News + Events

The School of Design and its programs will be at the upcoming Open House Nov. 11th and 12th as part of the Majors Fair held in Squires Student Center in the Commonwealth Ballroom from 11:45am to 2:30pm. The Landscape Architecture program will also be holding Virtual Open House sessions on Nov. 13th and Dec. 7th from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. The Zoom information can be found here. If you have any questions about the Virtual Open House, please reach out to Terry Clements (tclement@vt.edu) or Mintai Kim (mkim07@vt.edu).

The Symposium, in collaboration with the VA ASLA, showcases Landscape Architecture Program faculty and Ph.D. candidates' work. Come to Blacksburg, connect with landscape architects, earn LACES CEUs, and meet the newest faculty in the Landscape Architecture Program. There will also be displays of current student work and the 2022 VA ASLA Professional and Student Award winning projects. Register for the Symposium here.

The Industrial Design program is celebrating its 25th anniversary! Alumni are invited to the 2024 Biennial Reunion in Blacksburg on March 22nd to March 24th. Reconnect with your fellow alums and celebrate this momentus occasion. Milestone alumni will be treated to a complimentary and exclusive "Breakfast with the Dean" and a special gift. Register for the event here.

Landscape Architecture, Industrial Design, Interior Design and Business students are traveling a transect through Western Europe, exploring site design, product design and manufacture, and marketing. Students spend their days studying the design of built places and things, observing cultural and social practices. Evening seminars use discussions of individual sketchbooks, and conversation about discovered curiosities, and challenges to bring focus on the relationships between people, places, and culture.

LAR 4014/5015G landscape architecture students worked with students, faculty and staff in the College of Natural Resources and the Environment and the Division of Campus Planning, Infrastructure, and Facilities to develop site designs around Cheatham Hall that would facilitate social interactions and community building for the college. CNRE Dean Paul Winistorfer invited students to rethink the grounds and propose outdoor space improvements that would provide spaces to meet, hold outdoor classes, and relax. Plans incorporated existing alumni and legacy trees, places for small gatherings and larger areas for college-wide events. This community engagement project resulted in 11 approaches improving the main entry and front courtyard, 11 alternatives for the north lawn, and 22 for the green space between Cheatham and Deitrick Halls.

The LAR 2016/4706 studio focused on site-scale design, tying together and experimenting with the design of topography, water systems, vegetation, structures, materials, movement, and activities. In the first 6 weeks students were introduced to fieldwork methods and techniques, investigative representation modalities, and designing at a scale beyond the domestic or everyday. During the second half of the semester, students tackled what to do with a hole in the ground, speculating on futures for the Virginia Tech Quarry as the Hokie Stone mining is played out.

Over two semesters, fifth year BLA students identified contemporary challenges to the design of our built environment for exploration. In each individual research project, students developed integrated design solutions that reimagined ways to address climate change, sea level rise, phytoremediation of disaster and former industrial sites, post frack sand mined landscapes and environmental education. Others addressed urban burial practices, neighborhood redevelopment, open space design for teenagers, and design of therapeutic landscapes for people at risk.