Mission Statement

The landscape architecture faculty, trusted with the Master of Landscape Architecture Programs (LAR) at Chatham University, is committed to preparing students to assume leadership roles in teaching, research, and professional practice in the fields of landscape design, planning, and management. The primary goal of the Landscape Architecture Programs is to create a center of excellence in teaching, learning, and research.

Goals of the Landscape Architecture Programs

To respond to the demanding and continually changing field of landscape architecture, the LAR Programs challenge its students to develop strength in the core body of knowledge, and competence in a specialized area of the field of landscape architecture. The former is achieved through a broad range of required and elective courses; the latter is accomplished by conducting a “research” or “applied” thesis that demonstrates the candidate’s ability to generate new knowledge, produce scholarly research, and/or apply cutting-edge knowledge and skills within the profession.

The courses are clustered into six streams: Landscape Design and Planning, Landscape Construction and Implementation, Natural Sciences and Ecology, History and Theory of Landscape Architecture, Landscape Graphic Communication and Visualization, and Research Methods and Techniques. The conceptual framework of the curriculum helps the student in discovering his or her potential area of specialization or future interest. Upon completing their MLA degrees, graduates should be able to function as members of the typical landscape architecture team in private and/or public sectors. To produce such a graduate, the following objectives have been adopted:

Maximizing the intellectual synergy among faculty, students and professionals within the region
Improving the components and the sequencing of courses in the curriculum
Improving the contents and delivery of each course
Enlarging the pool of adjunct faculty in the six areas of knowledge of the curriculum
Optimizing the process of assigning and scheduling courses
Attracting and retaining the best prospective students
Maximizing the cooperation with related academic units across Chatham campus
Maximizing the liaison with relevant academic units in universities across the city

On the whole, the landscape architecture program strives to develop in each student:

Long-term personal commitment that includes a belief in the value of the educated and environmentally-aware individual who can contribute to society;
Problem-solving training that enables a graduate to identify problems, analyze their components, and select and articulate their appropriate solutions;
Development of high level of professionalism that guides the ethics, attitudes, and the actions of the graduate in her/his future career.