Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA)

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Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA)

The Master of Landscape Architecture Program teaches students to design land and land-based practices that advance environmental and social justice in a time of climate and public change.

Overhead nighttime view of a group of people seated in a circle around a bright campfire in a forest clearing. The fire is contained within a ring of stones, casting warm orange light onto the surrounding grass, logs, and branches. Individuals wear jackets and outdoor clothing, some holding cups or phones, while backpacks and camping items rest nearby. The surrounding area fades into darkness beyond the fire’s glow.

Type: Graduate, MLA
Start Term: Fall Only
Credits: 56 or 85
Duration: 2 or 3 years
Courses: Plan of Study
School and Department: School of Architecture,
Graduate Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Design

Landscape Architecture

Low-angle view of multiple people holding the corners of a square wooden frame above their heads against an overcast sky. Suspended within the frame is a semi-transparent sculptural form made of dark, cloud-like mesh and lighter geometric elements, resembling an abstract mass or digital terrain. The people are visible only as partial silhouettes—arms, hands, and shoulders—emphasizing the structure and artwork rather than individual identities. — Students present their model derived from public data in Geospatial Landscapes

Students earning an MLA degree at Pratt are taught to embrace an inclusive approach to design that bridges culture and nature, ecology and policy, living and built environments. With so many challenges at hand, and underfoot, we prioritize collaborative and team-based learning, articulating changes between large scale systems, expansive historical precedents, evolutionary processes, and individual organisms. Landscape Architecture is a discipline, a profession, and a practice that informs the environment at every scale. We celebrate this legacy by imagining global education as a collaboration with the soils, plants and waters that sustain species.

We welcome students from a broad range of backgrounds with a strong interest in environmental studies, geography, botany and ecology.

The Landscape Architecture program offers a professional MLA degree program with two tracks: 3-year, 85-credit, 6 semester, full time track intended for students without a design background or previous design education. 2-year, 56-credit, 4 semester, full time track intended for students who hold a first professional degree in architecture from an NAAB-accredited program.
Pratt’s MLA program was granted candidacy status by the Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board (LAAB) in August 2024. Additionally, LAAB status is reflected here.

Both programs takes place on Pratt’s Brooklyn campus, and require a full time commitment to both land-base and studio-based collaboration. The core curriculum is structured around regional dynamics in the first year and design in the public realm in the second year. Support classes range from field ecology to garden making and the pedagogy is designed to enhance the professional knowledge required for entering the practice of landscape architecture. Our graduates go on to work in design practice, public service, academia and research.

The Master of Landscape Architecture Program received Candidacy status from the Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board (LAAB) in August 2024. We are actively seeking Full-Accreditation status, as we Graduate the first cohort of MLA students. Please see The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) website for more information, or contact the MLA program Academic Director for more information on the process.

We believe that the future of landscape architecture education is found in a combination of studio-based and land-based learning. Studio-based learning is a hands-on approach to project making common to creative disciplines. Our MLA program compliments studio-based learning with land-based learning to strengthen first-hand experience and extend the disciplines ties to research in the sciences. In a time of great disconnection from the living world around us, land-based learning helps overcome the distance from nature growing in our cities, enhancing a deeper relationship with the environment.

The learning outcomes of land-based pedagogy compliment design by enhancing the link between first-hand experience and design experiments, engaging research techniques in biology, ecology, and geology, while evolving student self-reliance in applying both analog and digital datasets. By combining studio and land-based learning, our program helps students demonstrate an understanding of the broader context of design in relation to issues of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusivity.

Our MLA program fosters designers to be ethical, creative, skilled, and imaginative practitioners who are able to navigate the full professional and practical extents of the discipline. As a result, students are taught to develop knowledge and experience in all aspects of the field, including the technical, theoretical, and practical concerns of the discipline of Landscape Architecture at the Master’s level. The following Program-wide learning outcomes resonate across the curriculum.

Students will be able to:

Elaborate on how landscape architecture enhances ecology.
Work collaboratively and independently with various stakeholders.
Advocate for landscape architecture in establishing healthy communities.
Design at scale, ranging from urban parks to regional plans.
Create landscape architectural projects with technological skills.

Take a look at how our courses are linked to land-based experiences

LAR-633: Plant morphology at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Students are taught the basics of botany, plant morphology, and horticultural techniques, as well as plants in the context of public space; plants as indicators of societal change; and how plants are adapting to a warmer climate.

LAR-601: Habitat studies in the Catskills Forest
The first studio attends to reading landscape patterns at multiple temporal and spatial scales; from the scours of geology, to indigenous land-use and forest migration in relation to manifold species.

LAR-602: Meadowlands Fieldwork
Shore Studio uses intensive fieldwork to track the migration of the shore. Students read shifting coastlines firsthand, testing adaptation, retreat, and wilding as on-the-ground design approaches, policy tools, and management strategies for living with dynamic urban edges.

Career Opportunities

Indoor exhibition or studio setting with three people engaged in conversation. One adult stands at right holding a small child on their hip while gesturing mid-discussion; the child wears patterned clothing and looks away from the camera. Another adult stands at left listening attentively. Behind them, multiple architectural or landscape design posters and drawings are pinned or mounted on the wall, with a large illustrated rendering on an easel to the right. In the foreground, a cardboard box labeled “POSTCARDS” sits on a table alongside a reusable water bottle, indicating a public presentation, critique, or open studio environment.

The program aims to enable graduates to enter the profession with a sophisticated portfolio of flexible skills, knowledge and understanding.

Graduates from the MLA program progress to work in design practice and landscape stewardship both nationally and internationally, as well as contributing to academia and aspects of governance of a wide spectrum of landscapes across a broad range of scales.

Faculty Highlight

As educators, our most important task is to determine how we can create equitable learning for all students, which includes diverse ways of knowing. Our program is supported by colleagues, students, and professional associations that work through civic engagement and respects the traditional and unceded homeland of the Lenape people. In a time of great uncertainty, we are certain that our relationship to the land requires our complete attention. See all GA/LA/UD faculty and administrators.

Elliott Maltby
Interim Academic Director, Landscape Architecture Program; Adjunct Associate Professor
Mariel Collard
Assistant Professor
Mark Heller
Assistant Professor

Success Stories

Two people walking on a wooden boardwalk through a lush wetland filled with vibrant greenery and autumn foliage. One person gestures toward the landscape, framed by tall trees and a dramatic sky filled with clouds, with the golden light of sunrise casting a warm glow.

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