Cornell University

Graduate SchoolGraduate School

Graduate SchoolFields of Study

Landscape Architecture M.L.A. (Ithaca)

Field of Study

Landscape Architecture

Program Description

The Landscape Architecture MLA program offers a STEM-designated curriculum that advances technical knowledge, analytical skills, and professional development.

Our graduate program complies with the requirements of three governing bodies: the New York State Education Department (NYSED), the Council of Landscape Architecture Registration Boards (CLARB), and the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board. The degree programs are designed to accommodate a variety of academic backgrounds, both with and without design training in landscape architecture and architecture. Therefore, each student’s curriculum plan is tailored to the individual’s specific background and academic goals. We offer two possible paths toward the completion of the MLA degree.
 
The intent of the MLA degree is to provide the foundational, historical, theoretical, technical, and skills-based grounding of the field of landscape architecture. The core of the degree program is the design studio that introduces students to fundamental design methodologies and they are asked to pursue and develop their design process and learn about research methodologies. Supplemental courses in all other aspects of the field provide the information that will be synthesized in the studio to reinforce the design process and end result. The studio is project based and exposes students to a wide array of landscape scales, types, contexts, and topical issues. The studio format entails lectures, demonstrations, field trips, readings, guest presentations, precedent study, one-on-one instruction, and group discourse. Rather than espousing a singular design philosophy or style, the department offers multiple perspectives on design, imparted through the studio course sequence. The required sequential nature of the studios offered throughout the student’s academic career at Cornell allows for each studio to build on the previous one with an ever-increasing degree of complexity and attention to detail. Studio size is conducive to small group interaction among students and between students and faculty. A concentration focused on the student’s individual personal interests is also required.  Both MLA paths allow the option of a design thesis, a capstone studio, or a written research thesis in the final semester of study.
 

The Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) is a STEM-designated degree earned via a first-professional 90-credit track or a post-professional 60-credit track.

First Professional MLA – 6 Semesters and 90 Credits
 
The First Professional 6 Semester MLA degree is accredited by NYSED and LAAB and is a first professional landscape architectural license qualifying degree intended for those students who do not hold a first professional degree in landscape architecture or architecture or pre-professional degree including, but not necessarily limited to, Bachelor of Landscape Studies, Bachelor of Environmental Design, Bachelor of Design, or Bachelor of Architectural Studies. This course of study requires a minimum of 90 credit hours and six semesters.
 
Post Professional MLA – 4 Semesters and 60 Credits
 
The Post Professional 4 Semester MLA degree is intended for those students who hold a United States or Canadian accredited first professional degree in landscape architecture or architecture including BLA, BSLA, or BArch degrees. This course of study requires a minimum of 60 credit hours and four semesters.

Contact Information

Website: https://cals.cornell.edu/landscape-architecture
Email: LAfield@cornell.edu
Phone: 607-255-2215

440 Kennedy Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853

Concentrations by Subject

  • designing the city (M.L.A./M.R.P. only)
  • economic development planning: communities and regions (M.L.A./M.R.P. only)
  • international studies in planning (M.L.A./M.R.P. only)
  • land use and environmental planning (M.L.A./M.R.P. only)
  • landscape architecture (M.L.A., M.P.S.)

Tuition

Visit the Graduate School's Tuition Rates page.

Application Requirements and Deadlines

Application Deadlines:

Fall, Jan. 8

Requirements Summary:

All applicants are required to submit a design portfolio. The portfolio may include a wide variety of media, including freehand drawings, painting, photography, graphic design and renderings, garden design, and other creative endeavors. 

Portfolios are digitally submitted along with the MLA application. There is no page limit; however, your file size should be less than twenty (20) megabytes total to be able to upload onto the Cornell Graduate School Application site.

Applicants to two-year program should hold a bachelor's degree in architecture or landscape architecture from a recognized institution. Applicants with a bachelor's degree in an area other than architecture or landscape architecture should apply to the three-year program. A field brochure is available upon request from the graduate field office.

Learning Outcomes

Cornell’s Landscape Architectural graduate program integrates studio-based work with real site-based design projects. To promote critical investigation through site assessment, related design appropriateness and ultimate site suitability. 

  • Generate landscape designs at a variety of scales that address the complex cultural and natural systems at work on a site.
  • Develop basic graphic skills, both hand-drawing and computer applications, that are required of the contemporary landscape graduate at entry-level, minimally, but that position students to be immediately effective in communicating innovative designs;
  • Demonstrate knowledge of plant materials, including plant identification and the understanding of the physical and cultural characteristics of plants that determine their usefulness in the landscape;
  • Gain insight into the professional skills and the roles of the Landscape Architect in practice, as well as the problems and/or opportunities encountered in real world situations;
  • Master the requisite technical skills (engineering and construction) necessary for the professional Landscape Architect;
  • Engage in scientific processes, such as landscape ecology, to a level that enables the student to work effectively with scientists and to translate their findings into design and communication with clients and other constituencies.
  • Advance socially and environmentally responsible design by understanding that shaping the physical form of a community requires learning the social and cultural dynamics that foster sustainable landscape change.