Program Overview

The Master of Landscape Architecture program is built around a combination of core studios and seminars that address the following primary concerns: professional and disciplinary advancement, water-based and riverine adaptations, urban and ecological networks, environmental and social justice, climate change and extreme weather, and community engagement.

Our program seizes on its location in St. Louis and the Midwest—the center of the fourth-largest watershed in the world. Working at the confluence of three great rivers—Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio—we are poised to develop groundbreaking adaptive design strategies that transform contemporary and complex regional, national, and international dilemmas into future resilient landscapes.

Our pedagogy and research efforts are pragmatic, with an experimental and interdisciplinary approach. Students are equipped with emerging methodologies to immediately engage 21st-century landscape architecture practices that resiliently adapt to rapidly changing ecological, technological, and social dynamics. Students can earn a Master of Landscape Architecture in combination with degrees in architecture or urban design, while collaborating with partners across the University in art and design, environmental studies, the humanities, public health, and engineering, among others. While deeply committed to working in the St. Louis region, our students also engage in national and international research and projects.

Students have access to other world-class resources, such as the Missouri Botanical Garden and Shaw Nature Reserve; St. Louis’ 108 city parks, including Forest Park, Fairground Park, and Tower Grove Park; the field stations at Dunn Ranch Prairie and the University’s Tyson Research Center; and numerous community organizations with whom we partner on projects and research initiatives. Through intensive engagement with place, students study issues not only related to land and water, but also those that power social and cultural networks.

Now more than ever, we must face the most complex challenges of our time with rigorous modes of discovery and engagement. Our program is committed to this endeavor. We welcome global citizens to join us in cultivating resilient cultural and social practices through responsive and responsible design.