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USC Catalogue 2023-2024 [ARCHIVED CATALOGUE]
Landscape Architecture (MLArch)
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Landscapes are the dynamic synthesis of natural systems, sociocultural forces and the physical material of the constructed world. The Graduate Program of Landscape Architecture + Urbanism uses the complex regional geography of Southern California as its primary laboratory to generate and test responses to the planet’s most pressing environmental challenges, including resounding impacts of climate change, rapid urbanization, social and environmental injustice, and the interface of nature and technology. Looking regionally and globally, we conduct rigorous design-research to develop multi-scalar innovations in performative regional infrastructures, equitable urban frameworks and public spaces, and healthful biophysical systems. We focus on pressures of urbanization and how to utilize landscape strategies to shape those systems, spaces, cities and infrastructures to imagine more resilient futures – socially and ecologically. We are fortunate to inhabit one of the most culturally and environmentally diverse geographies in the world - within an hour’s drive from the Pacific Ocean, the San Gabriel Mountains and the western edge of the Sonoran Desert. Clearly Southern California offers a wide range of landscape challenges to which we apply design exploration, strategic thinking, technical resolution and creative expression. Those challenges include increasing water scarcity impacting urban and agricultural territories, warming temperatures, rising sea levels, reduced biodiversity, wildfire-flood-debris flow cycles, as well as deeply institutionalized practices of discrimination that have marginalized and burdened communities of color, and rapid urban development that is leaving many populations behind or displaced. More optimistically, there is an increasing investment in public space, urban nature and environmental resilience in our region, which is characteristically experimental and creative. Our program curriculum is focused on a balanced core of design studios, media and fabrication, history and theory, performance technologies, plant materials and ecology, construction and practice, and urbanism. It is field-based and hands-on. The studio sequence begins with local urban sites where intensive field work is critical to site understanding and builds up to territorial-scale design-research studios. Students synthesize their courses in media, history, plant materials, ecology, construction and urbanism with their studio work. Second-year studios provide opportunities to investigate design responses to urban development, as well as climate change causes and impacts, and have options both to travel outside the region and to collaborate with architecture students in an integrated setting. Elective courses in our curriculum come from a wide range of offerings in the School of Architecture and other courses including those in urban planning, spatial sciences, art and cinema. We have a number of international opportunities to study other geographies – both during the summer global studies programs and studios within the curriculum. Our curriculum is increasingly focused on opportunities for applied research that has real impact on the ground or in shaping policy. The aim of the program is to develop critical thinkers and design leaders unafraid to tackle some of the most contested landscapes and environmental questions of our day.
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Master of Landscape Architecture
Individuals who have completed a four-year Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree, or its equivalent, with no prior accredited degree in landscape architecture, are eligible for admission to the program. Preference for admission is given to those who have completed a balanced undergraduate education that includes study in the arts, sciences and humanities. Applicants must document successful completion of a college-level course in the natural sciences. Preparation in the visual arts is strongly encouraged. Courses in the humanities, ecology, history of art, landscape architecture and architecture are strongly encouraged, although not required. 96-Unit CurriculumStudents admitted with no previous professional education must complete 96 units (during three years of residency), including 77 units of specified courses, 10 units of electives, and 9 units of Advanced Design Research. Electives must be part of a curricular plan approved by the program director. 96-Unit Sample CurriculumRequirements for Advanced Placement
Applicants who have completed a LAAB (Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board), or equivalent, degree in landscape architecture may be granted advanced placement of two semesters, subject to the review of the admission committee. Applicants granted advanced placement may be able to waive certain course requirements for the MLA program by demonstrating equivalencies in any of the required courses. The program director and faculty in charge of the specific curriculum areas will determine the studio and professional course requirements for each MLA student admitted with advanced placement. The following courses are prerequisites to be completed prior to matriculation or, on specific notice, in the first year of the program: history of landscape architecture (ARCH 565 or equivalent), landscape architecture construction (ARCH 534 , ARCH 635 or equivalent), plant materials (ARCH 537 , ARCH 538 or equivalent), media (ARCH 539 or equivalent), GIS and landscape architecture (SSCI 572 or equivalent). 66-Unit Sample CurriculumAdvanced placement students must complete 66 units, including 51 units of specified courses, 6 units of electives, and 9 units of Advanced Design Research. Electives must be part of a curricular plan approved by the program director. Requirement for Advanced Placement with a BArch
This curricular track would be for students with the Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) to receive advanced standing to the Master of Landscape Architecture degree. Incoming students will start the three-year track requirements and then accelerate in the second year with compressed requirements from those three years while reducing the number of studio requirements (from six to four). This curriculum ensures that students receive appropriate training in design, ecology, plants, media, history and construction required of this accredited degree as well as professional expectations. Due to the compressed timeframe for this advanced standing track, electives units are not required.
NOTE: Acceptance into this accelerated curriculum is at the discretion of the Admissions Committee and the MLA+U Program Director.
66-Unit Sample Curriculum
Advanced placement students must complete 66 units, including 57 units of specified courses and 9 units of Advanced Design Research.
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