Topic: College of Architecture and Planning

November 14, 2019

third-year landscape architecture student project
Third-year landscape architecture students design and build models for project.

Ball State University’s architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture programs were highly ranked by DesignIntelligence, which also named Professor of Landscape Architecture Malcolm Cairns among the “Most Admired Educators” in the discipline.

Professor of Landscape Architecture Malcolm Cairns“Our faculty are outstanding scholars as well as excellent teachers,” said Dave Ferguson, dean of the R. Wayne Estopinal College of Architecture and Planning. “These national rankings demonstrate that our students are professionally prepared, creatively curious, globally aware, and locally engaged because they learn to think independently and become leaders who solve problems throughout their lifetimes.”

Cairns, who has dedicated 27 years of his teaching career to Ball State, is the second professor from Estopinal College in recent years to be named one of the “Most Admired Educators” by DesignIntelligence, an independent company dedicated to the success of organizations in architecture, engineering, construction and design. Professor of Architecture Rod Underwood was recognized as one of the DesignIntelligence’s “25 Most Admired Educators for 2016.”

“If anyone was ‘born’ to teach and act as an ambassador for landscape architecture, it is Malcolm,” the DesignIntelligence staff wrote. He was also listed in DesignIntelligence’s “10 Most Respected Faculty Members in Architecture and Landscape Architecture” in 2007 and 2008.

The 2019 rankings Estopinal College received from DesignIntelligence are:

  • Eighth in Most Admired Landscape Architecture Schools for undergraduate programs
  • 12th in Most Admired Landscape Architecture Schools for graduate programs
  • Top 10 in all 12 focus areas among landscape architecture undergraduate programs
  • Top 10 in 10 focus areas (12 total) among landscape architecture graduate programs
  • 10th among programs of similar size in Most Hired From Interior Design Schools
  • 15th among programs of similar size in Most Hired From Architecture Schools

DesignIntelligence has consistently ranked Ball State’s landscape architecture programs in the top 15 in the country.


By Gabrielle Glass, Student Communications Writer