Department History

The first professional program in landscape architecture in the Pacific Northwest was established at the Oregon State Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) in Corvallis, Oregon, in 1928. The program offered a four-year Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture. At the beginning of the 1932–33 academic year, degree granting in landscape architecture was transferred to the University of Oregon in Eugene, where it was expanded to a five-year Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA) program. The Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) degree was established the following year in 1933–34, but few degrees were awarded until the 1970s, at which time the program expanded to become comparable in size to the BLA program. Originally, landscape architecture was a program within the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, which did not reorganize into departments until 1964–65. A PhD program in landscape architecture was established in 2005. In 2017, the School of Architecture and Allied Arts reorganized into the College of Design. As part of the reorganization, Landscape Architecture joined Architecture, Interior Architecture and Historic Preservation in a new School of Architecture and Environment.

For more than 80 years, the principal objective of the landscape architecture curriculum has been balancing a professional and liberal arts education. Oregon has a long history of educational experimentation in design. Studio courses are ungraded and a cooperative, non-competitive educational environment has always been fostered. A major strength of Oregon's program has been its rich liberal arts setting and its direct associations with architecture, planning, art, and history of art and architecture in a school that describes itself as being "about the history, teaching and practice of the arts."

The department has a long history of providing service to state and local communities. What is now termed service learning has a long legacy in the department with examples ranging from built work to planning studies. The state and local community have been national leaders in environmental legislation and awareness, landscape design, sustainable development and land use planning. We have always capitalized on these progressive policies and our regional landscape is a major part of our students' educational experience.

In the 1970s the undergraduate curriculum, which had been relatively stable for more than 40 years, was revised in response to a rapidly expanding profession, new environmental awareness, an enlarged meaning of the concept of landscape, and challenges within the state to professional licensure. New courses were added in landscape planning analysis, landscape history and theory, and an environmental geologist joined a fundamentally design-oriented faculty to help 'design with nature'. An expansion of the MLA program as a post-professional degree added new dimensions of experience and maturity to the BLA experience. In the 1990s, the teaching of landscape ecology had become central to the curriculum along with the use of digital tools at all levels. In the 2000s, instruction in urban design was strengthened and a focus on sustainable urbanism took hold. The first doctoral student was admitted in 2006 and the program now enjoys a strong, international cadre of students who work intensively with faculty on high-level scholarship and contribute extensively to the life of the department.

Each decade, new faculty have joined the department and, as a consequence, the department has changed, carefully maintaining core traditions that serve its students and faculty while embracing new ideas and emerging imperatives. The strength of the present program reflects the talents and unique contributions of individuals with diverse backgrounds and experience who work collaboratively to guide the department and its programs. Our long-standing commitment is to train the next generation of landscape architects as sophisticated and effective agents of change.

Historical Timeline

Department Leadership