in Natural Resources (MNR) or Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) as well as graduate certificates offered across the university.
All students are required to completed studies or demonstrate previous work in knowledge and skills required by the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board for our accredited degree. The MLA program uses an individual program of study model culminates in an individual masters thesis.
Program faculty guide students as they develop and expand greater understandings of the complex interrelationships between people and the physical environment. Students explore more sustainable and resilient futures through planning, designing, and managing landscapes that integrate natural processes, public and individual needs, and societal vision. Students often engage with communities across the region to address real issues on real sites.
MLA students enter the program in one of three tracks:
3-Year Track for students entering the MLA program as a first professional degree program. Typically, students are coming from a different undergraduate study and do not have a design background. Our students have diverse educational and personal backgrounds and experience.
2/ 2+ Year Track for students entering the MLA program with an accredited undergraduate degree in landscape architecture or an allied discipline. Students are granted advanced standing for coursework previously covered.
1-Year plus a Thesis Track for seasoned professionals with work experience desiring an advanced degree that builds upon their professional knowledge and skill sets through focused studies in an individually tailored program.
Contact the program to schedule a visit or discuss the program.
Degree resources
The foundational year focuses on seeing the landscape as a place, and as complex set of natural and human systems. Students investigate broad issues beyond what is immediately visible and develop design processes and design-thinking while engaging in place-making that addresses design challenges and problems.
All students must demonstrate previous coursework in the follwing areas or complete coursework in: foundational design studios, visual representation, landform grading and drainage, landscape ecology or natural systems, plan identification, and professional practice.
The program focuses on the design studio as a laboratoryy of exploration and discovery that integrates supporting coursework in history, theory and methods, and landscape engineering and technologies. Students explore community engaged design practices while addressing complex envorinmental, social, and political issues affecting the planning, design, and management of landscapes and places in rural, exurban, and urban settings.
The curriculum uses a Program of Study approach that insures all students complete course content that meets the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board's list of curriculum standards.
Students are encouraged to pursue professional internships or related employement to gain greater knowledge and career preparation. Students may also participate in faculty-directed research projects.
All MLA students complete a thesis that explores an area of landscape architecture they are intrigued with. In preparation for the thesis, students take a course on Scholarship in Landscape Architecture and focused elective courses drawn from across the university that provide a foundation and topical depth to their area of inquiry. The thesis includes a literature review and case studies that guide speculative design exploration and critical reflection.