The graduate program in Landscape Architecture (MLA) is a professional 85-credit, three-year degree for individuals who have completed a bachelor’s degree, including majors other than one of the environmental design professions. The three-year program takes place on Pratt’s Brooklyn campus and requires six semesters in residence. The first two years of study follows a core curriculum, and the third year is tailored to individual student interest in the field. The entire curriculum is designed to enhance the professional knowledge required for becoming successful landscape architect.

As a new program, we are actively working towards accreditation from The Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board (LAAB). Please contact the Program Director for more information on the process.

We believe that the future of landscape architecture education is found in a combination 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 the technical, theoretical, and practical concerns of the discipline of Landscape Architecture at the master’s level.

• Increase skills in reading and appreciating the environment across regional and local scales to develop a deeper understanding of landscape change.

• Prepare future practitioners to use science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to improve design experiments in the built and living environments.

• Apply design inquiry and research to inspire and protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public.

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