Landscape architecture in the 21st century is broad in scope and includes projects in varied areas:

Landscape Design
Historical core of the profession. Concerned with detailed outdoor space design for a multitude of uses.

Site Planning
Focuses on physical design and arrangement of built and natural elements of a land parcel. Involves orderly, efficient, aesthetic, and ecologically sensitive integration of human-made objects with a site's natural features.

Urban/Town Planning
Deals with design and planning of cities and towns. Involves development of public open spaces as well as development of new communities and rehabilitation of existing ones.

Regional Landscape Planning
Merges landscape architecture with environmental planning to deal with the needs and opportunities of large land areas and communities.

Park and Recreation Planning
Focuses on the creation or redesign of parks and recreational areas in cities, suburbs, and rural lands as well as development of plans for large natural areas as part of national parks, forests, and wildlife refuge systems.

Land and Development Planning
Provides a bridge between policy planning and individual development projects. Integrates land economics with good design to create quality environments.

Ecological Planning and Design
Focuses on site suitability for development in harmony with all natural systems as well as human needs.

Historic Preservation and Reclamation
Deals with preservation and reclamation of natural or human-made areas of significance. Engages the social and natural sciences as well as law, economics, and political science.

Social and Behavioral Aspects
Focuses on the human dimension of design and engages the social sciences in the search for design solutions that meet the needs of special populations.

Learn more about professional careers in this discipline.

For More Information
Malcolm Cairns, Chair
Department of Landscape Architecture
mcairns@bsu.edu